If you have completed your qualification abroad and wish to gain eligibility for an early childhood education and care (ECEC) profession in Finland, you will need a decision from the Finnish National Agency for Education recognising your qualification.
Girls playing indoors
Photo: Satu Haavisto

 

 

The Finnish National Agency for Education issues decisions for the ECEC positions listed below. The link will direct you to the corresponding occupational description on Suomi.fi Web Service.

The qualification requirements for the positions are specified in the Early Childhood Education and Care Act (540/2018). 

Chart: Eligibility for a profession in early childhood education and care
Using this flowchart, you can find out how to gain eligibility for professions in early childhood education and care in Finland with a foreign qualification.
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If you have qualified for an ECEC profession in another EU/EEA Member State or in Switzerland and you are an EU/EEA or Swizz citizen, you can apply for a decision on recognition of professional qualifications.

The decision may provide eligibility for an ECEC profession that is most similar to the eligibility you have gained in another state.

 

Compensation measures

If your qualifications differ in terms of content from the qualifications required in Finland, you may have to complete a compensation measure, before you gain eligibility in Finland. Professional experience or life-long learning may compensate for the differences either in part or in full.

The compensation measure can be an adaptation period or an aptitude test. During the adaptation period, you will work in your profession. The aptitude test is an examination organised by a higher education institution, in which you demonstrate your professional competence.

Apply for a final decision to the Finnish National Agency for Education, after you have completed the adaptation period of the aptitude test.

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In case
•    you have completed a higher education degree or higher education studies in a country that is neither an EU/EEA Member State or Switzerland,
•    you are not an EU/EEA or Swizz citizen, or
•    for some other reason you cannot receive a decision on recognition of professional qualifications,
you can apply for recognition of your studies completed abroad as comparable to a higher education degree or higher education studies that are required for positions of teacher (ECEC),
social pedagogue (ECEC), special education teacher (ECEC) or head of an early education centre.

For all these positions a certain higher education degree and certain studies in early childhood education and care are required.

Preconditions for recognition

The higher education degree or studies completed abroad must be comparable both in terms of level and content to the higher education degree or studies that are required in Finland for the ECEC profession in question. In addition, the degree or studies should have prepared for the same profession in the country where they were completed.

Additional requirements

Supplementing studies, that are completed at a Finnish higher education institution, are generally required in the decisions.

If you receive a decision requiring you to complete supplementing studies, contact a Finnish higher education institute to complete them. Apply for a final decision from the Finnish National Agency for Education after you have completed the required supplementing studies.

Further information about recognition of higher education studies and the principles and legislation guiding recognition:

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