Finnish in Finland training programme

Our primary objective is to ensure that university-level Finnish language and culture teaching in different countries is of high quality and continuous. In particular, we want to ensure the availability of language experts. 

The purpose of the Finnish in Finland programme is to deepen students'

• Finnish language skills, especially in the language of working life, and
• knowledge of Finnish work culture and society.

Finnish in Finland is an unpaid training programme. The organisation offering the traineeship does not pay the trainee a salary and the trainee does not have an employment relationship with the organisation.

Trainees receive a grant of €800/month from EDUFI. In addition to this, the organisation offering the traineeship must arrange and pay for the trainee's accommodation. Where possible, the organisation can also cover the trainee's other living costs (such as meals or travel).

Available grant

You apply for the traineeship grant (€800/month) when you apply for a traineeship. The grant is intended to cover costs of the traineeship.

This grant cannot be received at the same time as an Erasmus+ grant.

It is possible to apply for and be admitted to both a Finnish in Finland traineeship and a summer course in Finnish language and culture in the same year, provided that the schedules of the traineeship and course do not overlap.

Residence permit and visa

If you are a national of a country other than an EU country, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, you will need a residence permit if your unpaid training lasts more than 90 days (https://migri.fi/en/internship#unpaid). If you need a residence permit for a traineeship, you will also receive a grant from EDUFI for an electronic residence permit for internship (https://migri.fi/en/processing-fees-and-payment-methods).

If your traineeship lasts 90 days or less, you can participate in it with a visa or visa-free. EDUFI will not reimburse the costs of obtaining a visa. You can check visa requirements here: https://um.fi/visa-requirement-and-travel-documents-accepted-by-finland.

How to apply

The application period for Finnish in Finland traineeships for the following summer and autumn usually starts in early February and ends in early March. Some traineeships taking place in the spring also become available in the autumn. The exact application deadlines will be updated on the corresponding Finnish page before the start of the application period.

You can apply for one or two traineeships at the same time.

EDUFI sends applications that meet the application criteria to the organisations offering traineeships for evaluation. Trainees are selected by the organisations offering the traineeships. If you apply for two traineeships, your application will first be sent to only one of the two organisations for evaluation.

You can find the available traineeships by clicking on Finnish in Finland traineeships on the left-hand side of the page (information in Finnish only).

Attachments to the application

• CV
• transcript of studies and
• a motivation letter explaining why you want to do a traineeship at this particular organisation. If you are applying for two traineeships, please write a letter for each traineeship.

Please write your application and attachments in Finnish. However, your transcript of studies may be in English. Please submit the attachments with the application form.

In addition to the above, please ask your university's Finnish language teacher to send EDUFI a statement that includes an assessment of your Finnish language skills, your academic performance and your suitability for the traineeship. The teacher will be provided with a statement form by EDUFI.

The link to the application form is only available on the Finnish page. On the Finnish page, you can also find a link to Kielibuusti's self-assessment tool, which you can use to assess your language skills.

Evaluation criteria 

• The student meets the application criteria and the criteria set by the organisation offering the traineeship.
• How the applicant intends to utilise the competence and experience that they gain from the traineeship.

EDUFI submits information on all grant decisions to the tutkiavustuksia.fi service for publication (Act on Discretionary Government Grants 688/2001).

The State Treasury will publish in the tutkiavustuksia.fi service the name of the natural person who is the government grant recipient, the purpose of the government grant and the regional allocation of the use of the government grant. If the grant awarded is less than €1,000, the amount of the grant will not be published. If the grant application is rejected, the name of the applicant is not published.