Youth policy

Youth policy is designed to improve the conditions in which young Finns live and grow. The government adopts a development programme every four years with the aim of stepping up cross-sectoral youth policy action. The programme contains the youth policy objectives for the coming years. The programme is prepared by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with other ministries.
The Ministry of Education steers and develops youth policy by means of

The aim is to

The national Advisory Council for Youth Affairs (Nuora) monitors the development of young people's living conditions on a regular basis. It assesses the implementation of the youth policy programme, takes initiatives and commissions reviews of young people's living conditions.
The annual Youth Barometer surveys young people's attitudes and values, future expectations and opinions of their social influence.

Youth work targets and financing

The Ministry supports traditional youth work done by local authorities and provinces, subsidises youth and youth-work organisations; youth workshops; schoolchildren's morning and afternoon activities; international youth cooperation; national youth centres; and preventive drug and intoxicant work. Alongside these traditional forms of youth work, new forms have emerged, such as youth workshops, local youth councils, tele-democracy projects and after-school activities.

Preventive drug work

The Ministry of Education grants an appropriation for preventive drug and intoxicant work, which is used to step up action, to train personnel and volunteers and to co-finance long-term projects and programmes.

Activities for schoolchildren

The Ministry of Education subsidises activities available to schoolchildren before and after school in order to make it possible for all to engage in hobbies and sport and thereby prevent exclusion.

Local youth work

The duties of local authorities include youth work and youth policy. The Youth Act lays down the target extent of services. Every local authority decides independently on the form and extent of its youth service.
Local authorities produce youth services and create favourable conditions for youth activities. There are over 1,100 municipal youth facilities in Finland. Around 180 municipalities have youth influence groups, such as youth councils. Altogether, local authorities spend 150 million euros on youth work annually.

Youth workshops

Youth workshops offer training and work practice to unemployed young people under 25 years of age. The Ministry's Youth Policy Division is responsible for developing the content of youth workshop activities. The workshops offer a place for young people to learn life skills, grow into adulthood and get hands-on experience of work, encouraging and helping them to seek further training.
The youth workshops are co-financed by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour. The 230 workshops in Finland cater for 7,000 - 8,000 young people annually.

Local youth councils and youth influence

The Youth Act provides for the participation and influence of young people under 29 years of age in matters relating to local and regional youth work and youth policy. Under the Act, young people must be offered opportunities to participate and to be heard in the preparation of these matters at the local level.
The foremost purpose of youth councils is to make young people's views, wishes and initiatives known to local policy-makers. The councils do not have actual decision powers in local matters.

Regional youth service

Youth work and the coordination of youth policies at the regional level are the responsibility of provincial state offices under the guidance of the Ministry of Education. Their duties relate to young people's employment (e.g. youth workshops), income, housing, education and training, health and leisure activities.

National youth organisations

The national operations of youth and youth-work organisations are supported financially from a budgetary appropriation. There are around one hundred organisations entitled to state support.

Young culture

The Ministry of Education supports youth culture and international cultural contacts through the Young Culture event and Young Culture ambassadors. The aim is to promote youth culture and its visibility abroad. The Ministry finances young artists' visits abroad through a scheme administered by the Centre for International Mobility CIMO.

International Award for Young People

The International Award for Young People is an action programme for young people between 14 and 25. In Finland the programme has 60 local units. Award activities are provided by youth organisations, schools and local and parish youth services. There are currently 700 young persons working for their awards in Finland.

Information and advisory services

Youth information and advice is one of the fastest growing forms of youth work. The information and advisory services give young people professional support, help and advice in different questions relating to their lives.
At present the information and advisory services are available in 100 different localities, reaching over half of young Finns. The aim is to extend the services to all young people in Finland.

Youth centres

There are ten national youth centres in Finland. The Ministry of Education supports and supervises the establishment and operations of these centres. The centres arrange school and nature camps, courses and social youth work and participate in international youth cooperation.
The youth centre network develops youth work methods, disseminates knowledge, undertakes development, and promotes youth mobility nationally and abroad together with different partners.

Youth work financing

The Ministry of Education allocates funds from the state youth budget to

The Ministry has appropriations for subsidising topical action, such as young people's social empowerment, international projects and new forms of youth work and youth culture.
The Ministry allocates government transfers to local authorities for youth work based on the number of young residents under 29 years of age. These funds cover some 5% of the local work expenditure, and the local authorities can use them at their discretion. Together with project funding, state grants cover 12% of local youth expenditure.

In youth matters, the Ministry of Education cooperates bilaterally and multilaterally, with the Nordic countries and within the EU.
The European Union's youth programmes provide for international cooperation between young Europeans. The Youth Programme is intended for people aged between 15 and 25, people working with them and non-profit organisations. In Finland the programme is implemented by the Centre for International Mobility CIMO.
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Youth research is interdisciplinary research on young people aged 12-25 and their living conditions.
Youth research topics include youth culture, education and training, exclusion, ethnic relations and the quality of education and youth work.
The Youth Policy Division of the Ministry of Education supports applied research on youth work, activities and policy. In practice this research carried out within the youth research network of the Youth Research Association. Universities, polytechnics and research institutes conduct basic research relating to young people.
The Youth Research Association is an independent organisation which develops national and international cooperation between youth researchers, research institutes, higher education institutions and professionals working with young people.

The national Advisory Council for Youth Affairs (Nuora) is a consultative body attached to the Ministry of Education. It produces information about young people's living conditions by means of different reviews and a regularly updated statistical database. In addition, it drafts programmes, action and initiatives relating to young people.
One important duty for the Advisory Council is to evaluate the youth policy development programme for the Government and to give its opinion on the matters to be included in the programme.

The Advisory Council for Youth Affairs represents expertise in young people's living conditions. Most of its members are nominated by national youth and youth-work organisations.

Youth Organisation Subsidy Committee

The Youth Organisation Subsidy Committee, whose members are nominated by youth organisations, submits annually a proposal to the Ministry for state subsidies to be allocated to national youth organisations. It also evaluates and develops the subsidy system.