At Jyväskylä University, you can soon become a kindergarten teacher without knowing any Finnish

The bilingual programme combines Finnish language studies with early childhood education and is aimed at students who do not speak Finnish or Swedish.

Peppi Taalas, the programme's director, said the goal is for students to reach a language proficiency sufficient to work in Finland.

Graduates will qualify as early childhood education teachers, with a curriculum equivalent to the Finnish-language teacher training programme.

The programme is a bachelor's degree, designed to be completed in three years.

In this bachelor's programme, language instruction is integrated into the degree rather than taught through separate courses. According to Taalas, Finnish is learned as part of early childhood studies, including through group work, projects and internships.

Finland's early childhood education teachers work in both early childhood education and pre-primary schooling (esikoulu in Finnish). According to Taalas, those employed in pre-primary settings are expected to have near-native proficiency in Finnish.

As the programme is new, it remains uncertain how much Finnish students will be able to acquire during their studies.

"The requirements are very demanding, but our ambitions are high," Taalas said.

The University of Jyväskylä has received 300,000 euros in funding from the ministry of education to develop the programme. One of the stated aims is to support the employment of international students and strengthen their ties to Finland.

According to Taalas, the new programme also addresses labour shortages among early childhood education teachers.

"As age cohorts shrink, new ways must be found to attract qualified professionals into early childhood education. This is one such approach," she said.

Applications to the programme will open in spring 2027, with the first cohort of 25 students beginning their studies in the autumn of that year.