The Finnish National Agency for Education carries out the tasks assigned to it by law

The Finnish National Agency for Education has expanded over the years, as a result of which the current Agency is very different from its previous incarnations from decades past. 

The Finnish National Agency for Education has been assigned tasks in dozens of different laws, and its area of activity is exceptionally broad, as political decision-makers have centralised to the Agency a wide range of functions that used to be handled separately by different agencies.

Naturally, this is also reflected in the number of staff employed by the Agency and the fact that the Agency receives its funding from a variety of sources, not just the national budget. 

The promotion of internationalisation used to be the responsibility of the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO). In 2017, the old National Board of Education merged with CIMO to form a new agency that was named the Finnish National Agency for Education. In June 2025, Parliament approved a bill on the reform of the Finnish educational and cultural administration, which will further expand the Finnish National Agency for Education, as the Institute for the Languages of Finland will be absorbed into the Agency at the start of 2026. 

In addition to these, there are three independent units operating within the Finnish National Agency for Education, namely the Matriculation Examination Board, the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) and the Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment (SECLE). Furthermore, the Finnish National Agency for Education manages six state-owned educational institutions that have been assigned special education missions compared to other educational institutions in Finland. Unlike other educational institutions, these institutions do not receive funding from municipalities.

National guidance ensures equal education across Finland 

The Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for defining the guidelines for and strategic alignments of Finland’s education policy. It oversees all education provision tied to the national budget and prepares legislation and Government decisions on education.

Based on legislation prepared by the Ministry and approved by Parliament, the Finnish National Agency for Education is responsible for drawing up the national core curricula for early childhood education and care, pre-primary education, primary and lower secondary education, general upper secondary education, basic education in the arts and liberal adult education and the qualification requirements for a total of 160 vocational qualifications.

In practice, the Finnish National Agency for Education ensures through guidance and regulations that education, teaching and learning take place in accordance with laws and regulations and based on the same objectives and principles throughout Finland. With them, we guarantee the right to learn for all and equal education and training throughout Finland.

The Finnish National Agency for Education also produces information on the competence needs of society and analyses the implementation of education. This helps decision-makers, education providers and teachers to develop education in the right direction.

Nationally centralised services provide savings and efficiency

It is often overlooked that the Finnish National Agency for Education provides many centralised digital services for citizens and public authorities that are essential for Finland as a whole, so that they do not have to be maintained in several different locations, which would be inefficient and costly. 

For example, the Studyinfo service collects the study data of all Finns in a centralised and reliable way for use by both citizens and authorities. By doing so, the service facilitates the student admission of upper secondary and higher education institutions, among other things. 

The Finnish National Agency for Education also grants eligibility for certain jobs on the basis of foreign qualifications, is responsible for National Certificates of Language Proficiency and publishes teaching materials for small target groups. 

The number of these types of service tasks has increased based on Government decisions, with one recent example being the final examination of language proficiency incorporated into integration training courses last spring.

Promotion of internationalisation is based on law and funded mainly by the EU

One of the statutory tasks of the Finnish National Agency for Education is to promote the internationalisation of society, the recognition of Finnish education and cooperation abroad. Through this work, Finnish schools, educational institutions and universities are provided with access to EU funding for their work, for example.

The Finnish National Agency for Education’s work related to internationalisation is also almost entirely funded by the EU, and it is not something that takes away from national education development, but rather contributes to it.  The largest source of funding is the Erasmus+ programme, the Finnish National Agency for which operates under the Finnish National Agency for Education.

In recent years, we have also used international funding to provide a significant amount of support to Ukraine for the organisation and reconstruction of education amid the war.