# How teachers are trained and selected in Finland, Portugal and Spain > In Finland, teachers earn a five-year master's degree after a selective two-stage admission with an aptitude assessment; Helsinki accepted 8.2% of applicants to class teacher education in 2025, and municipalities then hire through open advertising. Portugal requires a master's in teaching and places teachers through a national ranked procedure, now under pressure from a shortage of about 20,000 teachers by 2029/30. Spain trains primary teachers in a four-year degree and secondary teachers in a one-year master's, then selects them through regional oposiciones built on a published list of topics, with about 31% of teachers on temporary contracts. Read with Jennifer Pahlka's lens on delivery, the lesson for Spain is to move the real filter to the start, at entry to training and in supervised practice. - URL: https://www.radicalcentre.eu/en/articles/how-teachers-are-trained-selected-finland-portugal-spain - Language: en - Publisher: radical centre / centro radical - Published: 2026-11-03 - Topic: Public services - Author: radical centre - Licence: CC BY 4.0 ## Key points - Finland: class and subject teachers need a 300 ECTS master's degree, with 60 ECTS of pedagogical studies including supervised practice, and entry to class teacher education ends with a decisive aptitude assessment. - At the University of Helsinki, 1,532 people applied for 120 places in Finnish-language class teacher education in spring 2025, and 125 were accepted (8.2%). - Portugal has required a master's degree to teach since 2007, ranks candidates in a national procedure run by AGSE, and estimates it needs about 20,000 new teachers by 2029/30. - Spain trains primary teachers in a 240 ECTS degree and secondary teachers in a 60 ECTS master's, then selects them by concurso-oposición, where the exam weighs two-thirds and merits one-third. - About 31% of Spanish teachers are on temporary contracts according to TALIS 2024, against 19% in the OECD, while Law 20/2021 sets a ceiling of 8% of structural posts. Ask how teachers are trained and selected in Europe and you get three very different machines. Finland filters hard at the door of teacher education and then lets municipalities hire. Portugal requires a master's in teaching and ranks everyone on a national list. Spain opens its teaching degrees and its secondary master's fairly widely, then filters through the oposiciones, the regional competitive exams, with a large pool of interim teachers waiting in between. [Democracia 21's launch speech](/en/articles/democracia-21-miriam-gonzalez-proposals-radical-centre) asks Spain to look after its teachers much better. Knowing how each country actually builds its teaching profession is the place to start, and Jennifer Pahlka's work on delivery gives a useful way to read the comparison. ## Finland and Portugal In Finland teachers are trained at universities. Class teachers, who teach grades 1 to 6, and subject teachers both need a master's degree of 300 ECTS, according to Eurydice. For class teachers that is five years. Every teacher qualification includes 60 ECTS of pedagogical studies, theory and supervised teaching practice together, and the practice happens mainly in the universities' own teacher training schools and partner schools, supervised by mentors with a teaching qualification and classroom experience. The selective moment comes at entry. Admission to class teacher education has two stages: a first cut on upper secondary results or a national entrance exam, then an aptitude assessment of the shortlisted applicants that decides the final selection and looks at motivation and interaction skills. The numbers show how tight it is. In the spring 2025 joint application, the University of Helsinki received 1,532 applicants for 120 places in Finnish-language class teacher education and accepted 125 of them, 8.2%. Once qualified, Finnish teachers apply for jobs like anyone else. Eurydice's page on [conditions of service](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/eurypedia/finland/conditions-service-teachers-working-early-childhood-and-school-education) explains that education providers, mostly municipalities, employ their own teachers, advertise vacancies openly and set their own selection criteria, with the aim of choosing someone qualified and suitable for each post. Most teachers then work in tenured posts. Portugal has required a master's degree to teach since 2007, after the Bologna reforms. Primary teachers take a 180 ECTS first degree in basic education and then a teaching master's of 90 to 120 ECTS; secondary teachers take a first degree with at least 120 ECTS in their subject and then a 120 ECTS master's. Supervised practice carries real weight, between 41 and 60 ECTS depending on the master's, and it ends with a report the student defends in public. Selection for public schools is national. The Agency for the Management of the Education System (AGSE) runs a single procedure: candidates list their preferred schools online and are ranked on factors such as their qualification grade, teaching experience and performance assessment. Schools can hire directly only after the central procedure fails to fill a post. A new permanent teacher then serves at least a year of probation with a support teacher. The Portuguese system is now under strain from a shortage. Eurydice reports a diagnostic study estimating that the country will need about 20,000 teachers by 2029/30 and 39,000 by 2034/35. Lisbon has responded on several fronts since 2023: an extraordinary route for candidates without a teaching qualification, who then get up to four years to obtain one; scholarships for students in shortage areas; a grant for master's students during their supervised practice, set by an ordinance of October 2025; and programme contracts with 11 universities and polytechnics for 9,677 training places by 2029/30. ## Spain Spanish primary teachers take a four-year degree of 240 ECTS, set by [Orden ECI/3857/2007](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2007-22449), with a 50 ECTS practicum that includes the final project. Entry follows the general route into university, mostly the Bachillerato and the university entrance exam. Secondary teachers take a degree in their subject and then the one-year Máster de Profesorado, 60 ECTS under [Orden ECI/3858/2007](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2007-22450), of which 16 are practicum and final project. Entry to the master's asks for a degree, a competence test that holders of a related degree can skip, and a B1 in a foreign language, as [Eurydice](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/eurypedia/spain/initial-education-teachers-working-early-childhood-and-school-education) summarises. The