Puolustusvoimat

Strong investments in personnel competence

The Finnish Defence Forces aims to develop the professional skills of its personnel through learning at the workplace and mutual learning with one’s supervisors, peers, subordinates, as well as through various training efforts. We believe in fostering a strong culture of training and offering our personnel opportunities for furthering their training and education and regularly developing their personal competence.

From qualifications to continuing training

Our personnel training is divided into undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate military sciences degrees and continuing training. We make use of both personal training plans and competence surveys for individuals and organisations.

Our undergraduate and graduate degrees include Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Military Sciences, and our postgraduate degrees include the General Staff Officer’s degree and Doctor of Military Sciences degree.

Our continuing training includes all training offered to regular personnel, such as non-commissioned officer training, the Senior Staff Officer Course, courses for chiefs of branches, the extensive training programme for professional qualifications in national defence (PD studies), and the Senior Command Course.

Developing and reforming our educational efforts

We are currently developing our educational and training programmes, and our aim is to introduce our new officers’ degrees and continuing training at the beginning of 2025. We are reviewing the educational content of all our degrees, and this will also include the latest changes in Finland’s NATO membership and security environment. We will also provide new opportunities for developing and testing one’s language skills.

The Finnish Defence Forces aims to identify the competence needs of its personnel and actively develop its continuing training system in its services, branches, and various sectors. The importance of international cooperation in education and training has also increased as a result of Finland’s NATO membership.   

Training and education are vital for ensuring the competence of our personnel in normal and emergency conditions, and continuing training is the best way to ensure their competence for any changes in their operating and working environment or job description.