Every year, approximately 1,000 University of Helsinki students embark on a compulsory or elective traineeship as part of their studies. This means that there is certainly demand for traineeship placements!
When you recruit a student as a trainee, you will gain access to the latest research information from the University in addition to a valuable employee. Many employers go on to hire their trainees for longer contracts.
As the University offers the broadest range of education in Finland, our students are suitable for many different types of traineeship duties. Trainees can, for example, perform duties related to marketing and communications, such as social media communications, website development, content planning, content production or event communications. The trainee can also draft reports, questionnaires or other research and projects that can benefit your organisation.
Trainees must be assigned duties that enable them to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained during their studies. Primarly a traineeship is one of the first opportunities for a student to utilize the expertise gained in studies and it is important to acknowledge this in the recruitment process. The trainees duties must provide an opportunity for learning new things.
You can advertise a traineeship placement in the JobTeaser service. For more on JobTeaser, visit the Aarresaari website.
Read more:
Instructions for recruiting and supervising trainees
From trainee to permanent employee
Trainees provide workplaces fresh competence
Instructions for submitting an advert (Aarresaari.net)
More information, contact career services:
employerservices@helsinki.fi
The JobTeaser job portal provides a forum for reaching University of Helsinki students and graduates seeking employment in their field. For students, we particularly welcome adverts for summer work, part-time work that can be completed alongside studies or short-term substitute positions. Employees for more challenging tasks can be found from among our graduates.
If you are interested in hiring a University of Helsinki student for a substitute position, student organisations are a good point of contact.
Information on substitute positions and student organisations can be found here:
More information, contact career services:
employerservices@helsinki.fi
Is your organisation interested in international expertise? Approximately 2,000 international students are currently studying at the University of Helsinki. Get to know our international experts by becoming a host organisations in UNITalent or recruiting a student!
Many international students of the University of Helsinki are looking for a job or traineeship in Finland. International students have a great deal of language and cultural skills that are useful for interaction with international collaboration partners, for example.
Engaging an international student as a trainee is a good way to explore the diversity and international perspective of your organisation. It also provides the opportunity to increase the equality of your recruitment practices.
When recruiting an international expert, you should consider issues such as these:
Citizens of EU and EEA countries face no restrictions on working in Finland. Students from outside the EU and EEA can work in a full-time traineeship role as part of their studies, and work in a role unconnected to their studies for an average of 30 hours a week.
Under current legislation, after graduation international students from outside the EU can apply for a one-year residence permit for the purpose of seeking a job or starting a company.
For further information on the employment opportunities of international students in Finland, please see the website of the Finnish Immigration Service.
Does your organisation need international expertise, but you don’t know where to start looking? Meet the University of Helsinki’s young international experts through the HelsinkiUNI International Talent Programme (UNITalent) and find your trainee, summer employee or future team member.
What is the HelsinkiUNI International Talent Programme?
More information, contact career services:
employerservices@helsinki.fi
Are you looking for summer employees, trainees, or future experts for trainee programs? The Career Days of the University of Helsinki offer a unique opportunity to meet students from various fields – from natural and biosciences to humanities and social sciences. These motivated and innovative students bring fresh perspectives and practical solutions. Come and share what kind of expertise you are looking for and what career opportunities you offer!
For the first time this year, it's a two-day event! You can participate either on campus or virtually – or both.
Date: Mon, January 19, 2026, 10 AM–2 PM
Location: University of Helsinki, City Centre Campus (Porthania, Language Centre)
Book a stand in the busy Porthania lobby and meet students face-to-face. During the day, job search info sessions and workshops will also be organised. Employers can also participate in CV and LinkedIn clinics to support students' job search skills. See more information on how to participate in the CV and LinkedIn clinic (instruction page).
Date: Fri, January 23, 2026, 9 AM–2 PM
Location: Virtual platform
On the virtual day, you can present career opportunities in 15-minute pitches and meet students virtually by appointment. Participation is flexible and efficient – wherever you are.
Only a limited number of organisations can join! The event is free of charge, and participation will be confirmed after the registration period ends. Please note that If there are more registrations than places at the event, we will prioritise the participation of employers based in Finland.
Registration: Register for the event using the Lyyti form by 1.12.2025.
More information and registration: Career Services – employerservices@helsinki.fi
Join us in building a shared future for students and employers!
Are you interested in increasing your visibility among University of Helsinki’s students and recent graduates? An employer profile in the JobTeaser job portal can be your 24/7 showcase!
With a JobTeaser profile, you can introduce your organisation, highlight its values and culture and advertise open positions or traineeship opportunities. You can include videos to describe your operations or add links to guide students to your own content.
Your profile doesn’t have to include everything about your organisation, you can also add links to your website.
