If you hold professional qualifications from another EU/EEA member state or Switzerland, and you are an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen, you can apply for recognition of professional qualifications.
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Photo: Olli Häkämies

Preconditions for recognition of professional qualifications

Professional qualifications can be recognised only if the profession is regulated in Finland.

If your profession or the training that leads to the profession is not regulated in the EU/EEA country where you have gained your professional qualifications, you will need to have worked in the profession for one year full-time during the past ten years, in an EU/EEA country where the profession is not regulated.

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Regulated professions

A profession is regulated when according to legislation, a specific training, qualification or the right to practice a profession is required. 

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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.

In most cases you will be able to choose whether to complete an adaptation period or an aptitude test. The decision determines what the adaptation period comprises and the content and organiser of the aptitude test.

Adaptation period means working in Finland under the supervision of a qualified practitioner.

In the aptitude test, your ability to work in the profession in Finland is assessed. The aptitude test is organised by a higher education institution or an educational institution. Generally, the language in which the aptitude test is completed is Finnish or Swedish.

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

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Legislation

The decision-making is based on Act on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications (1384/2015). The Act has implemented the EU Professional Qualifications Directive into national law in Finland.

This act is applied to recognition of professional qualifications gained by an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen in an EU/EEA Member State or Switzerland.

This act is also applied to recognition of professional qualifications outside the EU/EEA when
•    the applicant is an EU/EEA citizen,
•    the applicant’s professional qualifications have been recognised in another EU/EEA member state, and
•    the applicant has gained at least three years of professional experience in the country that has recognised his/her professional qualifications.

In addition, this act applies to the recognition of professional qualifications based on the European Union legal provisions pertaining to the status of third country nationals.

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EU Professional Qualifications Directive

The EU directive on the recognition of professional qualifications aims to facilitate employment in another EU or EEA country. The directive establishes rules according to which a member state must recognise professional qualifications acquired by an EU or EEA citizen in other another member state. The directive specifies for example what kind of documents the competent authority may require as appendices to an application for recognition of professional qualification.    

The Finnish National Agency for Education functions as the national assistance centre for the recognition of professional qualifications. The assistance centre provides information about qualifications and competencies as well as recognition procedures in Finland and other EU and EEA member states.  

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Internal Market Information Exchange System, IMI

Personal data provided in your application for recognition of professional qualifications may be processed in the Internal Market Information Exchange System (IMI) governed by the European Commission. The Finnish National Agency for Education may disclose information to competent authorities in other Member States. You have the right to request for information concerning your application from the Finnish National Agency for Education and have it corrected in case there are mistakes.

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