When and how to apply for a trainee position?

Trainee positions are generally published in January–February at valtiolle.fi and at Aarresaari , the service for academic recruitment.

Where do I find out more about the practical trainee arrangements?

Ask your educational institution’s recruitment service or the student affairs unit for details. If you have any questions about the content of the trainee period itself, the postings will also always include the details of the Ministry’s contact person

What is the Ministry’s policy for flexible working hours?

Flexible working hours allow us to consider our personnel’s varying life situations. They have access to part-time parental leave, study leave, and part-time pension, among others.

What is the Ministry’s remote work policy?

The Ministry allows for part-time remote work in accordance with the hybrid work policy, depending on the nature of the task. Personnel are expected to work in-office for at least 40% of the time.

What kinds of holiday will I get at the Ministry?

Government personnel have better than average holiday benefits. Your annual holiday entitlement will depend on the length of your central government service.

How is my salary determined at the Ministry?

Salaries are determined based on the nature of the task and through individual performance. The Ministry has allocated its tasks to eleven categories, based on the demands of the task. The category and its expected monetary salary are stated in the posting.

How does the Ministry assess individual performance?

The Ministry also pays a personal pay component, which is based on individual performance, at no more than 50 per cent of the task-specific salary. The first performance assessment takes place within six months after a service relationship begins, after which assessments take place annually in development discussions with a supervisor.

Open positions and the Ministry as a workplace

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health provides positions for experts with a direct impact on how Finnish society functions and on the well-being of the people of Finland. On this page, you can see our open positions and traineeships, as well as learn about what it’s like to work at the Ministry. It also contains information about our working conditions and hours, pay, and the work community.

Open positions at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health are published at Valtiolle.fi, the gateway to state employment. If you don’t find a position that suits you, you can create a job alert for open positions at the Ministry. Detailed application instructions will be available in the postings.

Open positions

Applying to work at the Ministry

check out the open positions at Valtiolle.fi
carefully read the description, qualification requirements and other expectations for the position
submit your electronic application by the deadline
follow the instructions in the posting to keep up with the recruitment process

Trainee positions at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

Every year, the Ministry provides trainee positions to several higher education students.

Generally, students at a university enter a three-month trainee period, and students at universities of applied sciences enter five-month trainee periods.

Traineeships

You can find our traineeships at Valtiolle.fi and on this page.

Academic recruitment service website:

Aarresaari.net

State employment:

Valtiolle.fi

The Ministry as a workplace

Your work at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is important to society and will impact the daily lives of everyone who lives in Finland. You will work with us to build a socially sustainable Finland, where well-being is accessible to everyone. We will encourage you to improve your know-how and support you in finding a good work-life balance.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is a part of the Government. Our core tasks include legislative preparation, development of the sector, and implementation of the Government Programme. The objective of our activities is to provide everyone with equal opportunity for a safe and healthy life.

The Ministry is a workplace for highly skilled, professional and motivated personnel. As an organisation, we are proactive, well-managed, and focused on our core tasks. Our operation is based on transparency and cooperation.

The Ministry’s main office is in Helsinki. The Tampere office focuses on occupational safety.

What kinds of positions are there at the Ministry?

The Ministry features a variety of expert and assistive positions. Many of the positions include legislative preparation.

These positions require knowledge in social and health policy, social and private insurance, occupational safety and equality, among other things, and many of them also require legal expertise.

The Ministry also employs secretarial and administration experts. Work here requires good interaction skills and a proactive approach to work. To support your work, we have an excellent work community which, according to personnel feedback, is fair and encouraging.

How does the Ministry support the development of its personnel?

Every new employee receives an onboarding plan, and the Ministry also holds its own orientation course.

We support the development and training of our personnel to meet the demands of their tasks. Based on surveys, our personnel value the good opportunities to develop their competence.

I get to have a say and see the workings of the Ministry from within. I feel like this is ‘where things happen.’

Personnel feedback

Service relationship, working hours, pay, and general collective agreements

Service relationship at the Ministry

At the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, everyone works in a civil servant relationship. These positions follow the state’s legislation on civil service and the general collective agreements for government.

