Traineeship

Traineeship is an excellent opportunity to expand your skills in your own field of studies. In a traineeship, you can apply in practice the theoretical and professional knowledge of your degree progrmme.
In some degree programmes traineeship is a mandatory part of the degree. You can also complete a voluntary traineeship and include it as an elective part of your degree. The timing of the traineeship is dependent on the degree programme’s structure.

You can also complete a traineeship abroad. International work experience has significant value in the labour market. Find out about traineeships and grants abroad. Ask for more detailed information about the opportunities from the Internationalisation Services.

Doctoral researchers can also go on an expert traineeship which lasts about 1-2 months (code TUKO1284).

Traineeship and employment contract

You must find a place for a traineeship yourself. In the Faculties of Education, Social Sciences and Art and Design, the traineeship must be approved by the teacher responsible for the traineeships. In the Faculty of Law, the traineeship must be approved by the head of study affairs. Once your traineeship has been approved, you can proceed to an employment contract with your employer.

How you apply for a traineeship

You can search a place for a traineeship yourself or you can use  Aarresaari network (link to the network website) where the traineeship places are offered. 

When you have agreed on the traineeship with the employer, ask the employer to fill out the traineeship information form (link to the form) and have it approved by the person responsible for traineeships in your faculty/degree program.

If you are applying traineeship support, please read instructions below.

Traineeship support or study grant (KELA)

The call for applications for the 2025 traineeship support starts on Monday, November 11, 2025 at 12:00 and is open until September 5, 2025 OR until the allocated funds for the faculty's traineeship support have been used. The application for traineeship support is continuous within the limits of each year's budget. There are no degree program quotas in traineeship support decisions. Traineeship support is distributed in the order in which applications are received, if the application criteria are met and as long as there is enough budget per faculty.

Traineeship support can compensate the employer for part of the salary costs incurred by hiring an intern. The employer pays the salary costs of the traineeship from his own funds and after the traineeship period ends, invoices the university for an amount equal to the traineeship support. Traineeship support is 1,800 euros/traineeship in 2025.

You can also complete the traineeship without internship support. However, if your employer requires support from the university to cover the trainee's salary costs, you can apply for the university's traineeship support. In addition to traineeship support, you can also receive other grants for training abroad.

 

You can apply for traineeship support granted by the University of Lapland if all of the following criteria are met:

1. You are completing a master's degree at the University of Lapland and you have registered as an attending student to the respective degree, for which you are applying for traineeship support. You must be registered as an attending student at the University of Lapland both when applying for traineeship support and during the traineeship.

2. The application must be accompanied by a confirmation (traineeship information form) that the traineeship has been approved by the person responsible for the traineeship of the faculty/degree program and that the credits of the traineeship can be included in your degree at the time of application.

3. You have a preliminary traineeship agreement. Support can be allocated conditionally for two months. If you do not get a traineeship, the support will be returned to the university. If you get a place, send the filled-in traineeship information form by e-mail: harjoittelutuki@ulapland.fi.

4. The traineeship has a designated supervisor at the workplace. The university does not grant support for traineeships where the employer does not commit to guidance. It is recommended that the work assignments during the traineeship period are specialist level, which correspond to the field of study and the goals of the degree, and where the student can apply gained skills and competences.

5. The amount of work experience accumulated during the traineeship is at least 3 months of full-time work (approx. 37.5 hours/week and 5 days/week, e.g. 1.3.-31.5.) or the equivalent amount in part-time work. In the part-time traineeship, at least 50% of the working time is recommended, but if the nature of the work requires, the training can also be carried out with a lower percentage of the working time.

6. Training support is not granted for a traineeship that is carried out in one's own company.

7. Traineeship support is not granted for an unpaid training. The recommendation for the salary paid by the employer to the intern is the minimum salary to meet the work requirement defined by Kela (1399 euros/month in 2024).

8. The traineeship will take place during 2025 and will be invoiced by Friday, December 13, 2025.

9. You declare that you have not used support granted by the University of Lapland for a traineeship before. You also declare that you will not receive any other traineeship support awarded by the University of Lapland.

10. You complete the required reporting on the traineeship according to the instructions of your faculty.

Support is not granted if your degree includes a mandatory traineeship that the university finances anyway, such as primary teacher, art education teacher and social work studies. Traineeship support is not granted afterwards or for a traineeship that has already started.

This is how you apply for the Traineeship support

1. Fill out the application form. (The search form link is only active during the search.)

2. Attach to the application traineeship information form that has been nicked under your own name.

 

Note: In order for the application to be included in the processing queue, the internship information form attached to the application must be filled in with the signatures of the faculty/degree programme trainee and the representative of the study office.

 

For more information on issues related to Master's-level traineeship support: harjoittelutuki@ulapland.fi

Support decision

You will receive a decision on the support by e-mail. Traineeship support applications are processed centrally once a month, but not during July. Holidays and peak times may increase the processing time. If the traineeship is cancelled or support not needed, please send a message about this immediately to harjoittelutuki@ulapland.fi.

You can only use the traineeship support granted by the University of Lapland once during your studies at the University of Lapland. If you have several study rights at the University of Lapland, you can only apply for a support based on the primary study right.