Mode of assessment
At least two months of uninterrupted training in a workplace approved by the Departmental amanuensis. A written report of three pages and a copy of a letter of reference need to be submitted to the amanuensis.
Degree Students of Political Science at Helsinki University are eligible for applying Internship Grants. From 2009 onwards, the grants are allocated by the Faculty of Social Sciences. The Faculty selects more than 100 students each year for University-supported traineeship.
In practice, a University-supported traineeship means financial support for two (2) months of practical training for which the trainee’s employer invoices the University. The trainee’s employer may be a private business (Finnish or foreign), an organisation, a municipality or the State. The application period for traineeship support takes place once a year.
As of 2010, all traineeship applications must be submitted to the Faculty, which will select the trainees. The students receiving traineeship support will agree on the traineeship placements with the traineeship contact person of their discipline. Applications can be submitted from 1 December to 20 December 2009 using an electronic form accessible on the Faculty website from the beginning of the application period.
Application criteria
1. Applicants must have completed their Bachelor’s degree by the end of the application period. If a student is pursuing Master’s studies but has not yet completed a Bachelor’s degree, he or she may be considered eligible to apply if there are valid reasons.
2. Applicants cannot have previously completed a University-supported traineeship (including an Erasmus traineeship) or other practical training which the Faculty of Social Sciences has entered in the Student Register as completed.
3. Applicants must be registered as attending students in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki and cannot have completed a Bachelor’s degree in the Swedish School of Social Science.
Selection procedure
The Faculty will select the supported trainees by drawing lots between the applicants who meet the application criteria. The Faculty will allocate the available months of traineeship support to each discipline in relation to the number of applicants meeting the criteria.
The recipients of traineeship support and the applicants placed on the reserve list will be informed of the Faculty’s selection decision by mid-January 2010.
Traineeship agreement
Recipients of traineeship support in 2010 must commit to concluding a traineeship agreement between the employer and the department as well as to concluding a work contract with the employer by 30 April 2010 or they will lose the traineeship support, which will then be reallocated to an applicant on the reserve list. If a recipient of traineeship support has not concluded a traineeship agreement by the above deadline but intends to do so later in the year, he or she must submit a reasoned written report to the discipline’s traineeship contact person about when and where he or she will complete the traineeship.
Selection from the reserve list
Applicants placed on the reserve list will be notified by mid-May 2010 if they have received traineeship support due to a cancellation. Those selected from the reserve list to receive traineeship support must conclude a traineeship agreement or submit a written plan concerning the use of the traineeship support to the discipline’s traineeship contact person by 30 September 2010 (see “Traineeship agreement”).
Finding a traineeship placement and concluding a traineeship agreement
Students themselves must find their traineeship placements, which must then be approved by the discipline’s traineeship contact person. The students must also agree on the nature of their employment relationship with the employer: in the public sector, students can be employed in either a public-service employment relationship or a contractual employment relationship. In the private sector, a work contract must always be concluded.
Students selected for the traineeship support system will be separately informed of the conclusion of a traineeship invoicing agreement between the employer and the University.
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