The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) works in close co-operation with the Ministry of Education and Culture. It is a national development agency responsible for developing education and training, early childhood education and care and lifelong learning, as well as for promoting internationalisation. 

The Finnish National Agency for Education follows the development of educational objectives, content and methods according to the performance agreement with the Ministry of Education and Culture. The agreement is drawn up for a period of three years but is reviewed every year. It includes the tasks of the EDUFI as assigned by the Ministry.

At the beginning of 2017, the former National Board of Education merged with the Centre for International Mobility, CIMO, to form a new development agency named Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI, the Finnish name Opetushallitus remained unchanged). The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) and the Matriculation Examination Board have operated as independent agencies within EDUFI since the beginning of 2018.

EDUFI’s tasks in a nutshell:

•developing education and training, early childhood education and care and lifelong learning, taking care of services and management duties related to them, and anticipating society’s competence and education needs

•drafting the national core curricula for basic and general upper secondary education, basic education in the arts, vocational education and training, and early childhood education and care

•facilitating programmes and contracts that promote internationalisation and providing consulting services for internationalisation

•providing services for student admissions

•producing information to support development and decision-making in our field, and developing the education field’s central information databases 

•making decisions on the recognition of studies completed abroad as well as duties dealing with language and translator’s degrees.

The Finnish National Agency for Education is managed by a governing board, the members of which represent political decision-making, local authorities, teachers and social partners.

On regional level there are also 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY). ELY Centres strengthen regional co-operation in adult education, as well as networking between organisers of education, enterprises and other stakeholders. The functions of the centres include improvement of operating conditions for businesses, support for rural economy, promotion of employment and the functionality of the labour market and, in relation to them, promotion of adult employment (labour market) training.

The agencies participate in forecasting developments in business and employment trends, and skill and educational needs. ELY Centres collect information on the state of the region's business life, the environment, employment and infrastructure. Based on this, they forecast future developments. In doing so, they aim to support regional decision-making by improving the underlying knowledge base. The local employment offices are subordinate to their respective regional Labour Market Departments of ELY centres.

The Regional Development Act, effective as from the year of 1994, has created a new category of regional organisation, namely, the Regional Councils, which draw up regional development plans in co-operation with the local authorities within their respective regions and the state authorities as well as representatives of economic life and non-governmental organisations. A central objective of the legislation on regional policy is to support the self-motivated and balanced development of regions.