Career

A degree in forestry offers extensive and fairly unique professional competence on a global scale on forest and peatland ecosystems, forest management and use, forest conservation, the business economics and policies of forest bioeconomy as well as the collection, management and use of forest-related information.

Graduates also have strong scientific expertise and professional skills for doctoral studies. Several of our graduates have indeed continued with PhD studies either at the University of Helsinki or elsewhere.

Career services

Studies are part of your career. At the University of Helsinki, all degrees include career planning. 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, the Career Services supports your career path.

Career Services  

  • 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.

Check out the Career Services on the Instructions for students “Work and Career” and “Traineeships”. 

Career prospects

Masters in Forest Sciences are working across the forestry and natural resources sectors as experts, managers, and decision-makers in international and domestic companies, municipal and state administration and research. The degree of Master of Science (Agriculture and Forestry) also provides the ability to work in positions outside the field of forestry.

Graduates from Forest Ecology and Management have found employment in the fields of forestry, nature conservation, and environmental science both nationally and internationally. Our education offers transferable skills for many fields in society. The work can include research, management and consulting using measured and modelled information on forest resources, carbon balances, biodiversity and climate change.

Graduates from Forest Economics and Marketing typically find employment as experts in organizations where environmental and economic issues are combined, such as industry marketing and management, research and consulting, as well as in the public sector in national or international levels. 

Although employment opportunities are available across the globe, one should not overlook the possibility to work in Finland upon completion of studies.

Improve your career options with Finnish

Although it is easy for international students to 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.

Information about the Finnish courses for international students in the Instructions for students.

Doctoral Education

Upon graduating from the Master’s Programme in Forest Sciences you will be eligible for doctoral education in Finland or abroad. A doctoral degree, which takes about four years to complete, opens doors to academic careers at universities and research institutes as well as to professions requiring a doctoral degree.

University of Helsinki has four doctoral schools with a total of 33 doctoral programmes. Suitable doctoral programmes for graduates of the Master's Programme in Forest Sciences are, for example:

More information about doctoral education at the University of Helsinki.

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 information about the Helsinki alumni community and its activities.

Find alumni of the University of Helsinki on Linkedin.

More about the programme