Career

The interdisciplinary Master’s Programme in Environmental Change and Global Sustainability (ECGS) provides you with a unique education which is widely applicable for a future career path. ECGS has a multidisciplinary learning community from a wide range of sciences, accommodating students in a multicultural network with excellent career prospects.

Employment opportunities for graduates

Upon graduating from ECGS you will have sufficient expertise in environmental sciences, sustainability sciences and environmental policy to act as a specialist in the public, private and third sectors. You will have gained essential skills to undertake a career in sustainable business and communication.

For example some potential careers include:

sustainability and responsibility coordinator at an educational institute
disaster risk management officer in an NGO
environmental expert at a business lobbying organization
climate and energy specialist for a large city
environmental freelance consultant
political advisor at the European Parliament and environmental educator in an NGO

Alumni and student stories

Are you interested in the experiences of our alumni about studying the different topics and themes and how their studies apply to professional life?

Meet students, graduates and staff of the Master's Programme in Environmental Change and Global Sustainability (ECGS) and learn what they think about the programme, studies and life in Helsinki.

"It doesn’t matter if you work for the government, a municipality or a company, decisions related to sustainable development need to be based on research results and reports. The programme provides excellent prerequisites to apply knowledge.”

Group mentoring programme: UNITalent

Do you want to build a career in Finland? Get valuable insight into Finnish working life and build your professional networks by applying to our group mentoring programme.

In the HelsinkiUNI International Talent Programme (UNITalent), a group of international talents is hosted by a local company or organisation.

Successful applicants will get to:

learn about expert work first-hand from a local organisation.
hear about different kinds of career paths in a specific sector in Finland.
start building their professional network in Finland.
support the host in gaining an international perspective by sharing their perspective.
learn career management skills.

International master’s degree students at the University of Helsinki can apply as well as Finnish students who have completed their degree abroad.

Career services

Studies are part of your career. The Career Services at the University of Helsinki, in cooperation with degree programmes, supports the growth of your expert identity as part of your studies and with separate services. From the start of your studies until one year after the completion of your degree, Career Services supports your career path and

gives career counselling and job seeking support,
arranges info sessions, workshops and events,
provides suitable job and traineeship offers for students,
shares university’s subsidy for traineeships and
facilitates group mentoring programmes.

Doctoral education

The ECGS Master's Programme prepares you to advance to doctoral level studies and thereafter positions in environment-related research.

Upon completion of your Master’s degree, you will be eligible to apply for doctoral studies in the University of Helsinki and other leading international research institutions. Examples of suitable doctoral programmes at the University of Helsinki include:

Improve your career options with Finnish

Although international students can get by with English in the Helsinki region, learning Finnish will significantly improve your career options after graduation.

The University of Helsinki offers free Finnish language courses for enrolled international degree students. The beginners and intermediate level courses are not only a way to learn the language, but you also learn more about Finnish culture and get to network with other international students across the fields.

Where students work after graduation?

The University of Helsinki conducts career monitoring surveys to collect information on graduate employment and the skills needs of employers. The aim of career monitoring is to determine how well university education is able to meet the requirements of professional life. The data collected are used, among other things, for developing the career skills of current students.

According to the surveys, general skills gained from the studies include :

the ability to describe their skills (this had been the most important factor for their employment)
the ability to learn and adopt new things as well as self-direction/initiative
cooperation skills
problem-solving skills and stress tolerance.

International experience, organisational work or hobbies, and social media activity have been important or highly important for the employment of some respondents, even though these factors don’t stand out at the University level"

Alumni of the University of Helsinki

After graduation, the world is wide open and full of possibilities. How can you venture forward to make the career path you want? What kind of work would you like to do? What kind of life should you lead? The Helsinki alumni community is there to support you as you transition from the University to the world of work.

All previous University of Helsinki degree and exchange students, as well as staff, are our alumni. As a member of the University of Helsinki alumni network, Finland’s largest network of experts, you get valuable support, knowledge and contacts for your working life.

More about the programme