Boxing Night in September is expected to be a tough event.

Former professional middleweight boxing European champion Amin Asikainen, 34, is in for a hard task at the Töölö Sports Hall on 4 September. Asikainen, now aiming for the top in the super middleweights, takes on Mexico's Jaudiel Zepeda – with no fewer than 35 career knockouts under his belt – in what is planned to be an eight-round match. Asikai-

nen has not defeated a boxer of Moran's calibre since 2007, when he beat former world champion Yori Boy Campas by technical knockout.

In-line skating is no longer the trendy sport that it was in the 1990s, but it is still a firm fixture on the streets of Helsinki and other Finnish cities, and the diehards just keep on rolling.

Between roughly May and September, you can see in-line skaters glide forwards on the proverbial Tarmac serpent that crawls the inviting pedestrian lanes of Finnish cities such as Helsinki, Lappeenranta and Jyväskylä. The skaters are able to scoot past pedestrians and go where vehicles and even bicycles are banned.

The Finnish workplace has its own unique culture. To thrive in this environment one needs to understand it.

WHEN it comes to national working cultures, the world is full of stereotypes. In America people work too much. In Sweden they have meetings all the time. In France they are always on strike. In Finland they will never ask a question during a presentation.

“One thing to steer away from is stereotypes,” says Barry Rogers. He should know. Rogers is a business coach specialising in cultural diversity. As the Cultural Development Manager at the recruiting firm Opteam, part of his job is to help build international teams where culture significantly influences...

Two Helsinki-based entrepreneurs are on a mission to help immigrants access science-related careers.

When Nana and Ify Ghanash came up with an idea to help immigrant students get more out of their science studies, they could not have predicted that it would lead to the launch of their own new career as entrepreneurs.

The husband and wife team, originally from Ghana and Nigeria, share a passion for science education. Nana, a medical doctor and Ify, a social scientist, came to Finland in the early 1990s in search of opportunities and a better life.

Finland has around 6,000 enterprises established and led by immigrants, half of which are located in the Helsinki region. According to government figures, immigrants are more willing to start a business than native Finns, with 16 per cent of working immigrants self-employed, compared with 10 per cent of Finns. People of Turkish, Thai and Middle Eastern origin are most likely to engage in entrepreneurial activities on arrival to Finland.

Newsweek pronouncing Finland as the best country in the world is chicken soup for the Finnish soul. It is also good free advertising for the country as a location for industry and business. The long tradition of strong labour unions has supported employees’ rights throughout the decades but the current workforce is facing great challenges in the new economy.

Among the western states, Finland is very much a working society. Work is one of the central values we acknowledge and has been getting more important in the last 30-40 years. Work defines our everyday lives and often has the highest priority. Work is not only the way to earn ones living but also merely the headstone of ones identity. Success or contentment at work delivers happiness...

Is it time to call in the design professionals?

We’ve all seen the TV shows, but there’s more to designing a living space than choosing a paint colour. With finances under strain and house prices increasing, some homeowners are opting to improve their existing property rather than move to a new house. However, larger-scale interior projects, such as renovating a kitchen or bathroom, or altering the layout of an apartment, may need professional expertise to help those design dreams become a reality.

A round-up of some of this season’s trends for interior decor.

Eclecticism

Retro and vintage looks continue to be popular, but increasingly these are being mixed with up-to-the-minute modern furniture. The look can be difficult to get right, but there’s no reason why Granny’s wooden dining table can’t work with a set of quirky Habitat chairs. The trick is to minimise clutter and focus on a few statement pieces.

The pastime of angling and fishing is widely practiced in Finland which should come as no surprise because, with its thousands of lakes, this country is an angler’s paradise.

Angling, which means fishing with a simple rod without reel, a float and hook is, together with jigging and ice fishing, part of “everyman’s right” in Finland. In other words, this popular and relaxing pastime is free because no licence is required. During the summer one often sees young and old sitting together on the jetty and along the shore, waiting for the float to be pulled under the water surface.

In no other major city will you be able to bungee jump as near the centre as in Helsinki, thanks to the company Skybreakers. Their 150-metre tower will be erected in Kaivopuisto in late summer.

Lift people high up the sky, tie a rope around their ankles and push them into a long drop through the air. Are we talking about strong-arm debt collecting? Thankfully, no.