decisive filter comes afterwards. Each region calls its own concurso-oposición under Royal Decree 276/2007. The first exam tests subject knowledge with a practical test and a written topic: the panel draws two, three or four topics at random from a published list, depending on its length, and the candidate develops one of them. The second exam is the defence of a teaching programme and a lesson unit. The exam phase counts for two-thirds of the final score and the merit phase, which rewards experience and qualifications, for one-third. Those who win a post then do a supervised probation of more than a term and up to a school year. In between sits the interim teacher. According to Science Media Centre Spain's summary of the OECD's TALIS 2024 survey, about 31% of Spanish teachers are on temporary contracts, against 19% across the OECD and 17% in the EU. [Law 20/2021](https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2021-21651) requires temporary coverage in public administrations to fall below 8% of structural posts. Many interinos teach for years, gathering the experience points that count in the merit phase, while they prepare the topic list for the next call. ## Where the filter sits Jennifer Pahlka's [Recoding America](/en/articles/jennifer-pahlka-recoding-america-explained) is a book about government technology, and its argument travels well. Policy fails when it is designed at the top and handed down, with rules growing more rigid at every step, and when the people who carry it out are treated as an afterthought. A [review in JOTWELL](https://cyber.jotwell.com/?p=2696) sums up her charge as a "cultural contempt for implementation". In education the people who carry out policy are teachers, and the way a country chooses and prepares them is its delivery system. Seen like that, the three countries differ mainly in where they put the demanding filter. Finland puts it at the start, before anyone has invested years, and judges aptitude and practice under supervision. Spain puts it late, in an exam that rewards memorising a list of topics, after degrees with ordinary university entry, and leaves nearly a third of its teachers in limbo while they wait. The left is right that teaching is a public profession that deserves status, decent pay and stable jobs, and a 31% temporary rate falls a long way short. The market-liberal tradition is right that a profession earns status by selecting hard at entry, that teachers should be judged on how they teach, and that schools need more say over who joins them, as Finnish employers have. Pahlka's lens joins the two. Make entry to teaching degrees and to the Máster de Profesorado selective, with an aptitude assessment in the Finnish style; turn practice into the heart of the training, supervised and assessed; then shrink the weight of the topic exam and convert structural interim posts into permanent ones, so that the person standing in front of a class has been chosen for teaching well and supported while learning to do it. Our [proposal for a paid teacher residency and a teaching career](/en/articles/teacher-residency-teaching-career-spain-proposal) sets out how that could work. Portugal is the warning in the middle. It already has the master's and the supervised practice, and it is spending heavily to train enough teachers in time. A filter at the start only works if enough people want to come through it, so status and pay belong in the same reform. ## FAQ ### How do you become a teacher in Finland? You apply to a university teacher education programme. For class teachers there are two stages: a first selection on upper secondary results or a national entrance exam, then an aptitude assessment that decides the final selection. The degree is a 300 ECTS master's, about five years for class teachers, with supervised practice in university training schools. Municipalities and other education providers then advertise posts openly and hire. ### How are teachers selected in Portugal? Candidates need a master's in teaching. Public school posts are filled through a national procedure run by the Agency for the Management of the Education System (AGSE): candidates state their school preferences online and are ranked on factors such as their qualification grade, teaching experience and performance assessment. New permanent teachers serve a probation of at least a year with a support teacher. ### What are the oposiciones for teachers in Spain? They are the regional competitive exams for permanent posts in public schools, regulated by Royal Decree 276/2007. Candidates sit a subject test with a practical part and a written topic drawn at random from a published list, then present a teaching programme and a lesson unit. The exam counts for two-thirds of the score and merits such as experience for one-third, followed by a supervised probation of up to a school year. ### What percentage of teachers in Spain are interim? The OECD's TALIS 2024 survey puts the share of Spanish teachers on temporary contracts at about 31%, against 19% in the OECD and 17% in the EU, according to Science Media Centre Spain. Law 20/2021 requires temporary coverage in public administrations to fall below 8% of structural posts. ## Sources - [Initial education for teachers working in early childhood and school education: Finland](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/eurypedia/finland/initial-education-teachers-working-early-childhood-and-school-education), Eurydice, European Commission (2026) - [Helsingin yliopistoon hakeneet ja hyväksytyt kevään 2025 yhteishaussa (applicants and admissions, spring 2025)](https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2025-09/Yhteishaussa%20kandiohjelmiin%20hakeneet%2C%20hyv%C3%A4ksytyt%20ja%20opiskelupaikan%20vastaanottaneet%20hakukohteittain%20ja%20tiedekunnittain%208.9.2025.pdf), University of Helsinki (2025) - [Initial education for teachers working in early childhood and school education: Portugal](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/eurypedia/portugal/initial-education-teachers-working-early-childhood-and-school-education), Eurydice, European Commission (2026) - [Conditions of service for teachers working in early childhood and school education: Portugal](https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/eurypedia/portugal/conditions-service-teachers-working-early-childhood-and-school-education), Eurydice, European Commission (2026) - [Real Decreto 276/2007, reglamento de ingreso, accesos y adquisición de nuevas especialidades en los cuerpos docentes](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2007-4372), Boletín Oficial del Estado (2007) - [The temporary nature of teaching staff in Spain remains above the OECD average](https://sciencemediacentre.es/en/node/5964), Science Media Centre Spain (2025)