Finnish National Agency for Education

The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI)’s core tasks are to develop education and training, early childhood education and lifelong learning and to promote internationalization in Finland. In Finland, the national administration of education and training has a two-tier structure. The Ministry of Education and Culture is the highest authority and is responsible for all publicly funded education in Finland. The Ministry is responsible for preparing educational legislation, all necessary decisions and its share of the state budget for the Government. The Finnish National Agency for Education EDUFI is the national development agency responsible for early childhood education and care, pre-primary, basic, general and vocational upper secondary education as well as for adult education and training. Higher education is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture. EDUFI acts as the National Agency for Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps and Nordplus programmes taking care of the implementation of the programmes in Finland. In addition, EDUFI hosts several national programmes that promote and provide funding for internationalization.

In the Skills Alliance for Ukraine, EDUFI is represented with two projects:

• The Finnish Government’s Continued Support to Development of Ukrainian Vocational Education and Training (VET) 2024-2026: Bridge2Skills project, which seeks to enhance the institutional capacities in VET management, teaching and training including inclusive VET, as well as by support the quality of VET provision in Ukraine. The outcome of the project will improve the capacities of VET institutions, managers, teachers and trainers to deliver innovative, green, and digitally competent VET that meets the current and future needs of Ukraine’s labour market, aligned with national reform objectives and European VET policy priorities and recommendations. Specifically, the outcomes are improved institutional capacities of participating institutions in VET with new VET processes, programmes and collaborations, as well as improved capacities of VET managers and teachers in modern and future-oriented VET delivery; and

• Team Finland Knowledge Programme, a separate call for cooperation with Ukraine, which promotes cooperation between Finnish and Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions to support Ukraine with the development and rebuilding of its higher education.

As of May 2025, 120 people have been trained under the Bridge2Skills project in the Ternopil, Volyn and Kiev regions. Through the Team Finland Knowledge Programme, 44 beneficiaries have been trained.