Applicant's guide

Entrance requirements

The International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme is for any student aged 16–19.

All students admitted to the IB Career-related programme are also admitted to the Vocational Qualification in Information and Communications Technology (Welfare Technology Installer taught in Finnish). To progress in their studies, the student must study both IBCP subjects and vocational subjects.

Entrance requirements for studying Vocational qualification in Wellbeing technology:

Completed Finnish comprehensive school or other primary and lower secondary education
(approximately nine years, age 7-16)
Good written and oral command of the English language
Good written and oral command of the Finnish language (B1.1 European language framework).

This study programme is for those who have completed basic education and are without completed vocational qualification.
Upper secondary or higher education graduates with completed qualification cannot be accepted.

Foreign applicants under 18 years old must have a guardian living in the capital area. We will check the eligibility and guardian's information before inviting the applicant to the entrance exam.

You can find information about the Finnish education system on the website of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Student selection

The entrance examination measures oral and written English language skills, learning skills, learning motivation and aptitude.
Before the IB entrance examinations, the students whose first language and school study language has been a language other than Finnish or Swedish in Finland will participate in a written Finnish language test.

Students are selected on the basis of scores obtained from entrance and aptitude tests.

Our two-phase IB entrance examinations consist of the total of 25 points as follows:

written test of English language skills: 0-10 points
interview: 0-15 points. The points are divided as follows:

English oral skills 0-10
motivation and aptitude 0-5

The written test is used to evaluate applicant’s writing and reading comprehension skills. Applicants can get up to 5 points for the reading comprehension assignment and up to 5 points for the writing assignment for a total of 10 points for the written test.

Applicants can get up to 5 points for the interview based on the motivation and aptitude, and 10 points based on the oral English skills. In order to be admitted, applicants need a minimum of 1 point for each of the examination phases. On the second phase of the examination process, applicants are interviewed based partly on an assessment form, partly on the IB learner profile.

Admission is based on the total score. The maximum of top admitted 25 applicants are admitted. If two applicants have the same score, they will be evaluated with an emphasis on the oral interview, with consideration of the IB learner profile, and if the result is still a tie, lots will be drawn in the presence of witnesses.

Some applicants can be accepted in discretionary selection. The reasons for discretionary selection are e.g., difficulties in determining the applicability of certificates (applicants without the Finnish national qualifications in basic education).

Application Process

The application for the training has closed. You can leave your contact information with Hakuvahti and we will notify you when the application form can be filled out again.

Fill the form using a PC. The form may not work correctly on all mobile devices.

Applicants with Finnish comprehensive school (peruskoulu) certificate

You can add a link to any credits you may have in My Studyinfo, so you don't need to attach certificates of your previous studies to your application.

Applicants with foreign basic education certificate

All applicants applying with a degree awarded outside Finland must attach copies of the school certificates certified by authorized public body and an official English translation to the application. The translation must be done by an authorised translator and must include the translator’s signature and stamp.

Once the application time has ended, the school will check the eligibilities of all applicants and invite the eligible applicants to take the entrance examination or to language test.

If you want an exemption from the language test you must attach the certificate of sufficient knowledge of Finnish to the application. Accepted certificates are listed in the application form.

The results of student selection will be published by the 10th of September 2025 at the latest. All admitted students will be contacted by email once results are ready.

Instructions on how to confirm the study place will be sent with the acceptance letter.

Accepted IBCP students will accept two study offers: one in the continuous application for an IBCP place and another in the joint application for Varia´s ICT vocational qualification.

Studies begin on the 6th of August 2025.

From continuous admission the IBCP studies begin on 22nd of September in Koivukylä.

All selected students must bring their original documents to be verified on the first day of their studies. The original documents must be equivalent to the copies delivered during the application period. The student selection is not final until the original diplomas have been checked. If the student fails to deliver original documents by the given deadline, Varia will cancel the offered study place.

Please take notice that the accepted student is responsible of taking care of all practical issues related to the beginning of studies, such as submitting an international student’s residence permit application in time.

Information about studying in Finland.

More information

Applicant Services

Vantaa Vocational College Varia +358 9 839 502 27 varia.hakijapalvelut@vantaa.fi

Mon-Fri 9-14

Kerttu Vesterinen

Guidance counsellor

kerttu.vesterinen@eduvantaa.fi