Service Manual guidelines regarding the service selection

This page features guidelines regarding the service selection of the Service Manual. During the agreement period, the page will be updated with specifying guidelines issued jointly by the municipalities in addition to the guidelines issued in connection with the agreement.
The Service Manual of Uusimaa Employment Services compiles services in the Uusimaa region across municipal, divisional and organisational boundaries. The primary criterion for adding services to the Service Manual is that the service is intended for jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project, and that the service promotes employment and/or supports and maintains work ability. Additionally, the employment areas can add their own services for employer clients to the Service Manual.

Regional delimitation

The purpose of the Service Manual of Uusimaa Employment Services is to compile services to promote employment and maintain work ability in the Uusimaa region across municipal, divisional and organisational boundaries.
The Service Manual is a client guidance tool developed jointly by certain employment areas in Uusimaa (Helsinki, Espoo and Kauniainen, Vantaa, Kerava and Sipoo, and Raseborg, Hanko and Ingå). For this reason, the service selection of the Service Manual is targeted primarily at the clients of these employment areas.
Personal clients are clients registered as jobseekers.
Employer clients are businesses operating in the area.
As of the beginning of 2023, in addition to the employment areas, the Uusimaa region also features the Western, Central and East Uusimaa wellbeing services counties and the Vantaa-Kerava wellbeing services county. In addition to the aforementioned, social services, health care and rescue services are provided by the City of Helsinki.
With the wellbeing services counties included, the work ability service selection of the Service Manual also concerns residents of the Askola, Lapinjärvi, Porvoo, Loviisa, Myrskylä, Pukkila, Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Nurmijärvi, Mäntsälä, Tuusula, Pornainen, Karkkila, Kirkkonummi, Lohja, Siuntio and Vihti areas.

The municipalities’, employment areas’ and wellbeing services counties’ own services

At the moment, only services provided by the municipalities that are taking part in the development of the Service Manual are added to the Service Manual. These municipalities are Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, Vantaa, Kerava, Sipoo, Raseborg, Hanko and Ingå.
The services added to the Service Manual are from the municipalities’ divisions that provide services to promote employment and support work ability that clients of the employment areas can participate in.
First and foremost, these divisions/units include the services of the employment areas, the Education Division and the Social Services and Health Care Division / the wellbeing services counties.
With regard to Employment Services, it is appropriate to describe in the Service Manual all the services to which a specialist/personal coach can direct a client. The basic public services provided by Employment Services (client meetings, plan drafting, interpretation, etc.) are not described in the Service Manual as services.
The different competence development and continuous learning services provided by the Education Division are appropriate to be described in the Service Manual.
The services provided to jobseeker clients by the Social Services and Health Care Division / the wellbeing services counties for assessing, supporting and maintaining work ability are appropriate to be described in the Service Manual. The basic public services provided by the Social Services and Health Care Division (e.g. emergency services, dental care, etc.) are not described as separate services in the Service Manual.
As a rule, the statutory services of the employment areas are described in the Service Manual as one service description shared by all the municipalities. The employment areas can add municipality-specific exceptional instructions to these descriptions. For statutory services in which the practices differ from each other more extensively (rehabilitative work activities, health check-ups for the unemployed, job search coaching, etc.), service descriptions are added to the Service Manual specifically for each municipality or employment area. Each municipality decides on the nature of the service descriptions of its own area: for example, the municipality can draw up one service description for rehabilitative work activities, or the activities can be featured in the Service Model specifically for each group and service provider.

Employer services

The employment areas’ own employer services and services that the employment area provides in cooperation with an external operator are added to the Service Manual.
External service providers’ employer services subject to a fee are not added to the Service Manual.

Purchased services

Purchased services that have several service providers are described in the Service Manual by the organising party purchasing the service, e.g. the municipality, the employment area or Kela. There is no need to describe the implementations of individual providers of purchased services in the Service Manual.
The organising party can add the service providers to the description of the purchased service in the system.

