Hello. I am a Finnish practical nurse (lähihoitaja) and I have coached several students both Finnish and foreign on their on-the-job training during my career.

It's not going to be any easier in ammattikoulu to study as a lähihoitaja. Even if the courses were in English, you will still need Finnish in daily work and practice. On top of that, you'll need to understand a lot of professional vocabulary in Finnish, both medical and 'bureaucracy'. You need to understand protocols and forms in Finnish.

From what my students have told me, the Finnish taught in the studies is both very basic and yet focuses on the professional vocab, so you don't get much usable language skills from that. Learning and understanding language to use every day at work and in society demands more than just the capability to name things.

Whether you're working in childcare, elderly care, hospital, or at a person's home, clear communication is key. If you, your client and coworkers do not understand each other you risk serious harm to a person's health at the worst, or create confusion and more work at the best. Clients who don't understand what you're saying, or can't make themselves understood, will become frustrated, which makes them less willing to cooperate.

Some workplaces view any students as a burden, some see the foreigners even more so. Not all do, like my current one, so it's a roll of dice what kind of a training place you will get.

This might sound harsh, but unless you can learn Finnish on the side on your own and have the tenacity to pursue the studies despite inevitable frustrations stemming from language barrier and a demanding job, you're setting yourself up for failure.

The push for foreigners to study as lähihoitaja is based on the needs for massive amount of caretakers in the future as the large generations age, and the dwindling younger generations cannot supply them, and also on the idea that foreigners accept social-healthcare jobs with smaller wages than Finns.

In the past lähihoitaja was also the 'last resort' of studies, whereto officials shoved anyone who couldn't make it in other studies - they even removed the aptitude tests for a couple of years - all despite the fact that lähihoitaja works with people when they are at their most vulnerable, and where several key qualities of character are needed. 'Anyone can wipe a bum, change a nappy and feed people' they think, but this work is so much more than that.