An employer profile in the University of Helsinki’s JobTeaser service is free of charge. If you are interested in gaining visibility in several universities and institutions of higher education with the same profile, JobTeaser provides this service for a fee.
At the University of Helsinki, user numbers for JobTeaser are steadily increasing, with more than 10,000 students or alumni registered at the time of writing.
If you are interested in creating an employer profile, please contact Career Services!
We can survey the needs of your organisation and tell you more about employer profiles.
Career Services organises two HelsinkiUNI Career Day recruitment events in January each academic year for all university students. In addition to that, student organisations organise campus-specific fairs. Participate with your company in the most interesting one for your target group. In addition to the fairs, .
Kumpula’s Potential is a job and recruitment fair organised by students at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Science which has been held since 2017. Kumpula’s Potential has been a success for both the students and corporate exhibitors.
According to feedback from corporate exhibitors, 95% thought the event was at least worth the cost, and one in four thought that the event provided excellent value for money.
Date: 7 November, 2024
Target group: students of natural sciences, mathematics and statistics, and computer science
ViikkiAreena is a job fair organised by the subject-specific student organisations of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry to give students and the University community at large a clearer and broader view of companies’ operations while presenting the latest trends and career opportunities in relevant fields.
For companies, ViikkiAreena is an opportunity to heighten their profile as an attractive employer, meet the professionals of the future and hear about the latest developments in the field at the University.
ViikkiAreena features topical themes and improves students’ career skills as part of their studies.
Date: November
Target group: students of agriculture and forestry as well as food science
For the date of the next fair and further information, see the website of ViikkiAreena
The Future Geo-expert is an annual career event jointly organized by the Bachelor's Program in Geosciences and the Master's Program in Geology and Geophysics at the University of Helsinki. It brings together students, employers, alumni, and faculty from the field of geosciences. The event provides companies with the opportunity to gain a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of the skills produced by the studies, while the university community updates its knowledge on the latest trends and career opportunities in the job market. The Future Geo-expert event in January is a pathway not only to summer jobs but also to longer-term employment relationships.
Date: Annually at the end of January, next on Thu 29.1.2026
Target group: Students of geosciences, geology, and geophysics, and employers in the field
You can subscribe to the event's mailing list at:mia.kotilainen(at)helsinki.fi
The latest program and registration link will be updated on the event's website at the end of the year.
The social sciences job fair brings together students, alumni, experts, researchers and employers in the field of social sciences.
Participating in the job fair will give you a comprehensive, up-to-date understanding of the role social science graduates will have in the professional life of the future.
Date: November (will not be held in 2024)
Target group: students of the Faculty of Social Sciences
As a university, we work in close collaboration with business and society to help solve real world problems with innovative, practical solutions.
As part of this mission, organisations can propose a Master’s Thesis about a topic or problem of your choice. Research and survey projects are excellent opportunities for commissioning a master’s thesis. For the student, the master’s thesis demonstrates their learning and forms a coherent whole with a set research question, goal, scope and schedule.
Thesis cooperation is available in all of the University’s fields of education and partners can be found from a wide variety of employer sectors.
As an organisation, you can advertise a topic for a commissioned master’s thesis on JobTeaser. Students will contact you directly if they are interested in the topic and it suits their studies. The student will arrange approval from the degree programme for both the thesis topic and the commission.
Note! The University of Helsinki has different practices for doing a commissioned Master's thesis. Career Services is currently exploring these practices, meaning the guidelines are under construction.The university may also be a party to the agreement.
The University of Helsinki does not have a system for deeds of donation or a foundation that could fund a commissioned master’s thesis.
Instructions for posting an advertisement can be found on the Aarresaari website.
More information, contact career services:
employerservices@helsinki.fi
Gradumakery is a new programme at the University of Helsinki that facilitates the commissioning of theses. Gradumakery is a facilitated process during which an idea provided by a business will be refined into a research topic of academic interest, which will be turned into a master’s thesis in six months.
At Gradumakery, we will reshape the partner’s idea into a suitable thesis topic by sparring on it together with the partner and an academic supervisor in the field. We will market the topic extensively to the desired degree programme students and identify a suitable candidate on behalf of the partner. In addition, we will organise three planned meetings between the writer of the thesis and the partner organisation. Once the thesis is completed, we will organise a presentation session on the results of the thesis for the partner to make the results immediately available for use.
The aim has been to make the process as easy as possible for the partner, requiring no substantial investment of time. From the partner, the collaboration requires a single contact person to serve as the thesis writer’s mentor during the process. The contact person will attend a sparring meeting focused on the research topic, three or four meetings with the thesis writer, depending on the topic, and a session for presenting the thesis. The student takes part in the master’s thesis seminar of their degree programme as usual, while the University remains responsible for thesis supervision.
