FAQ – School of Professional Teacher Education

If you have not completed a higher education degree (i.e. in most cases at least a Bachelor’s degree) and you are not working as a vocational subject teacher in Finland during the application period, you are not eligible to apply for Professional Teacher Education. If you are already acting as a teacher of vocational subjects in vocational education in Finland during the application period, we may be able to consider you as an eligible applicant. The decision on eligibility will be made after you have applied and submitted the required documents. However, successful completion of the programme will not on its own qualify you for other teaching positions in Finland.

You are not eligible to apply. The degree used in the application process must be completed by the end of the application period.

In most cases, you need to have at least three years of professional, non-teaching work experience corresponding to your higher education degree (i.e. at least a Bachelor’s degree). However, there are some exceptions. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:

• applicants with a degree from the field of Social Services and Health:
  • relevant Bachelor’s degree completed in a university of applied sciences: five years of professional, non-teaching work experience in tasks corresponding to the content of the degree
  • relevant Master’s degree (completed in a university of applied sciences or in a university): three years of professional, non-teaching work experience corresponding to the degree
  • Bachelor’s degree completed in a university: not eligible (in case you have a Bachelor's degree completed outside Finland, the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) will determine whether your degree corresponds to a university or a university of applied sciences degree completed in Finland, after you have applied for the recognition of your degree by EDUFI).
• applicants with a Bachelor's (or higher) degree in biology or geography: three years of professional, non-teaching work experience corresponding to the content of the degree
• general subject teachers need no work experience (but in many cases need to have a relevant Master’s degree majoring in a relevant subject, such as a foreign language or mathematics).

No, you are not eligible to apply. You need to have a master's degree with major in the language in question. If you have completed the degree outside Finland, you also need to have a decision on the recognition of your degree by the Finnish National Agency for Education.

Teaching experience is not an eligibility requirement. However, teaching experience may bring you admission points.

No, you can become a student only by submitting an application during the application period, which runs once a year in January.

In the 2023 application process 173 applicants applied for Haaga-Helia's International Professional Teacher Education in English as their first preference. The lowest accepted score was 15,5/37 points.

In the 2022 application process 148 applicants applied for Haaga-Helia's International Professional Teacher Education in English as their first preference. The lowest accepted score was 16/37 points.

Please note that the lowest accepted scores depend on the number of applicants and the admission point scores they receive. They vary from year to year.

The online application form is available in the Studyinfo portal during the application period.

You can apply but in most cases you need a recognition of your degree by the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI). Without the decision on recognition, we are not able to process your application. We recommend that you apply for the recognition at least a few months before the application period for Professional Teacher Education begins, since obtaining the decision may take months.

The recognition is in most cases needed only of the degree on which your eligibility for Professional Teacher Education is based. Recognition of other completed degrees is usually not needed.

In many cases you can complete the pedagogical studies required in the decision on recognition in the Professional Teacher Education programme. Please contact us to find the best course of action for your situation. The recommended way to contact us in this matter is by email (opehaku(at)haaga-helia.fi), so that you can attach a scanned copy of the decision to your email.

You can become a student by going through the normal application process. At the beginning of the studies, you will make a personal development plan in which the decision and your previous studies may be considered.

The documents should be attached in electronic format to the online application. If this is not possible, the documents should be submitted to the Admission Services of the applicant's first study option.

Please save your documents as pdf, jpg or png files. Please note that if you submit documents in other formats, you may be asked to submit your documents again in one of the aforementioned formats. Please name your documents clearly, e.g. Employer A, Employer B, Employer C, etc.

The applicant’s English language skills must be at a sufficient level so that he or she is able to complete the studies in the level of higher education without problems. In most cases, Haaga-Helia does not require a language certificate but we reserve the right to ask for a language certificate or test the applicant’s oral and/or written language skills in the teaching language.

You can update your contact details by using the link to your online application, which you have received in the e-mail confirmation after submitting the online application. If you are unable to do this, please contact the Admission Services of your first-choice Professional Teacher Education institution. If you have chosen Haaga-Helia as your first choice, you can reach us at opehaku(at)haaga-helia.fi.

No, your study place is in your second study option and you can no longer be accepted to your first choice.

All eligible applicants who have not been offered a study place in either of their study options will remain on the waiting list in the order of their admission points. If a study place becomes available, the Vocational/Professional Teacher Education institution will contact the person on the first place on the waiting list.

