BIZ international internship

• Erasmus+ internship grant to support internship in an Erasmus+ country.
• Internship grant for internships in other than Erasmus+ countries.
• Travel grant to cover travel costs from Finland to internship country in other than Erasmus+ internships (a travel grant is granted to Europe only if you are going to a voucher internship).

All the general conditions mentioned below must be met in order to receive grants for internship abroad, this applies to all grant forms (BIZ internship grant, BIZ travel grant and Erasmus+ grant).

See also lower on this page the special terms and conditions related to BIZ internship and travel grants and the related special terms and conditions on the Erasmus+ internship page.

Conditions related to the applicant

• The applicant must be enrolled degree student (Bachelor's or Master's level) of Aalto University School of Business. Supported internship is intended to be carried out during studies.
• The applicant must have completed at least 20 ECTS credits per enrolled semester in School of Business. The credits must be found in your transcript of records (Aalto transcript). That is, the total number of credits in the study transcript, divided by the periods of enrolled semesters since the start of the studies, must be at least 20 cr.
• The applicant undertakes to return the internship report and a copy of the work certificate after the internship.
• Students can undertake one Aalto BIZ funded internship during their studies. This is because there is a limited amount of funding available, and Aalto BIZ wants to support the internships of as many students as possible. 
• Grants can be received only once during the studies at Aalto University (including used internship vouchers in internships in Finland). This is because there is a limited amount of funding available, and School of Business wants to support the internships of as many students as possible. So, for example, you can apply for either an Erasmus+ grant for internships in Erasmus+ countries or a travel grant + internship grant for internships in non-Erasmus+ countries. When you apply for one grant, you cannot apply for another later.
• If you receive grants from other units of Aalto University or other entities (e.g. Finnish National Agency for Education) for your internship, you cannot receive School of Business grants for internships abroad.

Conditions related to internship and employer

• The internship lasts a minimum of 2 months and a maximum of 6 months. The exception is Erasmus+ short term blended internshps  (5-30 days). If the duration of the internship changes, the Career Services must be notified immediately (especially if the internship is canceled or if it is shorter than required). The grant can be partially reclaimed, even if the internship period is only slightly shorter than previously announced.
• The internship is full-time work (~37.5h/week and 5 days/week) and is related to your studies.
• The internship is carried out at the employer's premises (temporary remote work is possible).
• The internship takes place in a country other than Finland, your home country or country of origin.
• The salary you receive from the internship must be less than 2000 €/month. The internship can also be unpaid, although Career Services does not recommend pursuing unpaid internships.
• The applicant takes care of taking out the necessary insurances for the duration of the internship.
• The official employer representative must be notified in the internship application. The School may verify information given if necessary, also directly from the internship employer.
• A maximum of three School of Business students can apply for grants applied to internships with the same employer within 12 months (one calendar year).

Other terms and conditions

• When awarding grants, we follow the travel guidelines of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland. According to the travel bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, avoid all travel to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.
• We follow Aalto University's policies regarding the security of the destination country or region. Aalto University does not grant new internship grants to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. The alignment is valid for the time being. If you are planning an internship abroad during the academic year 2022-23, first read Aalto University's policies regarding internships abroad in the academic year 2022-23 (effects of COVID-19) (pdf).
• The application period for applying for grants for internships abroad is ongoing, and grants are available within budget limits. 
• The application must be submitted and the decision on grants must be made before the beginning of the internship. Grant applications are processed approximately two times a month (we will inform separately about the summer and Christmas holiday breaks). The applicant receives information about the grant decision by e-mail. The grants are paid as a lump-sum around the time the internship starts.
• If the student does not return the required documents and reports from his internship, the grant can be partly or entirely reclaimed.
• If you get Erasmus+ grant you have to include your internship in your degree. 

All rights reserved.

You can find the general terms and conditions of internship grants above. Internship grants are awarded for internships in countries other than Erasmus+.

Internship grant

• With the internship grant, you can supplement your salary up to maximum of 2 000 €/month.
• The maximum amount of the grant is 700 € per month for a maximum period of 3 months.
• You can only get a grant for 3 months, even if the internship is longer.
• You can also apply for a grant for unpaid internships. However, we do not encourage our students to go on an unpaid internship.
• You agree to write and submit a Learning Contract to Career Services within a month of the start of your internship.
• If you are going to do your internship in an Erasmus country, you must apply for the Erasmus+ grant.
• You cannot apply for an internship grant for internships at Finnish embassies and Finnish permanent missions abroad, apply for an internship voucher for them.

In unclear situations, contact us and ask for more information. You can get an internship grant only once during your studies at the Aalto University School of Business.

