ARTS Internships in Finland

• You are a bachelor/master level degree student at Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture and is enrolled as attending. Since the internships usually require more advanced studies, the support vouchers are primarily allocated for at least second-year students. Exceptions can be made for first-year bachelor students with previous studies/employment experience. The student must be enrolled as attending throughout the internship and thus can not graduate as a master during the internship.
• The internship is included in the student’s degree. Confirm from your degree programme (professor, teacher or coordinator) that you are able to include the credits received from your internhip into your degree. In some cases (e.g joint-degree programmes) Aalto might not support the internship.
• The student has no previous supported internship experience within the School of Arts, Design and Architecture Supported Internship Programme (Note: a support or a grant for an internship in Finland or Abroad can be received only once during studies, including Erasmus internship grant and international internship grants). Supported internship can only be performed once.
• Student has gained at least 20 credits per each term attending at Aalto University.  This is counted by dividing the amount of credits apparent in the transcript of records with the amount of terms starting from the beginning of enrollment. If you have a non-attending term, you need to provide a document e.g a screenshot of Oodi to demonstrate. The ongoing term is not included.

• The internship lasts for at least one (1) month and no more than six (6) months. Your degree programme might have other restrictions on the length of the internship.
• The internship is performed in the employers premises - temporary remote work is possible. 
• The internship is either full-time (at least 35 h/week) work or part-time. In the case of part-time work, the amount of work included in the intership must at minimum equal one (1) months worth of full-time work. The hours and salary must be present in the internship contract.
• The salary of the internship must adhere to at least the Kela set work requirement, which is 1399 €/month in 2024. This salary must be paid as salary by the employer on a monthly basis during the internship. The employer is also responsible for the statutory side costs of the internship. The salary must be present in the internship contract. The support paid by the internship can not be subtracted from the salary, as the support is billed after the internship. (For part time work, the minimum amount of hours is 18h/week and the hourly salary 8,13 €/hour.)    
• The student devises a temporary employment relationship (for government jobs, appointments are possible) with the employer, and a written contract is made between the employer and the student. Due to this requirement the employer is in charge of insurances of the internship. The School of Arts, Design and Architecture does not provide the form for the contract – the employer must either make use of their own contract forms or forms found online. Two equal copies of the contract need to be devised, one for each party. The student is required to send a copy of the contract to Leaning Services.
• Please note that freelance arrangements are not eligible for internship vouchers.
• The employer designates a supervisor for the internship.

The application process for the vouchers is continuous and so far eveyone has has got a voucher. The budget of the internship support is devised according to the calendar year in which the internship begins. Therefore the internship must begin, at latest, on 1.12. Your voucher is valid until 30.11.2023.

Send an application using the the online form. Provide the transcript of records from Sisu as an attachment (name the file using your own name). Your application is handled within two weeks barring holiday seasons.

Vouchers are allocated based on the order of incoming, eligible applications. We only consider complete applications. You’ll receive a decision regarding the voucher via email. Read, save and follow the instructions provided in the decision.

Voucher is a promise of internship support when a suitable placement is found – once you have it, you can begin to search for a placement and mention that support is available if the conditions are met. You do not have to have a placement ready before applying for a voucher, but please apply only if you are serious about finding an internship.

 If you have found a placement before you have been granted a voucher, note that you can agree officially of the support only after you have received a voucher. You should have the voucher and the approval of department before you begin your internship.

A student who has been granted a voucher must cancel it as soon as possible if they realize they have no use for it.

Students are independently responsible for finding and applying for an internship placement. You can contact an interesting employer directly. It can prove useful to ask for contacts and tips from faculty and fellow students who have done an internship.

Open positions can be found for example on the Jobs-section  in JobTeaser. Read more about applying as well as the benefits and learning experiences regarding internships on How to make the most of your international internship page

When negotiating with prospective employers, remember the eligibility criteria listed above. You can find employer guidelines at the bottom of this page.

After you have found an internship placement, please provide the following materials for Aalto ARTS Internship coordinator [email protected] or [email protected].

Department Approval: Present the information regarding the internship (place of work, lenght and period of the internship, tasks, learning goals) to your professor/person responsible for internships. Agree preliminary to the amount of credits and ask for a signature to the form.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the Approval document.

Work Contract: You are expected to devise a written contract with the internship organisation. Learn about writing a contract from Employment contract -page on JoBTeaser.

Contract on funding of the internship: Once you have provided the necessary documents (work contract & department approval) to Learning Services, a written contract between Learning Services and the employer regarding the funding is devised by Career Services. You are not required to sign this document. Learning Services devises and sends the document for your employer to sign. Two copies of this contract are made, one for each party.

Throughout the entire internship, your employer pays your salary. You are considered as an employee of the organization/company/government and abide to all current the rights and responsibilities as well as rules and responsibilities of a regular employee. It is apt to compare an internship to a summer job. Remember to provide a tax card for your employer in the beginning of the internship.

The employer is entitled to bill for the support from the university after the internship. Even though the student receives the voucher, it is the employer who receives the support to compensate for hiring the student (check further instructions from the Employer guide above).

After the internship:

• Fill out an internship report
• Check whether your department requires a separate report
• Provide a work certificate for Learning Services

• The internship has to be included in your degree. Once you have filled out a report, Learning Services will send it to your department.