What?
SAMK organises a staff week for our international partner universities’ staff members. The name of the week is Resilient Futures: Innovation, Wellbeing and Global Collaboration.
When?
The staff week is organised from 19 April to 23 April 2027.
Where?
The week takes place on SAMK campus Pori. We organize visits to our campuses in Rauma and Kankaanpää during the week.
For whom?
Staff members from our international partner universities can apply for the staff week. The week is a multi-disciplinary week for administrative staff and also for academic staff (participation as Erasmus+ staff mobility for training).
The language of the week is English, so fluency in English (speaking, listening, reading, writing) is required.
How can I register?
You can register for our week using this e-form. The registration deadline is 15 December 2026. After that, we will contact all applicants.
9.00 – 10.00 Registration in the main lobby of SAMK Campus Pori
The event begins with registration on Monday at 9.00 o’clock in the main lobby of SAMK campus Pori. Info desk of the week is located in the main lobby, by the main doors (Satakunnankatu 23). Participants can leave their outdoor clothes and, if necessary, their luggage in the supervised cloakroom.
10.00 – 11.00 Greetings and presentation on SAMK, followed by a group picture
11.00 – 12.00 Lunch in restaurant Silvia (at your own expense)
12.00 – 13.00 Short History of Finland
13.00 – 14.00 Campus tour starts from the registration desk
14.00 – 15.00 Coffee break
15.00 – 16.30 Pori sightseeing tour
18.00 Opening reception (only for registered participants)
10.00 – 12.00 Auditorium C211: keynote speeches
Why do some students maintain their well-being despite academic stress and challenges, while others struggle? This keynote examines student well-being beyond individual resilience by exploring the role of personal and relational resources in shaping students’ everyday adaptation across educational contexts.
Drawing on research on academic buoyancy, teacher-student relationships, and multisystem resilience, the presentation highlights how student well-being and adaptation are connected to resources located not only within the individual but also within relationships and support systems across home and educational contexts.
The session invites participants to reconsider resilience as a shared process and to reflect on how educational communities can contribute to well-being, adaptation, and resilient futures.
Marika Kiviluoma-Ylitalo is a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Education and Psychology in University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Resilient futures are not built by well-resourced systems alone; they depend on the emotional survival of the people who hold those systems together. Drawing on research in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, this keynote examines how secondary traumatic stress erodes the workforce on which vulnerable families depend, and what sustains practitioners who continue to serve amid profound scarcity. Their improvised networks, supervision relationships and collective ways of carrying pain are presented not as coping under deficit, but as innovation, with lessons for well-resourced services facing their own crises of burnout and retention. Genuine global collaboration, the address suggests, requires knowledge that travels in both directions.
Dr Marinei Herselman is a Lecturer and Postgraduate Research Coordinator in the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Criminology at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of Fort Hare and an MSW in Clinical Social Work from Fordham University, New York. Before entering academia in 2012, she spent eighteen years in statutory, clinical, and forensic social work practice in South Africa and the United States, including child protection and forensic assessment with expert court testimony, experience that continues to ground her research in the realities of frontline practice. Her research focuses on secondary traumatic stress, trauma-informed care, gender-based violence, and the emotional sustainability of the social work profession. Her recent work on trauma-informed care appears in the International Journal of Social Work Education.
12.00 – 13.30 Lunch in restaurant Silvia (at your own expense)
14.00 – 16.00 Sessions
Well-being, Creativity & Human-Centred Design:
Guidance on language and culture awareness training in the social and health care sector (ProHarkka Western Finland) (1 hour, 14.00 – 15.00)
Trauma-informed approaches to working with international students (1 hour, 15.00 – 16.00)
Sustainable & Smart Solutions:
Innovative Solutions for a Resilient Future: Design Thinking Workshop
Global Collaboration and Services:
Education Export Review at SAMK (for DIVERSE European University Alliance partners only)
18.00 Optional evening programme – sauna
9.00 – 11.00 Sessions
Well-being, Creativity & Human-Centred Design:
Innovative Solutions for a Resilient Future: Design Thinking Workshop
Simulation Centre for Health and Welfare: Come and see the Faculty of Well-being and Fine Arts Simulation Center. We have modern simulation facilities that include e.g., home for all, a hospital ward, and an operating theatre.
Gerontology Degree Programme session TBA
Global Collaboration and Services:
Coffee and Communications. Come to get coffee knowledge, coffee cupping and excellent coffee paired with round table discussions about various higher education communications themes!
Cross-institutional studies at SAMK
11.00 – 12.30 Lunch in restaurant Silvia (at your own expense)
12.30 – 16.00 Sessions
Sustainable & Smart Solutions:
Critical, Ethical, and Responsible AI (12.30 – 15.30)
Global Business, Leadership & Geopolitics:
Innovative Solutions for a Resilient Future: Design Thinking Workshop
Well-being, Creativity & Human-Centred Design:
Smart Care Workshop
Finnish the game – Gamified career guidance and Finnish language training for job seekers with immigrant backgrounds (SatakuntaJOB project) (12.30 – 13.30)
Global Collaboration and Services:
How to Manage an Erasmus Mundus Design Measures (EMDM) Project from Application to Reporting: Practical Strategies and Tools
SAMK Library, more open than you expect?
Interprofessional Collaboration in Supporting Student Well-being and Academic Progress (14.00 – 16.00)
Presenting SAMK Research Centers (more info)
18.30 International Week Dinner (only for registered participants)
9.00 departure to Rauma or to Kankaanpää from the front of the SAMK Campus Pori
Departure to Pori (time TBA)
9.00 Optional morning run with colleagues, led by Jani Wahlman, Head of Communications and Marketing
9.00 – 12.00 Sessions and visits to SAMK Campus Pori teaching facilities and labs
Global Collaboration and Services:
Innovative Solutions for a Resilient Future: Design Thinking Workshop
Well-being, Creativity & Human-Centred Design:
Habits and Neuroplasticity: what does your nervous system have to do with it?
Rehabilitation Degree Programme TBA
Island of Resilience: Art-Based Reflection Workshop – Art Therapy Social Workers
+ Meetings with SAMK colleagues, planned in advance
13.00 – 14.00 Farewell Lunch in restaurant Silvia (at your own expense)
We will have different sessions organised by SAMK and partners during the week. You can see the titles of the sessions in the programme above. Detailed session descriptions will be published on this website by the end of 2026.
Focus:
Focus:
Focus:
Focus:
Green travel
***
Accommodation
Sokos Hotel Vaakuna Pori: TBA
Scandic Pori: TBA
Other options:
There are also other options close to our campus, for example Amado Hotel, Omena Hotel and Airbnb apartments.
***
Lunches during the week
On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday lunches take place in SAMK Campus Pori restaurant Silvia. These lunches are at your own expense.
***
Discrimination and harassment situations
SAMK has a zero tolerance policy for all harassment, discrimination and inappropriate behaviour, and these situations will be addressed without delay. Clear procedures help to deal with the matter swiftly.
See SAMK’s safer space principles (pdf)
***
Accessibility
Explore accessibility at SAMK Campus Pori (link)
Contact information
For more information, please contact the International Office: int.office@samk.fi
We reserve the right to any changes.