Travel grant

• The travel grant is intended to cover travel costs from Finland to a country other than the Erasmus+ internship country. If you are already abroad, for example on a student exchange, you cannot apply for a travel grant from us. A travel grant is only awarded to Europe if you are going to a voucher internship. School of Business travel grant is not awarded to Erasmus+ internships.
• The grant cannot be granted if the employer pays for the travel costs fully of partly or if you receive financial support for your travel from other sources. The amount of the grant must not exceed the actual travel costs.
• You do not need to attach receipts or copies of your flight ticket to your application unless otherwise requested.

In unclear situations, contact us and ask for more information. You can get the travel grant only once during your studies at the Aalto University School of Business.

The maximum amount of the travel grant depends on your destination country.

If you are going to do your internship in an Erasmus country, you must apply for the Erasmus+ internship grant. Erasmus countries include all member states of the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey and Macedonia.

The same form is used to apply for the School of Business internship grant, travel grant, and Erasmus+ grant.

Note. If you get Erasmus+ grant you have to include your internship in your degree. 

If the Erasmus+ conditions are not met (e.g. you are doing a traineeship in an EU organisation), you can apply BIZ internship grant.

Concerning International Business students at the Mikkeli campus, updated 16.10.2023

• International Business BScBA students have the opportunity to apply for an Erasmus+ internship grant if they have completed at least 150 credits. The credits must be found in the transcript of records (Aalto transcript). Include your Erasmus+ internship in your Master's degree at Aalto.
• Since it is not possible to include an internship in BScBA degree, other International Business students can apply for the BIZ internship grant when going to an internship in Erasmus+ countries.

In unclear situations, contact us and ask for more information.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a break in processing grant applications at the end of the year, grant applications will not be processed from December 20th to January 8th.
 

The application form with all required attachments must be filled out and submitted at least two weeks before the beginning of your internship. Please allow about 2-4 weeks for all the paper work. Grants are not admitted retrospectivelyto internships that have already started, so please submit all documents in good time.

Before filling out the online application form, collect all the necessary attachments (in pdf format), because the application form cannot be edited after sending it and we do not want attachments to be returned by email. Please note that the system does not automatically send information about received grant applications to Career Services. If the matter is urgent, please send a message to [email protected]i after you have submitted the application.

You can use the online form to apply for a travel grant to Europe if you are going to a voucher internship (Finnish embassies and Finnish permanent missions abroad), even though the form instructs otherwise.

The required attachments

1. Aalto University transcript of records from Sisu
2. Work contract. The contract must be signed by both you and your employer and must include the contact information of the employer, job description, working hours, salary, and the beginning/ending dates of the internship. If you do not yet have an official internship contract, an e-mail or equivalent document from the employer containing the information described above may be accepted. As an exception voucher interns selected to the Finnish embassy or permanent representation do not need to submit a copy of the work contract when applying for a travel grant, only the grant application form.
3. If you are applying for an Erasmus+ grant, you also need the documents required in the Erasmus+ program. See these on the Erasmus+ grant page. Erasmus+ Learning Agreement requires the signature of the student, the employer and the representative of the university (i.e. Learning Services). First, fill in your information in the form, and send it to your employer as an email attachment. The employer fills in the job description and other information requested from the employer (sections that the 'Receiving organization' fills in), prints and signs the form and sends it to you. After that, send the form as an email attachment to Learning Services at [email protected]. The Learning Services employee signs the form and fills in the 'Sending institution' sections. When you get the paper signed by Learning Services back, sign the form yourself. For the Erasmus Grant Agreement form: fill in your information and sign it yourself. The signing of the Grant Agreement is handled in Career Services after we receive your application (i.e. that signature is not needed in advance for this paper).

 Technical instructions for filling in the form

The same form is used to apply for the travel grant, the internship grant and Erasmus+ grant. The online application form requires Haka-login, which is equivalent to your signature.

1. Open the online application form. Do not use Internet Explorer.
2. Sign in with your Aalto credentials.The application consists of several pages. The headlines of the pages can be seen on the left.
3. Please fill in the application page by page.Tick the box on Mark page as complete when you have answered all the questions on that page. You can save the application form and continue filling it later. Note! Please do not copy text to the application form (e.g. from Word) - this can lock the application and prevent the pdf document to be uploaded.
4. On the page Attachments please add the scanned, relevant application documents in pdf format. The maximum size of one file is 2 MB.
5. Send the complete application by clicking Submit.
6. Do not close the browser, but wait until the programme produces a pdf copy of your application. Please save the pdf copy as a receipt of the submitted application. In case the pdf is not generated and/or you cannot save it, contact the Career Services. Please do not fill in another application.
7. Sign out.
8. After submitting the application you cannot make changes in it. If you have questions on your application please contact the Career Services.

