General application criteria

EDUFI traineeships abroad are meant for students in higher education and recently graduated higher education students. You need to meet the general application criteria to apply for an EDUFI traineeship:

  • You are a Finnish citizen or permanently reside in Finland. Your main reason of residence in Finland cannot be studying or another temporary reason.
  • You are a full-time degree student in a higher education institution in Finland or abroad.
  • If you are newly qualified, your placement should start within one year of your qualification date.
  • You can only be selected for an EDUFI trainee placement once. If you have previously received a traineeship grant from CIMO, or since 2017 from EDUFI, your application cannot be considered. Traineeships at teaching units of Finnish language and culture are an exception: you can get another grant if you have had a grant from CIMO or EDUFI once before.
  • An EDUFI grant cannot be paid at the same time as an Erasmus grant for the same trainee placement.
  • You must be at least 18 years of age.

Exceptions to the general application criteria

Exceptions to the general application criteria can apply to all or individual placement offers of an employer.

Exceptions that apply to all placement offers of an employer are listed on the employer page. For example, those applying for a placement in Finnish diplomatic missions abroad must be Finnish citizens.

Exceptions that only apply to an individual placement offer are mentioned with the relevant placement description. For example, development cooperation organisations may include placements that are not available to new graduates.

Pre-selection at EDUFI

We pre-select a short list of applicants who

  • meet the general application criteria
  • meet the criteria of the employer, and
  • have the most suitable education and training, work experience, language skills and other qualities for the placement in question.

Employers make the final selection of trainees.

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Calls for applications

We organise two calls for applications each year, the first of which starts in February and the second in September. The call duration is two weeks.

We may extend the call and we may occasionally publish extra calls of which we inform on our website and Facebook page.

EDUFI call for applications

Starts: 26 September 2023

Ends: 10 October 2023 (at 16.15)

  • Available placements will be published at the latest at the start of the call for applications
  • All applicants will be informed about the results of a pre-selection by email at the latest in the end of November 2023
  • Those selected will receive an EDUFI grant, the amount varies according to the host country
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Employers

Trainee placements are usually on offer from:

Finnish organisations, teaching units of Finnish language and culture outside Finland, Finnish expatriate organisations and development cooperation organisations outside Finland.

The locations, tasks and grants in these placements are determined in advance.

  • Development cooperation organisations operating outside Finland
  • Business Finland
  • Finnish diplomatic missions abroad
  • Finnish cultural and academic institutes
  • Team Finland Knowledge Network
  • Teaching units of Finnish language and culture outside Finland

Due to the crisis in Ukraine we don't offer placements in Russia at the moment. 

There is a limited number of placements you can apply for if you are not fluent in Finnish. These placements are basically only available in a category Development cooperation organisations operating outside Finland. Read more in Finnish:

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The duration and dates of traineeships

The duration and dates of traineeships are listed in the placement description. Traineeships normally last from 3 to 6 months. Some individual, longer placements may also be available.

Placements offered during the February call usually start during the summer or early autumn of that year. Placements offered during the September call will start at the earliest in January of the following year.

The dates of the traineeship are normally given in the placement offer. If it states that the dates are negotiable, please let us know in your application when you would be available.

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Apply to one country or to two placements by one employer

During each EDUFI call for applications you can apply to

  • either one country in the group ”Businesses and local organisations”, or
  • 1-2 placements from other employers.

For example, if you apply for a traineeship in Finnish diplomatic missions, you can list two placements you are interested in. If you apply for a traineeship in the offices of Business Finland, you can apply for two different Business Finland placements, but you cannot, for example, apply for one placement in a Finnish diplomatic mission and another in a Business Finland office or with another employer.

If you apply for a traineeship in development cooperation organisations, you can apply for two placements even if they are in different organisations.

Sometimes an employer only offers one trainee placement. Even in this case, you still can’t select another employer as your second choice.

Make your preferred position as your first choice on the application form, because you will only be put forward for one placement. Applicants will be placed to their secondary choices only in exceptional cases.

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The application process

  1. Make sure that you meet the general application criteria.
  2. Select a trainee placement that best supports your future plans and that best matches your education and training, possible previous work experience, your language skills and other qualities.
  3. Write a good application on time. Make sure you get all required annexes and reserve time for writing your motivational letter. The online application form will be closed at 16.15 (4:15 PM) Finnish time on the application deadline date. Employers will see your application form and the annexes in the format you have saved them in the system.
  4. At EDUFI, we pre-select a short list of applicants that, in addition to meeting the general application criteria, best match the criteria set by the employer and the criteria and requirements listed in the placement offer. We normally put forward 3 to 7 applicants for each placement. If you apply for a traineeship in the Businesses and local organisations group, we can put forward several applicants for each country.
  5. You will be informed about the results of the pre-selection by email.
  6. Employers make the final selection. If you have been put forward for a placement, be prepared to be interviewed. Interviews are normally done remotely. An employer may interview all or only a few of the applicants put forward. 
  7. When the employer is a Finnish diplomatic mission, you will be security checked with your permission. A security check will also be carried out if you will be working in the premises of a diplomatic mission even if you would be working for another organisation. Because of the security checks, there may be a delay of 2 to 6 weeks in informing about the final selection.
  8. Employers will inform about the final selection to all applicants that were put forward. The only exception are development cooperation organisations in which case EDUFI will send out the selection results.
  9. You don’t need to apply for a traineeship grant separately. Once the employer has confirmed to us that you have been selected, we will send you information about how to prepare for your traineeship and about the grant.
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Contact information

The common e-mail address of the EDUFI training team is edufi-harjoittelu [at] oph.fi, where you can best reach us and our deputies.

The different responsible persons of the EDUFI internship and links to the phone book:

Organisations conducting development cooperation abroad: Anne Hämäläinen
Finnish embassies abroad: Anne Hämäläinen
Finnish language teaching points abroad: Riitta Uotila
Finnish cultural and scientific institutes abroad: Laura Niinikoski
Team Finland Knowledge network: Jaana Mutanen
Companies and local organisations: Jaana Mutanen

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