International Experience

Erasmus+ programme offers you the opportunity to study part of your teacher education studies or your teaching practise abroad. The minimum length of the exchange is three months. In practical training exchange the minimum duration is two months (60 days). The minimum number of credits accumulated must be 5 credits/month.

Erasmus+ exchange takes place in a OUAS partner institution. You do not have to pay any tuition fees in the exchange university. You will receive an exchange allowance which is between 310€ and 360€ depending on the destination country. In addition, a student with family can receive an additional 200€ grant, if s/he has an underaged child.

In addition to the above-mentioned support, a student going to an Erasmus traineeship is paid an additional 100€/month.

NB: When going out for a practical traineeship you can get EITHER the 100€/month additional support OR the 200€/month additional family support. You cannot get both.

For more information

The web site of Finnish National Agency for Education and European Commision offer more information. You can also contact the international office

As a student of School of Professional Teacher Education you can also study shorter, minimum of two weeks periods abroad. You can choose your study destination your self. To get financal support for your short term international experience you need to provide a study plan suitable to the teacher studies curriculum or you can do part of your teaching practice. The minumum number of credits accumulated has to be 1,25 ECTS per week.

Teaching practice (from 2 weeks to less than 2 months)

For teaching practice abroad you can receive a financial support of €150 per week in Europe. Outside Europe, support is €200 per week. The required minimum number of credits is 3 ECTS per month (1,5 cr / 2 weeks).

Other teacher education studies (from 2 weeks to less than 3 months)

It is possible to receive financial support for teacher education studies abroad depending on the destination. In Europe, the grant is €150 per week. Outside Europe it is €200 per week. Please take into account that the maximum grant for short-term exchanges in Europe is €800, and outside Europe, it is €1,000. 

In all short-term study exchanges, the required minimum number of credits is at least 2 ECTS per week, 5 ECTS per month.  

1. Consider whether you want to go abroad for teacher education studies or teaching practise (teaching and/or observing teaching)

2. Carefully study the information on exchange opportunities of OUAS on the web.

3. Check out the different exchange destinations in the OUAS exchange search engine.

You can begin by looking up the international exchange partners on OUAS or other destinations which you find relevant and useful for you. The exchage destination cen be a partner institution of the School of Professional Teacher Education or some other suitable intstitution. As a student of the School of Professional Teacher Educationyou can also consider the exchange destinations of Oulu Vocational College.

4. After having considered the potential exchange destinations plan and find out:
- timing of your exchange
- the exchange destination you are interested in
- the study modules/courses you are interested in and the contact information of the teachers responsible for those courses in the exchange institution

5. After you have done the above listed, please contact the international coordinator of School of Professional Teacher Education, Esa Virkkula (), who will guide you to your next steps.