You will be notified about the internship grant decision (and other internship related issues) via email.

Everyone who receives the internship grant or the Erasmus grant is obliged to prepare and submit a Learning Contract within a month from the beginning of the internship.

Save the Learning Contract (*.doc) to your computer, fill it out in English and return it to Career Services at [email protected] as a pdf attachment.

Instructions for completing the Learning Contract

The table can be adjusted as needed to better fit in your objectives. The learning objectives are thought of and discussed together with the supervisor/tutor of your internship.

Learning related to your field of study and professionalism in general

• Write down your tasks and areas of responsibility and what kind of learning goals you have. Also reflect how you can achieve the learning goals you set to the internship. Also write down the concrete skills and results that arise from your internhip.

Cultural learning

• In the same way, write down your goals, learning methods and results for cultural learning (different cultures and social contexts). You can think about it from different perspectives of culture (organizational culture, local culture and/or national culture).

Global competence

• The Learning Contract also prepares you to think about your global competences (described in the Learning Contract template). At the beginning of your internship, discuss with your supervisor how you can enhance these competences during the internship, and think after the internship how you reached your goals and what new things you learned. 

Return within a month after your internship period has ended:

1. internship report
2. work certificate
3. fill in the feedback survey

Those who were on an Erasmus+ internship must also answer the Commission's feedback survey (so-called EU-Survey, the link will be sent to your email) and return the green mobility support receipts if you received Erasmus+ green mobility support.

Also apply for possible study credits after the internship. Instructions for applying for internship credits can be found on your program's website. Please note that when receiving an Erasmus+ internship grant, the internship must be included in your degree.

Return the internship report

If you have received any internship grants from Career Services, you are required to write and return an internship reportwithin a month after your internship period has ended.

Instructions for preparing the report

• Internship reports are published directly anonymously in Publisher, do not include personal information or contact information in your report. Read internship reports.
• The report can be written in Finnish or in English, the length is not specified.
• Organize your report with headings and return it as a pdf document (the online form only accepts this format).
• Attach 1-2 photos (in jpg format) to the pdf report along with the text. The picture can be, for example, from the workplace, a landscape or a city picture. Please save the images to the report with a maximum size of 1 MB, e.g. 450x600 pixels. Do not return separate images, only among the report. Please note: the report size must be under 10 MB (preferably max 2 MB).
• Return the report and work certificate to Career Services via After the internship online form. You should always ask your employer for a work certificate. The certificate should include the dates of your internship, a description of your tasks, and preferably also an evaluation of your performance. 

The content of the report

The report should contain information on the following topics:

• Degree Program/major: Do not include your personal information.
• Internship information: The employer's information (place of internship, city, country) and the time of the internship (dates, duration).
• How did you find the placement? What channels did you use in job hunting? 
• Your tasks: Describe your job duties as accurately as possible. Also tell us how your internship was guided and whether you were satisfied with the guidance you received. You can also tell us about interesting things related to work, e.g. working conditions that differ from Finland/your home country or the working culture. Think about how your workplace and working methods or personal relationships at the workplace differ from a Finnish/your home country's workplace.
• What did you learn?: Describe what you learned and how well your tasks were related to your studies. What skills were you able to develop further? Did you learn something new about intercultural communication? How about language skills – were you able to develop them?
• Salary, taxation, and grants for the internship In addition to salary and taxation, in this section you can tell about the grants you have received (how much, from where).
• Accommodation How did you get the apartment, what did it cost, etc.
• Travel arrangements, possible visas or work permits
• Free time: How did you spend your free time? Were there other interns in the region?
• Local culture and customs
• How has the internship affected your future study or career plans? Think about how your internship was useful in terms of your studies and future working life.
• Additional information: Write down anything you consider important for fellow students planning to go abroad. Include any tips or inspiration you want to tell future students.

Please note that your report will be published directly to Publisher, so please do not include any information that you do not want to be publicly available.

Return the work certificate

If you have received any internship grants from Career Services, you are required to return a copy of the work certificatewithin a month after your internship period has ended. Students who have been in an Erasmus+ internship can return either a copy of their work certificate or the Erasmus+ After the Mobility Traineeship Certificate, which the employer has filled out.

Return the work certificate when returning the report in the online form (After the internship).

Fill out the feedback survey

In addition to writing a report, all interns answer a feedback survey at the end of the internship within a month after your internship period has ended. Only Career Services see your feedback.