Admission criteria

Who can apply through the rolling admissions?

All applicants who wish to complete an initial vocational qualification or part of a qualification can apply through the rolling application procedure. If you have completed Finnish general upper secondary school, a previous vocational qualification, or a higher education degree, you can apply for an initial vocational qualification through the rolling admissions.

About admissions criteria

If there are more applicants than available places, applicants will be divided into admission groups based on their educational needs. Admission decisions are made in the order of the admission groups. If not all applicants from the same admission group can be selected, the places will allocated by lottery within the group.


Admission order:

  1. Applicants subject to compulsory education in Finland
  2. Applicants who are not subject to compulsory education in Finland and who have completed:
    • only comprehensive school or general upper secondary school in Finland
    • only comprehensive school, general upper secondary school, vocational qualification or higher education qualification abroad. This group does not include applicants whose foreign qualification is recognised in Finland.
  3. Unemployed applicants
  4. Applicants who have previously completed a vocational qualification or higher education degree in Finland

A sufficient level of Finnish language proficiency is required for study. Most Helsinki Vocational College qualifications require a language proficiency level of A2.2. Applicants will be invited to a language test, if necessary. Learn more about the Finnish language test.


Applications for rolling admissions can also be targeted. In this case, the admission criteria for targeted applications may include, for example, a certain level of proficiency in Finnish or another language, or previous studies.