The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL
SKOL is the industry and employers´ organization for independent consulting firms. It is a member of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries. The Association has a membership of 150 design, consulting engineering and architect firms, employing about 19 000 people in Finland. About one third of employees in Finland work in international companies headquartered outside of Finland. Foreign subsidiaries of Finnish-owned companies employ some 7000 people abroad.
SKOL promotes professional, independent, sustainable and ethical design and consulting engineering, which provides best value to the Client organisations. SKOL looks after the interests of member firms in Finland and within EU, improves the operating environment of consulting work in Finland and internationally, as well as builds up the brand and communicates the value of professional, high quality consulting services. The Association emphasizes quality as the main criterion in the selection of consultants. SKOL promotes positive and open cooperation between project parties to foster innovative and lean solutions that provide best value to clients.
The Federation of Technology Industries together with SKOL negotiates two generally binding collective labour agreements for design and consulting business:
- Collective agreement for senior salaried employees in the consulting engineering and related sectors, agreed between Technology Industries and Delegation of professional and managerial employees (YTN)
- Collective agreement for salaried (clerical and technical) employees in the consulting engineering sector, agreed between Technology Industries and Trade Union Pro.
SKOL members as well as other consulting engineering companies are obliged to comply with these agreements.
SKOL is a member of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers FIDIC. The association adheres to the principles of FIDIC and the members of SKOL are required to meet the standards of codes and practices as well as the membership qualifications of FIDIC. SKOL is also a member of European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations EFCA, which represents the interests of European consulting industry toward EU Commission, the European Parliament and financial organisations.
SKOL members cover over two thirds of the total consulting engineering capacity in Finland. Close to 90 per cent of the personnel in the member companies have a university, college or technical institute level degree. The 27 large companies with over 100 employees have a total staff of 14 200 people, medium size companies (26) with 30-100 employees employ 1 300 people and small companies with less than 30 people (124) employ 1500 people.
SKOL member firms are independent from commercial, manufacturing and contracting interests and must have practised in independent engineering, architecture or other consulting for at least one year. The executives and leading consultants of a member firm must be full-time consultants and have an adequate education and experience in their special fields.
Currently, the yearly invoicing of members of SKOL amounts to about 1 500 M€, 300 M€ of this amount comes from foreign operations. Building construction accounts for 30 per cent of Finnish consulting, municipal engineering 20 per cent, and industrial projects 45 per cent. SKOL capacity represents two thirds of the total consulting engineering capacity in Finland. SKOL members offer services in the 33 fields defined by SKOL. About 70 per cent of the personnel in the member companies have a university or technical college degree.
Finnish consulting engineers have references in more than 100 countries in all continents. Finnish consulting engineers have internationally acknowledged know-how in several fields. They offer the best expertise available in the forest based and wood processing industries, the construction industry, municipal engineering and planning and environmental protection.
Contact us
The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL
P.O. Box 10 (Eteläranta 10)
FI-00131 HELSINKI
FINLAND
Tel. +358 9 19 231
Telefax. +358 9 624 462