Work, study or both?

Nowadays working life demands new kinds of skills from all of us. In many cases there is even a need for new profes­sional training and exam requi­re­ments. This is possible, too, for adults and there are benefits to make it feasible to learn more.

19.8.2020

If you do not have any quali­fica­tions as of yet, or would like to acquire further ones, appren­ticeship training (oppiso­pimus) is one possibility.

It is a fixed-term emplo­y­ment contract, in which an employer trains the employee. At least 80 per cent of the training takes place in the workplace and the remai­ning 20 per cent in an educa­tional insti­tu­tion. This means some 1–4 days of theore­tical studies per month, either on the spot or online.

Appren­ticeship training makes it possible to receive a salary simul­ta­neously with studies, and also earn valuable work experience. There are more than 160 quali­fica­tions to choose from by apprenticeship.

The appren­ticeship can last from a couple of weeks to 36 months: you can study for a whole degree or a portion of it. Comple­ting the upper secon­dary quali­fica­tion (ammatil­linen perus­tut­kinto) takes 2–3 years, comple­ting the vocational and specia­list vocational quali­fica­tion (ammatti- ja erikoi­sam­mat­ti­tut­kinto) 1–1.5 years.

During an appren­ticeship, you are an employee and get a salary in line with the collec­tive agree­ment. There are even some social benefits, like per diem (daily allowance) and travel compen­sa­tions, paid by the educa­tional insti­tu­tion that organises the studies.

The Industrial Union is working hard to better training possi­bi­li­ties. Shop stewards see that students are treated well and the Union collec­tive agree­ments support those who are guiding students at work.

More info on www.oppisopimus.fi/en

SUPPORT FOR FULL TIME STUDIES

Those with at least eight years of emplo­y­ment history can receive an adult educa­tion allowance (aikuis­kou­lu­tus­tuki) for full-time studies. This requires an unpaid leave for at least two months and a maximum of 15 months studies in a Finnish public educa­tion system. The studies can, however, be organised flexibly and do cover various forms of studies.

The other main condi­tions for eligi­bi­lity are that you live perma­nently in Finland and you are covered by Finnish social security, you have been employed by your current employer for at least one year at least 18 hours a week and you do not receive other benefits like unemplo­y­ment allowance or some type of pension.

From the begin­ning of August 2020, some minor changes will be made to the law concer­ning the adult educa­tion allowance scheme. The eligi­bi­lity criteria remain the same as before but there are some changes in the actual amount of the benefit.

If, for example, your normal salary was 2,500 euro in a month and you earn a maximum of 250 euro in a month during the studies, the monthly benefit is 1,352.32 euro. With the same normal salary, but with earnings of 1,000 euro a month during studies the benefit will be 853.32 euro a month.

The scheme is run by the state Emplo­y­ment Fund and their homepage www.tyollisyysrahasto.fi has compre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion in English.

TEXT HEIKKI JOKINEN