Great Britain and Ireland

There are several more or less well established organizations which provide services for young people who wish to find work in Great Britain and in Ireland. These include Au Pair bureaus, independent work agencies, organizations providing hotel work, and Volunteer services. It is, however, advisable to keep in mind that some of these might not be all that reliable, and a quite critical approach and some caution should be exercised especially if you deal with some independent agencies. Organizations which students from our department have had dealings with before and found reliable are probably your best bet. Read the language practice reports in the Coffee Room for more information! 

If you wish to ensure being awarded a Donner grant, CSV (Community Service Volunteer) is the organization you want to contact. CSV volunteers are placed in various settings all over Britain and work within the social spectrum. The work might involve taking care of elderly people, disabled, people with learning disabilities, homeless, or children. Volunteers get free accommodation and meals as well as a weekly allowance of around £50. The travel costs from the UK port of entry to the placement are also paid by the organization. A placement fee (FiM ca 1700.-) must be made after you have applied to and been interviewed by someone from CSV. The department has had a good cooperation with CSV previously, and an agreement on shortening the minimum time of volunteering from four months to ten weeks has been made. Applications can be made directly to the CSV, after which you will be called to an interview (probably in February-March). Depending on the present situation interviews might take place in Turku, Helsinki or in England. If you have to go to England for the interview, you can apply by travel money fot this trip, as well, but it must be clear from your application that you cannot have the interview in Finland. Applications to CSV can also be made through Allianssi in Helsinki, which CSV recently started to cooperate with (Allianssi is likely to have an additional placement fee of their own). 

Besides volunteer services, Allianssi (Finnish youth cooperation Allianssi) provides some other interesting opportunities for language practice periods. Through Allianssi you can get a place working in various positions at hotels either in Britain or in Ireland (two different programs). The work typically involves waiting tables or work in the reception. Food and accommodation is provided by the hotel, as is a weekly allowance of around £50 , plus any tip you might get. For these programs Allianssi's fee is around FMK 590.- in addition to a placement fee of between £210 and £280. Allianssi also has an Au-Pair placement service of which there regrettably is no further information at the moment. 

As mentioned above, in addition to these two organizations there are several others which might be able to help organizing your practice period. Great Britain is also a country in which many students might have contacts who might be able to help with finding suitable accommodation and work. It might also be quite possible just to go to London, for example, and start looking for work and somewhere to live on the spot, but a grant application would not be likely to be successful in this case.