Study Guide

Objective

This virtual Go Abroad course is preparing you for your stay abroad.

It will guide you through the planning process, help you during your stay abroad and remind you what to do once you are back on Finnish soil again. The purpose is to help you get the most out of your exchange studies or your work placement abroad and to make sure that you are a well-prepared ambassador for Novia and for Finland while begin abroad!

Content

This Go Abroad course is compulsory for students who go for a study exchange or a work placement abroad for two (2) months or longer periods.

The course is divided into three sections; Before your stay abroad, During your stay abroad and After your stay abroad. The course is done at your own pace, and you submit tasks 1-6 in the Before your stay abroad section before you go abroad. The During your stay abroad section contains useful information about possible changes to your learning agreement, and tips on what to do if you feel lonely or homesick or you bump into other obstacles or challenges during your stay abroad. The last task 7 in the After your stay abroad section is a report which you hand in after you have finished your studies or work placement abroad.

The first Go Abroad tasks 1-6 prepare you for your studies or your work placement abroad and you submit these before you go abroad. Tasks 1-6 help you to tick off everything on your To-Do list; do you have a valid insurance? Do you need to get vaccinated? Have you remembered to enroll as present at Novia? Is your passport valid? etc. You do task 1a if you are going to study abroad, and task 1b if you are going for a work placement. You prepare your CV in task 2, and if you already have one, why not use this as an opportunity to refine it? Tasks 3-5 are country oriented. Task 3 is about your language skills and reminds you about the OLS language test you need to do if your exchange or your work placement is done within the Erasmus+ framework. Tasks 4 and 5 teach you about the host country, but also about Finland. It is never a bad thing to know where you are going and where you are coming from, and while being abroad, you are an ambassador and representative for Novia and for Finland. This is why we want you to find out information about the country you are going to, and as you might be asked a lot of questions about Finland, we also want you to make a presentation of Finland. You do a budget for you stay abroad in task 6.

When you have completed tasks 1-6, you are well prepared for your stay abroad. The last task 7 is a report, and you hand it in to your international contact teacher and to the international coordinator at your campus after you have returned home.

You might be surprised by the fact that you can be hit by a reverse culture shock when you return home to Finland. Also, do you know how to apply for recognition to get your credits completed abroad entered into Peppi? Read more about this in the last chapter After your stay abroad.

Enjoy this course, and most importantly – enjoy your stay abroad!

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Students receive the grade Pass once the tasks have been approved by the international contact teacher.