Employment policy project support

    Employment policy project support is a form of funding through which Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) may procure, in project form, services for their clients.

    Funding can be granted to

    • associations,
    • foundations,
    • municipalities or
    • joint municipal authorities.

    Employment policy project support is provided on a discretionary basis and for up to a maximum of 100% of TE-approved expenses for associations and foundations, and up to 50% of approved expenses for municipalities and joint municipal authorities.


    Factors affecting support level and total value include:

    • content of activities,
    • number of clients served through the project and
    • the clients' individual need for support and guidance.

    Income obtained from the operations may be taken into account when calculating the support.
    The content of the projects may vary. The central goal must be to increase employment of unemployed job seekers.


    The activities receiving the funding may involve, for example:

    • arranging work opportunities for unemployed job seekers,
    • support measures to increase employment (for example, small-scale training, job searching, job couching activities) and also
    • content-related development of services and operating models.

    The supported activities may also be connected with public labour force services (e.g pay subsidies). All measures relating to these services are carried out in accordance with the Act on Public Employment and Business Service. For example, pay subsidies are applied for and funded separately even if they are part of an employment project.

    The TE Office may define, in connection with each application round, what kinds of activities or what target groups funding will be granted for. Activities taking place over multiple TE Office areas are also possible, in which case the funding is granted by either one or multiple TE Offices.

    • Funding may be granted for a maximum period of three years.
    • The TE Office always makes the decisions about the amount of funding to be granted for one calendar year at a time.
    • The condition for continued funding in later years is that the activities remain in line with the funding decision.
    • The funding beneficiary is subject to reporting requirements.

    Funding cannot be granted for the promotion of business activities (see below granting of support to social enterprises).

    Funding cannot be granted to projects which are not connected to TE services being offered to individual customers. Employment policy project support is not granted for services being offered as public labour force services or business services.

    Furthermore, funding may not be used for the provision or procurement of such services that the municipality or joint municipal authority is obliged by law to provide. Funding is not granted for investments, nor for procurement costs of moveables nor for rental costs. 

    Granting of employment policy project support to social enterprises


    The regulations regarding the definition of, registration of, and registration requirements for social enterprises are found in the Act on Social Enterprises (1351/2003).

    Employment policy project support may be granted to:

    • groups or organisations seeking to establish a social enterprise or solidify its operations, as well as
    • groups or organisations whose purpose is to access the possibilities for establishing a social enterprise.

    Social enterprises may only receive funding for the costs of establishing or solidifying operations for the period over which the establishment and solidification of activities is estimated to last.

    For social enterprises or other groups or organisations (excluding municipalities and joint municipal authorities) that are seeking to access the possibilities for establishing a social enterprise, funding may be granted up to a maximum of 75% of TE-approved total costs.

    Application for and granting of Employment policy project support

    Funding is granted by the TE Office.

    The core criteria for project initiation and funding are:

    • the service needs of TE Office individual customers,
    • the unemployment structure in the relevant TE Office area and
    • the regional guidelines on funding provision.

    The TE Office gives notice, through its communication channels of choice, that the employment policy project support is open for public application.

    The TE Office's application dates, as well as the guidelines and emphases for supported activities, are viewable on the TE Offices' own web pages
    Local TE Services (in Finnish)

    The opportunities available to initiate project applications for starting new projects depend on the area's funding situation.

    Funding is applied for in written form using the form provided Application for Employment policy project support (in Finnish)(TEM308)

    Submit application for payment

    The payment for the Employment policy project support is administered by KEHA-Centre.

    Submit application for payment (keha-keskus.fi)

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