Studies and services promoting employment

Notify the TE Office of your studies. If the TE Office considers that you are studying full-time, you cannot receive a daily allowance from an unemployment fund. On the other hand, you can apply for a daily allowance if you participate in a service promoting employment or study part-time during your unemployment.

You can inquire about other benefits during your studies by contacting Kela, and you can find more information about studying during unemployment on the TE Office's website.

The TE Office assesses the part-time nature of the studies and issues a statement about it. During part-time studies, you can apply for a daily allowance, as they do not prevent you from accepting full-time employment. Contact the TE Office well in advance of your studies.

If you are studying part-time, also enter "unemployed" in the daily statement of the application under the study dates. During part-time studies, you are not entitled to an increased daily allowance or reimbursement of expenses, as is the case during services promoting employment.

You can study and receive a daily allowance for half a year if you are at least 25 years old and your studies provide professional skills or support your business activities. If, on the other hand, your studies have been interrupted earlier and at least a year has elapsed since the interruption, you can apply for a daily allowance for six months to complete your studies.

During short-term studies, you are still obliged to seek and accept employment and participate in employment-promoting services, if they are offered to you. The TE Office issues a statement on short-term studies. Contact the TE Office well in advance of your studies.

You can study during unemployment or a lay-off and receive an earnings-related daily allowance when you have agreed on your studies with the TE Office. All studies during unemployment must be agreed on with the TE Office before starting the studies. For the duration of the employment-promoting services agreed with the TE Office, you may be paid an earnings-related daily allowance. The daily allowance days that are paid accrue the maximum period of an earnings-related daily allowance. Some of the services promoting employment are:

• labour market training
• independent studies
• coaching for job-seeking
• work trial
• career coaching.

You can receive a daily allowance for the duration of services promoting employment, even if you are not entitled to it due to the waiting period or the cooling-off period applied by the TE Office. In addition to the daily allowance, expenses are reimbursed for travel and maintenance costs for the duration of some services promoting employment.On the other hand, other restrictions related to the payment of a daily allowance are also applicable during services promoting employment. Read more about services promoting employment on the TE Office's website.

Increased daily allowance for services promoting employment

For the duration of employment-promoting services, you will be paid an increased daily allowance for a maximum of 200 days. If your employment condition is met again, you may also be again paid the complete increased earnings-related part.

The amount of the increased earnings-related part is 55 per cent of the difference between the daily wage and the basic amount of an earnings-related daily allowance. The basic amount of an earnings-related daily allowance is the same as the amountof Kela's basic unemployment allowance.

If your monthly salary exceeds 3,534.95 euros, the increased earnings component is 25 per cent for the part exceeding this limit.

The increased earnings-related daily allowance, including child increase, may not exceed the amount of your daily wage used to calculate your daily allowance. However, it is at least equal to the basic unemployment allowance plus the child increase.

Reimbursement of expenses

For the duration of services promoting employment, you can receive reimbursement of expenses to compensate for travel and maintenance costs. The reimbursement of expenses is 9 euros per day and is tax-free income.

The reimbursement of expenses is paid for the days of participation in the service promoting employment, but no more than five days per week. You cannot receive reimbursement of expenses for holiday periods during training, or for days of absence. No reimbursement of expenses is paid for the duration of independent studies.

The increased expense allowance is 18 euros per day and you can receive it if your training place is outside your place of employment. An increased reimbursement of expenses is also paid if your place of training is outside your municipality of residence, and you incur accommodation expenses.

If you take part in training abroad, you may be paid a reimbursement of expenses abroad, which is half the daily allowance for government officials on the basis of a mission in that country.

If you participate in the Arctic Vocational NORD courses, organised by the North Calotte Training Foundation, you can receive an expense allowance of 16.82 euros per day.

Fulfilment of the employment condition during labour market training and independent studies

If your employment condition is met again during labour market training or independent studies, the amount of the daily allowance will not be recalculated and the calculation of the maximum period will not start from the beginning. If your maximum period is reached during the training, you will no longer be eligible for an earnings-related daily allowance. Instead, you can apply for labour market support from Kela until the end of the training.

After the training, you may again be paid an earnings-related daily allowance if you are still unemployed. In this case, the maximum payment period for the daily allowance starts from the beginning, the amount of the daily allowance is recalculated and a new five-day waiting period is applied.

Absences

During labour market training and independent studies, you will also be paid a daily allowance for days of absence. In other services, no daily allowance is paid for days of absence, unless the absence is due to a job interview, incapacity for work or illness of a child under the age of 10 for a maximum of four days.

During the period of labour market training, you will also be paid an expense allowance and an increased earnings component for days of absence, with the exception of holiday periods. In other services, no reimbursement of expenses is paid for days of absence.

Remember to report the days of absence in your daily allowance application.

Applying for a daily allowance for the duration of services promoting employment

Apply for a daily allowance for services promoting employment in periods of four calendar weeks or calendar months. Enter the following in the daily allowance application

• the name of the service for the dates of participation. There is no need to report hourly data.
• holidays included in the training
• days of absence. If the absence is due to a job interview, incapacity for work or illness of a child under 10 years old, indicate the reason for the absence in the application.

You do not need to apply separately for an increased daily allowance or reimbursement of expenses. We will examine your entitlement to them when processing your application.

If you are under 25 years of age and do not have the necessary education, you must apply for at least two study places, both of which start in the autumn.

You must apply for study places if you have not completed vocational training leading to a degree after comprehensive school or upper secondary school.

If you are under 25, the obligation to apply for study places also applies to situations in which you would have fulfilled the employment condition of an earnings-related daily allowance.

On the other hand, you can receive a daily allowance for the duration of a service that promotes employment, such as labour market training or a work trial. However, a service promoting employment does not replace the obligation to apply.

If you fail to comply with the obligation to apply, you will not receive unemployment benefit

If you have not applied for study places, you will not be able to receive unemployment benefit. In addition, refusal or suspension of training may result in the loss of unemployment benefit.

You are not entitled to unemployment benefit until

• you are 25 years old,
• you complete a degree, or
• participate, for example, in services promoting employment for at least 21 calendar weeks.

What kind of training should I apply for?

The training does not have to be part of the joint application process, but it must lead to a degree. For example, applying for preparatory or initial vocational training is not sufficient.

You can replace the obligation to apply with other measures in the employment plan drawn up with the TE Office, if the reason is, for example, health status or learning difficulties.

You can get more information about the joint application process and study options in the spring from Studyinfo.

The obligation to apply does not concern the joint application process organised in the autumn, but if you apply for a study place in the autumn and are accepted, you must accept it. If you do not accept the study place, you are not entitled to unemployment benefit.

If you are unsure about your situation, you can inquire about the obligation to apply for education in more detail and about the study places that may still be applied for by contacting the TE Office's education counselling service, tel. 0295 020 702. You can also look for the answer on the TE Office's website.