Vacancies and internships in early childhood education
Espoo’s early childhood education staff are competent, innovative and motivated and foster a strong sense of community. Come and work with children in Espoo!
Whether you are an experienced professional, interested in advancing your career or planning a career change, we value all kinds of knowledge and skills. We also offer internships for students. Espoo’s early childhood education is full of opportunities!
Early childhood education jobs for experienced professionals and newcomers
Are you looking for an interesting and meaningful job? Join us in Espoo’s early childhood education. We offer rewarding and varied jobs with children, wonderful colleagues and supportive workplace communities. Espoo’s early childhood education units offer a variety of opportunities from permanent jobs to temporary positions.
We also offer internships that give students an opportunity to learn more in a stimulating environment. Recent graduates often want to start their career in a familiar place where they worked as interns.
Espoo’s Finnish Early Childhood Education Unit includes municipal day care centres, group family day care centres, family day care providers, clubs and residents’ parks. In addition, we have round-the-clock day care centres where you can work shifts. Mobile substitute childcarers also have an interesting job. They get to work at different day care centres in their area, and every work day is different.
Day care centre assistants also play a key role in ensuring that daily activities with children are carried out smoothly.
Espoo supports employees’ competence development
Whether you are an experienced professional or just starting your career, you will develop and learn something new every day in our units. We also welcome career changers. We give all our employees the required training and familiarise them with their duties. We also offer the opportunity to become a qualified childcarer by obtaining, for example, the qualification of a children’s instructor through an apprenticeship. We will support your competence development and enable studying for a qualification or a degree while also working.
We encourage our employees to obtain qualifications, for example a Bachelor of Social Services degree in the field of early childhood education or a Master of Arts degree in education. We offer grants to help our employees cover their fees when attending basic studies in education. Four-month paid study leave is available to those studying to become an early childhood education teacher, special education teacher or bachelor in social services (varhaiskasvatuksen sosionomi).
In Espoo, we offer our early childhood education employees a wide range of courses and other training events. Our training calendar is full of interesting and inspiring options, and our practical training events are very popular among our employees. You can attend one-off training events to get the latest information and to learn useful skills, for example, related to digital pedagogy, environmental and physical education, children’s need for support or first aid.
If Finnish is not your native language, you can study vocabulary related to early childhood education. We offer our employees an opportunity to attend work-related Finnish language courses during working hours. Our units also have language and cultural teachers. We believe that language skills and diversity are an asset in our workplaces.
We also offer good employee benefits. In your free time, you can use the Epassi application to pay for sports or cultural activities, for example. We also offer commuting and lunch benefits. In addition, city employees can visit city-owned swimming pools free of charge. Discount tickets for cultural and sports events are also often available to city employees.
Multi-professional workplace community and cooperation are an asset
We care about our employees’ wellbeing, views and opinions. As a member of our work community, you can help make your workplace more pleasant and influence its culture and practices. We value all our employees.
We are interested in new points of view, or perhaps you have special skills or knowledge that you could share with an enthusiastic group of children.
We are a reliable professional organisation and highly respected by Espoo residents. Our activities are always based on the needs of children and their families and the latest educational research.
Our early childhood education staff and partner network address issues related to children’s growth, learning and support through multi-professional cooperation. We also cooperate with other parties.
Our units have carried out wonderful projects in different fields, such as music, physical activity and digital skills. You can read more about some of them here. The City of Espoo also has a mentoring programme for early childhood education teachers, which supports you in learning new things and dealing with professional matters.
The text continues below the photo.
Vacancies
Are you interested in an early childhood education job in Espoo? Come and work with us! Check out our substitute positions for the summer and openings for permanent jobs. Do not hesitate to contact us and ask us more about our vacancies.
You can find vacansies on the Kuntarekry website.(external link, opens in a new window)
Are you an early childhood education teacher or a Bachelor in Social Work (sosionomi) and interested in working in Espoo? You can leave your contact information here and we will contact you!(external link, opens in a new window)
The text continues below the photo.
Internships in early childhood education
Students can complete their internships and workplace training periods at our units. We also offer places for integration and language training. You can find more detailed instructions below.
Students of educational sciences at university
The University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Educational Sciences has several partner day care centres in Espoo. You can find them all below.
Students at universities of applied sciences
If you are a student at a university of applied sciences (e.g. pursuing a Bachelor of Social Services degree in the field of early childhood education, ‘varhaiskasvatuksen sosionomi’ in Finnish) and are looking for an internship place, you can contact the manager of any day care centre that takes interns. You can find the day care centres and links to their contact information below. You can also apply for an internship through the Kuntarekry website(external link, opens in a new window).(external link, opens in a new window)
Please remember that you will need to complete the communicable diseases questionnaire regarding tuberculosis before your internship. You can find the form on this page: Contact information for practical training positions > Education > Early childhood education
Students at vocational institutions
Workplace training periods related to the studies of a childcarer (‘lastenhoitaja’), practical nurse (‘lähihoitaja’) and children’s instructor (‘lastenohjaaja’) are usually coordinated directly with the schools.
If you wish to discuss an individual training period, you can contact Early Childhood Education Specialist Satu Nerg-Öhman by email (satu.nerg-ohman@espoo.fi). She coordinates cooperation between the City of Espoo’s Finnish Early Childhood Education Unit and schools.
Integration and language training
If you wish to complete your integration or language training at an early childhood education unit in Espoo, you can contact any of the municipal day care centres directly.
Please remember that you will need to complete the communicable diseases questionnaire regarding tuberculosis before your training period. You can find the form on this page: Contact information for practical training positions > Education > Early childhood education
You can find contact information for municipal day care centres here.