Educational institutions’ services

Regarding services provided by educational institutions, it is appropriate to add services that are intended particularly for the jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project to the Service Manual.
Because the service selection of educational institutions is broad and extensively represented on the Studyinfo.fi website, among others, courses that support the employment of jobseeker clients in particular are added to the Service Manual.
As a rule, each service is described in the Service Manual as a separate service description. Similar services provided by educational institutions can be compiled into one service description under a shared header if they are similar enough (e.g. there are no discrepancies regarding unemployment benefits in the compiled services, making it possible to draw up the authority’s work and process instructions).
Studies leading to a degree are not described in the Service Manual. Instead, the Service Manual is to refer to the Studyinfo.fi website regarding these studies.
Regarding study units intended for jobseeker clients, a general description is added to the Service Manual with potential links to the information provided by the educational institutions providing the service in the area. There is no need to describe information specific to the educational institutions and degrees in the Service Manual.
Field-specific short-term training courses can be added to the Service Manual if it is possible for the jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project to take part in them.
Regarding preparatory education for an upper secondary qualification (TUVA), basic education for adults and general upper secondary education for adults, general descriptions are added to the Service Manual with potential links to the information provided by the educational institutions providing the service in the area. There is no need to describe information specific to the educational institutions in the Service Manual.
SECLE-funded education and training courses are not added to the Service Manual, as their primary target group is not unemployed jobseekers: “The education and competence services funded by SECLE are intended primarily for employed persons and persons outside the labour market. In this context, ‘persons outside the labour market’ refers to persons who are neither employed nor unemployed. Examples of such persons include pensioners and persons caring for children or other relatives at home. Students and unemployed jobseekers can also take part in the competence services funded by the service centre, but as a rule, they are not in the primary target groups of the competence services funded by SECLE.”
Various passport and card courses can be added to the Service Manual if it is possible for the jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project to take part in them.

Labour and integration training

As a rule, labour training courses are described in the Service Manual as one general description, with links to the labour training selection available in the training calendar of Job Market Finland.
Training providers’ field or course-specific descriptions are not added to the Service Manual.
As an exception, labour training courses intended for the clients of one employment area that are not added to Job Market Finland’s training calendar can be added to the Service Manual as separate descriptions.
In addition to a general ‘Labour training courses’ description, Startti ammattiin nuorille courses and labour training courses for entrepreneurs are added to the Service Manual as a general description. These descriptions are to feature links to the training calendar and/or the educational institution’s website.
Discussions with the KEHA Centre regarding the possibility of reflecting the selection of the training calendar as part of the ‘Labour market training’ description will continue.
As with labour training courses, the employment areas are to draw up their own general descriptions regarding integration training, with links to the training selection of Koulutusportti. There is no need to describe individual integration training courses in the Service Manual.

Third-sector services

Regarding the services provided by the third sector, it is appropriate to add services that are intended particularly for the jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project and promote employment and/or support and maintain work ability to the Service Manual.
Employment-related ESF projects are appropriate to be added to the Service Manual.
Statutory services provided by organisations are added to the Service Manual. Some statutory services fall under a general description, whereby there is no need to add descriptions regarding individual service providers.
Adding language school services provided by organisations to the Service Manual may be appropriate.

Services subject to a fee

As a rule, we encourage the addition of free-of-charge services to the Service Manual, as many municipalities are unable to financially support jobseekers when they participate in services subject to a fee.
If services subject to a fee are added to the Service Manual, the service provider must include the prices in the information and indicate whether a discount can be granted for the service, e.g. under certain conditions. As with other services, the services subject to a fee must be intended for the jobseeker clients of the Uusimaa employment areas involved in the project.

Other services

At the moment, the Service Manual includes services ranging from statutory services to low-threshold services provided by the municipalities, Kela, pension providers, local educational institutions, organisations, projects and private service providers. Decisions on introducing new service providers are made based on their service selections.
Services added to the Service Manual are services to which clients can be directed by a specialist or services that clients can seek themselves. The information provided about the services consists of general information and related internal work and process instructions.
In addition to services, the Service Manual features a ‘Tools for specialists’ page for registered users that features links to other websites and service platforms that support job-seeking, employment, integration and work ability. This page also includes resources such as online services for job-seeking that are not eligible to be added to the Service Manual.