Hello again 
Today I’m going to tell you something more about studying International Business at JAMK.
Generally speaking, studies last 3.5 years. During this time every student is required to collect at least 210 ECTS credits for specific activities.
Obligatory courses from 1st year cover 65 and from 2nd year 50 ECTS credits. Those courses are focused on business in general – marketing, management, finances, research, communication, etc. Additionally every foreign student gets familiar with basics of Finnish language during obligatory course (Finns have to participate in Swedish for Working Life). In turn, during the third year, there is a time for enhancing specific business skills, which accounts for 25 ECTS credits. There are several options to choose from, depending on person’s interest, e.g. Global Business Operations or High-Tech Management specialisations. This is more or less how the schedule for three years looks like 
Good news – we are asked to make more decisions (not only about the specialisation) on our own 15 credits is scheduled for elective studies. This means we can choose courses we are interested in, not only from our degree programme Moreover, each person is required to gain 10 ECTS credits for language courses – two levels of the same language (of course besides mother tongue and English ). Offer is quite wide: Russian, German, French, Chinese, Spanish, etc. Good to know that JAMK has a special agreement with the University of Jyväskylä. If you can’t find desired language course here and University has it in its offer – you can take it and JAMK will accept credits for this. As I wrote last time – they care about students!
Let’s talk now about part of IB studies focused most on practicality – projects and practical training. Every IB student is required to collect 30 ECTS credits altogether in these two parts, but number of project credits cannot be lower than 10. One ECTS credit is given for about 27.5 documented hours of working. That means that usual practical training lasts at least 3.5 months (if speaking about 40 hours in every working week). I would say that this is pretty well-planned amount of time – one can really observe how the business life looks like and definitely learn a lot. There are many possibilities: students can do practical training in Finland or abroad (even in home country), depending on their interest, will and of course acceptance from the companies. Projects are usually done for local businesses. They are focused mostly on doing research. Very nice thing is that, besides searching on their own, students receive information about possible projects or practical training from the teachers. In this practical part of studies, the most important thing is not what you have done, but what you have learned. Studying – it is pretty much about learning, isn’t it?
Remaining 15 credits is accounted for Bachelor’s thesis. It is important to choose a topic one is really interested in (and which of course is related to business). This makes research and writing easier and nicer
Now, as I described you how 210 ECTS credits are distributed, I would like to mention about one additional possibility: exchange 
For Finnish students of IB it is required to spend at least one semester of studies abroad – just to gain international experience and perspective. Other students, as they are already in foreign country, are not forced to go anywhere…but they can There are so many options, so many countries and cities in an offer and only three steps between: apply, wait for acceptance, buy a ticket
So, with this optimistic accent, I’m finishing my post today.
Have a nice weekend and “see you” soon!
Monika
