The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL

SKOL is a professional and employers' organization for independent and private consulting companies. SKOL has a membership of 215 consulting engineering and architect firms. The member companies employ about 13 600 people in Finland and their foreign subsidiaries employ some 5 000 people abroad.

SKOL aims to promote professional and independent consulting engineering, to improve the preconditions of consulting and to watch the interests of the members both in Finland and abroad. The principal goal is to guarantee a high quality as well as to develop efficiency, profitability and solidity. The association highlights the quality as the main criterion in the selection of the consultant.

The strategic themes in SKOL action programme for 2011-2013 are:

• SKOL members have competent, welleducated and devoloping resources
• The SKOL sector is visible, appreciated and has a good image
• Consulting engineering markets are functional, and competition is fair.
• Labour markets and conditions are flexible and encouraging.
• SKOL-member companies are competitive, progressive and profitable.

SKOL negotiates two generally binding collective labour agreements:

• Collective agreement for senior salaried employees in the consulting engineering and related sectors, agreed with SKOL and Delegation of professional and managerial employees (YTN)
• Collective agreement for salaried (clerical and technical) employees in the consulting engineering sector, agreed with SKOL and Union of Salaried Employees TU

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.

SKOL capacity represents two thirds of the total consulting engineering capacity in Finland. About 70 per cent of the personnel in the member companies have a university or technical college degree. The 30 large companies with over 100 employees have a total staff of 9000 people, medium size companies with 30-100 employees have 1500 people and 200 small companies with less than 10 people employ 2000 people.