General education

CIMO funds and supports schools in their international work. CIMO manages programmes funded by the European Union and through Nordic and national funding.

The programmes support, for example, international project cooperation including pupil and teacher exchanges, in-service training for teachers and study visits. The support available varies from one programme to another.

The EU programmes provide funding for European cooperation. Specific funding is also available for cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Activities supported

The programmes for international cooperation are intended for general education institutions from pre-primary to secondary schools and institutions for vocational education and training as well as for local and regional educational authorities or networks of educational institutions.

These programmes include the Comenius and Transversal Programme within the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme, different Nordplus programmes, and the School in Europe – Europe in School programme.

The EU-funded Comenius actions include

• School partnerships (multilateral and bilateral)
• Individual pupil mobility partnerships
• Regio partnerships
• In-service training for teachers
• Assistantships
• Preparatory visits, and
• eTwinning (internet-based school cooperation)

The Transversal Programme, also funded by the EU,develops language and ICT training together with other educational institutions, such as schools and higher education institutions.

The objective is to promote European cooperation in fields covering two or more sub-programmes and the quality and transparency of the Member States’ education and training systems.

As part of the Transversal Programme, the Study Visits scheme offers study visits of 3–5 days for experts within different educational fields including general education.

The Nordplus programmes, which support cooperation between the Nordic and the Baltic countries, include

• exchanges between school classes
• funding for pupil exchanges and work placements for pupils
• teaching in another Nordic country or in a Baltic country, and
• projects and networks for school education.

The School in Europe – Europe in School programme provides teachers with European themed in-service training. It also offers the possibility of receiving an Erasmus exchange student from another European country to e.g. stimulate language training in schools.

Seminars and training

Every autumn, CIMO organises several training sessions on project management to schools and teachers who have started a new international project, project meetings at the end of their life span, and thematic monitoring seminars.

Under the Comenius Assistantship programme, CIMO runs training sessions for incoming assistants.

The annual seminar on schools’ international issues brings together a host of professionals interested in international cooperation in education.

CIMO also organises European Comenius contact seminars, and our regional promoters arrange a number of information events throughout the country about Comenius and Nordplus programmes, mainly in the autumn. You can participate in the contact seminars only through the national agency in your country.

Contact us

Telephone +358 20 690 502 (Mon–Fri 8:00–16:15)

Email comenius-info(at)cimo.fi

Assistant Director, European Department
Mikko Nupponen

Head of Unit, General and Adult Education
Nina Rekola