Helsinki lacks more than 50 percent of the qualified early childhood education teachers it needs to fully staff daycare centres and preschools, writes Helsingin Sanomat. According to the paper, that works out as a shortfall of over 1,300 professionals.
About a thousand of these positions are currently filled by people without formal teacher training. In September, almost three hundred positions were open, which means in practice that the work was being done by short-term substitutes.
The paper says the situation is getting even more difficult.
In Helsinki, an increasing number of children, especially those under the age of three, are attending daycare. At the same time, growing numbers of employees are approaching retirement age, while stricter personnel hiring requirements will be implemented when the terms of the latest Early Childhood Education Act enter into force in 2030.
For these reasons, Helsinki calculates that by the end of the decade it will need an additional 1,720 teachers and child social service specialists.
There is some good news, though, according to Helsigin Sanomat.
This autumn, Helsinki did not have to close playgrounds in order to transfer staff to daycare duties. More short-term substitutes for childcare services have been available of late.
Some officials seem more optimistic about recruitment.
"The atmosphere is calmer. We've sort of become used to living with a staff shortage. Work in daycare centres is seen as meaningful and it also brings a sense joy every day," Miia Kemppi, Helsinki's head of early childhood education told the paper.
Wage transparency
Aamulehti sent a reporter to the center of Tampere to ask people on the street whether or not they think that there should be more wage openness at workplaces.
Four of the five interviewees said that they believe that that salaries should be talked about more and more openly. One expressed the view that it is too personal a subject.
According to Statistics Finland, the general earnings level of both men and women has risen fairly steadily over the past few years. However, women's monthly average earnings are still lower than men's in all sectors. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the gap has narrowed slowly. At the EU level, women earn on average 13 percent less than men.
A key reason for this is the difference in the jobs that are predominately staffed by men or women. More women work in, for example, health and social services and in the education sector. Men, on the other hand, tend to work in higher-paid positions.
Aamulehti notes that salary transparency is to be increased at the EU level by a new directive. The directive aims to equalize the pay gap between the sexes. It will give employees the right to information about the salaries of those performing the same job or a job of equal value. Companies must also react if their gender pay gap is greater than five percent. This salary transparency directive will enter into force in Finland in the summer of 2026 at the latest.
Viruses making the rounds
The number of coronavirus infections has shown an increase this autumn, and at the same time, several other viruses that cause respiratory tract infections are spreading.
Ilta-Sanomat lists rhinovirus, enterovirus and adenovirus as currently making the rounds in Finland at the moment, in addition to the coronavirus.
All of these cause similar symptoms, such as a fever, cough, sore throat and runny nose.
Anna Katz, who heads the Infectious Disease Control and Vaccinations Unit at the Institute of Health and Welfare (THL), told the paper that coronavirus infection can only be distinguished from the flu by testing.
"Based on the symptoms, you can't tell the difference," said Katz.
According to Katz, tests sold for home use identify the infection best after a few days have passed since the onset of symptoms. The reliability of the home testing can be affected by how well the user knows how to take a sample, whether the person has had the disease before, or has received a vaccine against infection.
The protection provided by a vaccine or a previously contracted infection can lead to the test giving a false negative result. According to Katz, a test done in a laboratory using the PCR method gives the most reliable result.
Anna Katz added that testing to identify which virus has made you ill is not always necessary, because the same principle applies to all these infections — if you have symptoms, you should avoid contact with others.
Meanwhile, Hufvudstadsbladet writes that risk groups are being urged to get vaccinated against the latest variant of the coronavirus, and a number of its readers have reached out to say that getting an appointment for a public health jab right now is difficult and they have been advised to queue.
Asko Järvinen, Chief Physcian at Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) told the paper that it is not a good idea to stand in line for several hours to get the vaccine. His advice is to make an appointment, even if it requires a long wait, and if you are worried about getting infected, wear a mask. Do not just go and queue, he said, because the risk of infection in that situation is real.
World's biggest cruise liner on show
Iltalehti offers readers a gallery of fresh photographs of the Icon of the Seas in the Turku archipelago — a ship billed as the world's largest cruise liner.
Built at the Meyer shipyard in Turku, the ship is 365 metres in length and weighs in at 250,800 tonnes.
Scheduled to begin cruises in the Caribbean in January 2024, the Icon of the Sea will carry 5,610 passengers in its 2,805 cabins and offer amenities including terraced decks, a promenade, tennis courts, and a water park with seven swimming pools and six water slides.
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