If you have not taken part in the application process, you cannot be accepted to a vacant study place.

Professional Teacher Education is aimed for those who intend to teach or are already acting as teachers in vocational education or in universities of applied sciences in Finland. In some cases, a person who has completed Professional Teacher Education may also be formally qualified to teach in comprehensive education or high school. In such a case, the person also needs to meet other requirements for teachers in the type of education in question, besides the pedagogical qualification completed in Professional Teacher Education. These other requirements usually concern the level and content of the degree completed. The detailed qualification requirements for teachers in these institutions are available in the Act 986/1998 in Finnish.

Professional Teacher Education is meant for people who wish to become teachers in vocational upper secondary education and universities of applied sciences. Please check the qualification requirements for kindergarten teachers in Act 540/2018 and for pre-school teachers in Act 986/1998, section 7 (available in Finnish).

In vocational education, general subjects are e.g. languages and mathematics. In most cases, a teacher of general subjects must have a relevant Master’s degree with the studies in the teaching subject(s) included in the degree. The degree on which your application is based determines whether you can be considered as an applicant seeking qualification as a general subject teacher. The detailed requirements for general subject teachers are available in the Act 986/1998 in Finnish.

In vocational education, vocational subjects are e.g. finance, nursing and engineering. In most cases, a teacher of vocational subjects must have a Bachelor´s degree or higher and at least three years of professional, non-teaching work experience corresponding to the higher education degree. The degree on which your application is based determines whether you will be considered as an applicant seeking qualification as a vocational subject teacher. The detailed requirements for vocational subject teachers are available in the Act 986/1998 in Finnish.

No, Professional Teacher Education is a non-degree pedagogical qualification required in most cases of formally qualified teachers in Finland.

Modules of the development programme for professional teachers: 

1 Teacher as a researcher and developer of pedagogical practices (15 ECTS)

1.1 Becoming a vocational teacher 5 ECTS
1.2 Basis for teaching and learning 5 ECTS
1.3 Learning at work and in networks 5 ECTS

2 Teacher as an ethical developer, teaching practice (35 ECTS)

2.1 Observing teaching and tutoring in different contexts 5 ECTS
2.2 Teaching and tutoring practice in vocational institutions and companies 15 ECTS
2.3 Optional pedagogical themes 5 ECTS
2.4 Competence assessment 5 ECTS
2.5 Inclusion, participation and the learning community 5 ECTS

3 Teacher as an active citizen 10 ECTS

3.1 Professional knowledge and changes in working life 5 ECTS
3.2 Changing vocational education 5 ECTS

Yes, you do have to be present in Helsinki because the contact days are organized in a collaborative manner, which does not allow for online participation. The competence requirements imply face-to-face interaction, participation and co-creation as a whole group.

Yes, you need to do the teaching practice in Finland. This is also a way to liaise with educational organizations, network with other teachers and possibly find employment as a teacher upon graduation.  

In teaching and tutoring training, you will be able to develop your skills in practice. The training can be completed continuously or in several separate teaching lessons. For example, your training may take place in projects between a vocational institution and working life, in classrooms or workshops, workplaces in the industry, online, in third sector locations or outside.

You can agree on the number of hours, time and place of practice with your teacher. If you don't have a place to do your internship, you can also look it up with your teacher.

Yes, this is the core working mode of the programme because nowadays teachers are expected to collaborate with different stakeholders across groups, organisations and professional fields. Peer groups will be formed in the beginning of the programme.

The official language of the programme is English and you should therefore have a good command of spoken and written English language skills. Besides, during the programme you should also gain some competence in Finnish or Swedish.

If your prior teacher education completed abroad is partially recognized by the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), you may choose whether to study only the number of credits required in the decision or the whole programme. Nevertheless, we recommend that you complete the 60 credits in our School of Professional Teacher Education.

Studies starting in 2024 are free of charge for the student. However, the student is responsible for the costs of study materials, travel, accommodation etc.

Haaga-Helia does not offer any financial support for teacher students. For the benefits available for Finnish residents by other institutions, please visit the websites of Kela, TE services or the Employment Fund.

The studies do not lead to a degree, so our students are not entitled to student discounts. However, you are entitled to a meal subsidy card issued by Kela. The card entitles you to student prices in participating restaurants, which are listed on the Kela website.