Gradumakery brings our multidisciplinary student community within reach, raising your profile among the desired student groups. Through thesis collaboration, your organisation will effortlessly gain access to the latest research-based knowledge and the opportunity to put theory into practice.
Further information and contact:
business@helsinki.fi
The HELSUS Co-Creation Lab offers a facilitated co-creation process, during which the students complete their master’s thesis based on sustainability challenges presented by our business partners. Each sustainability challenge is explored transdisciplinarily by students from different fields.
During the Co-Creation Lab, students respond to the sustainability challenge presented by the partner and write their master’s thesis on a topic to be specified during the process. Networking and accumulating experience constitute an essential part of the process, over the course of which we bring together genuine sustainability challenges and experts of the future.
The first Co-Creation Lab was organised in the 2019–2020 academic year. The theme was the circular economy, with UPM-Kymmene Corporation, Valio, Outotec and the Ministry of the Environment as partners. The 2022–2023 HELSUS Co-Creation Lab involves Helen, Valmet, Metsä Group and Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY.
Further information and contact:
business@helsinki.fi
Helsinki Think Company is a community of academic entrepreneurship at the University of Helsinki that particularly supports students, researchers and entrepreneurs in developing their competencies. Think Company provides coaching and helps find networks through which academic skills can be put into practice by entrepreneurs and other parties involved in professional life, or in the context of broader societal problem-solving.
Helsinki Think Company has co-working facilities on all four campuses of the University of Helsinki. In addition to facilities, Think Company provides a diverse range of transdisciplinary workshops, events, challenge competitions and programmes that transcend campus and organisational boundaries. In fact, Think Company has accumulated expertise in co-creation, facilitation, workshop planning, presentation coaching, support for teamwork and brainstorming, project planning, service design and event production since 2013.
Alongside facilities and events, at the heart of Think Company operations lies a community focused on societal change and entrepreneurship, constituting a network that encompasses students, researchers, alumni, collaboration partners, entrepreneurs, higher education institutions and the Finnish innovation ecosystem. Think Company reaches its target group extensively through facilities, content, the community and various communication channels.
Business and collaboration partners involved in operations
As a service, Think Company carries out programmes based on co-creation built on various goals in cooperation with business and organisational partners. Through a range of brainstorming and challenge programmes and competitions, partners can, for example, seek solutions to problems together with students and researchers, polish their employer image, bring various parties together to solve shared challenges or draw out solvers and solution ideas from within their own organisation.
Helsinki Think Company specialises in broad-based and impactful challenges related to society and the environment, building successful programme entities with various businesses, organisations and public operators. Think Company’s partners include Fazer, Kone, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Roche, Pohjolan Voima, the University of the Arts Helsinki, Aalto University, the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, the Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Natural Resources Institute Finland, E2, the National Library of Finland, CSC – IT Center for Science, the Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (Vikes), the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council, the Finnish Refugee Council and the Ministry of Finance.
In addition to broader programme entities, Think Company offers facilitation and planning for individual workshops and workshop modules. The themes are designed together with the client to meet current needs, including problem-solving, the planning of collaboration, the development of teamwork, entrepreneurial skills, project planning, brainstorming, pitching, and intergenerational challenges in professional life.
Further information and contact:
Think Company’s core team can be reached at https://www.thinkcompany.fi/contact-us. By contacting us, you can request further information or arrange a meeting to discuss your ideas and hopes for potential collaboration. Each partnership is planned together with the partner and priced flexibly.
Course projects completed by students of computer science offer a unique opportunity to create software, build prototypes and solve digital challenges together with a team of five to seven students. Supervised by the University, these projects progress agilely, utilising the Scrum and XP methods.
Businesses, organisations, research institutes and University of Helsinki units
Project periods in May, August and December.
A support fee of €3,000 (+VAT) for businesses. Free of charge for organisations, research institutes and University units
You can also directly contact the University of Helsinki’s faculty- and subject-specific associations. Many of them are actively looking for business collaboration partners for activities such as excursions. They can also help you find the talent most relevant to your business. Some of the associations charge a fee for advertising events or employment opportunities.
Further information and contact:
A list of the University’s faculty- and subject-specific student associations is available on the website of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki.
Fiskars Group considers the UNITalent programme important for diversity, inclusion, and innovation
Reaching students is of utmost importance to Natural Resources Institute Finland as an employer
UNITalent programme provides Otava Learning with tools for diversifying its work community
Corporate cooperation integrated into teaching is a win-win-win
Contact Career Services - let's look at your organisation's wishes and needs together and think about the right ways to work together with your students.
Contact us: employerservices@helsinki.fi