Over 70 per cent of Ministry personnel work here on a permanent basis. Many of them build long careers here.

Working hours, flexi-time and pay

At the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, regular working hours are 7 hours and 15 minutes per day. We also use the Ministries’ shared flexi-time system (weekly working hours are 36 hours and 15 minutes).

The Ministry also pays a personal pay component, which is based on individual performance, at no more than 50 per cent of the task-specific salary. The first performance assessment takes place within six months after a service relationship begins, after which assessments take place annually in development discussions with a supervisor.

VES/TES documents are supplementary collective agreement documents specific to individual agencies, institutions and administrative branches.

The current agreement documents of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, including their appendices, are available as PDF files via the links below.

The documents may not be published without permission from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Contracting parties: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, JUKO ry, Pardia ry, JHL ry

Date of signature: 26 October 2004 (amended as of 1 June 2005, 1 December 2009, 1 March 2011 and 1 March 2012)

Validity: 26 October 2004–28 February 2025

Contracting parties: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, JUKO ry, Pardia ry, JHL ry

Date of signature: 12 January 2024

Validity: 12 January 2024–28 February 2025

Well-being at work and the work community

The Ministry supports well-being at work

At the Ministry, we support well-being at work in various ways. We provide high-quality occupational health services and support preventive measures through various measures, such as by paying attention to workstation ergonomics.
We support your well-being with a sports, culture and massage benefit. The Ministry's facilities feature a personnel gym. At the Helsinki and Tampere offices, our personnel get a lunch discount.

The Ministry cares for its personnel. They provide support for difficult life situations.

Personnel feedback

Better together

Our new personnel strategy, Better Together 2023–2028, highlights cooperation and community throughout the Ministry.

Better together: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health personnel strategy 2023–2028

Flexible employer, allows for a good work-life balance and provides good opportunities for education and development.

Personnel feedback

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health as a work community

Ministry personnel are happy with their work and the workplace atmosphere

Based on personnel surveys, Ministry personnel are very happy with their work and the challenges it provides, the workplace atmosphere and its cooperative nature. The personnel also consider work at the Ministry to be secure. Nearly 90 per cent of the Ministry’s civil servants take part in personnel training.

Ministry personnel are highly educated

A majority of Ministry personnel has a post-secondary degree, and two thirds have completed a post-graduate degree. The most common disciplines are law, social sciences, medicine and health sciences, and the arts. Personnel in assistive tasks often have a basic business degree, a bachelor-level degree in business administration, or a vocational degree in business administration.

The Ministry employs people from a wide age bracket

The Ministry employs roughly 470 people, almost 80 per cent of them women. Of the employees, 16 per cent have a temporary contract without an associated civil service post. The temporary personnel are substitutes and project workers. Average age of the personnel is 48 years old.

Our work community values equality and non-discrimination, and we hope to be interesting to applicants of all ages and backgrounds.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health operates under the principles of a safer space. These principles describe common practices and approaches that aim to make a space psychosocially as safe as possible for all members of a community. This also includes virtual spaces in addition to the physical workspace.

The safer space principles of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health are as follows:

We treat each other well

We behave appropriately and respectfully towards one another.
We show appreciation for each other’s work and know-how.

We promote the equality of all people through our actions

We accept that everybody is different. We do not make assumptions based on gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity, native language, religion, disability, health or other factors.
We are willing to learn from other’s experiences.
We use respectful and appropriate language when talking about individuals and groups.

We take responsibility for a good working atmosphere and our own behaviour

We communicate politely.
We give feedback in an appropriate and respectful manner.
We address any inappropriate behaviour we observe.

We guide and manage responsibly

We set an example through our own behaviour when acting as chairs, team leaders, supervisors, facilitators and in other positions of responsibility.
As supervisors, we intervene immediately in any inappropriate conduct we observe.

The benefits of a safer workplace include:

Everyone’s ideas can be put to use.
Job satisfaction and wellbeing at work improve.
If we get things wrong, we put them right.
Cooperation is smoother.

The principles of a safer space are intended to apply throughout the work carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. We hope that everyone taking part in our activities will commit to these principles.