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Contact Forum: Working abroad through Foreign Ministry

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Publication date 19.1.2023 12.27 | Published in English on 19.1.2023 at 12.30
News item

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be one of the exhibitors at Contact Forum, a recruitment and career event for university students taking place at Messukeskus in Helsinki on 26 January at 10–17.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs offers diplomatic, administrative and specialist career paths. The Ministry even employs persons undergoing non-military service, trainees and summer employees. Finland’s diplomatic missions abroad hire Finnish nationals as locally employed staff and as trainees and advertise vacancies on their own channels.

In addition, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs recruits employees and finances positions in international organisations, such as the United Nations (UN) and its agencies, the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Agencies recruit people for different kinds of positions through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. These positions include junior professional officers, volunteers, assistants and civilian crisis management specialists, among others. 

Are you interested in a UN career?

All applications for the positions of Junior Professional Officer (JPO) and UN Volunteer (UNV) must be submitted to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry recruits specialists to work in the UN and its agencies, in international financial institutions and in certain research organisations. Finland finances these positions either from the appropriations for development cooperation or from the appropriations for civilian crisis management, depending on the position.

Having young adults working as JPOs and UNVs is a way for Finland to have more Finnish specialists in development cooperation and civilian crisis management. JPOs and UNVs will be given positions that enable them to seek other international positions later on either in the UN agencies or elsewhere. 

The 2023 call for applications for UN Junior Professional Officers will open in January. The call for applications for UN Volunteers will open later in the spring.

Do you want to work abroad as a specialist in civilian crisis management?

Civilian crisis management operations aim to strengthen functions vital to society in crisis areas and everywhere where external assistance is needed. Key sectors include the police, judicial system, border guard, customs, prison services and administrative development. 

Finland seconds specialists to the EU, the OSCE and to other international organisations. The employer of the seconded specialists is the Crisis Management Centre (CMC Finland). 

Are you interested in an international EU career?

The European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission (EC) are looking for Junior Professionals for 140 EU Delegations around the world. The call for applications for the Junior Professionals in Delegation (JPD) Programme is held every two years, and each Member State has two JPD positions. In addition, Finland finances additional two positions from the development cooperation appropriations. The Foreign Ministry manages the pre-selection of candidates, while the final selection is made either by the EEAS or by the EC. 

The 2023–2025 Round is currently open, and the deadline for applications is 31 January. 

If you are interested in an international career, come and see us at the Ministry’s Contact Forum stand D5 to learn more about the career options we offer. There is no entry fee for Contact Forum. All you need to do is to register in advance at the Contact Forum website

 

 
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