The Finnish Heritage Agency is organising a UNESCO-certified course in Finland. The focus of the course is on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. The course is organised now for the second time, previous was in 2018. 

The course elaborates on UNESCO's global capacity building programme.The trainers are UNESCO-trained facilitators for the 2003 Convention - Jorijn Neyrinck with a team of professionals from Workshop Intangible Heritage (Belgium), Matti Hakamäki from UNESCO accredited NGO Finnish Folk Music Institute and FLAME - European Centre for the Safeguarding of Living Heritage.

The aims of the course are to deepen knowledge on the Unesco Convention on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage; equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed for the development of effective safeguarding plans for living heritage and to strenghten networking between the various actors among the field of intangible heritage. The participants will get lots of practical tools to work with. 

Participants are expected from associations, local communities, museums, education institutions and government offices from all fields of intangible heritage: performing arts, crafts, oral heritage, festivities, knowledge on nature and beyond. 

Capacity building is one of the five functions that UNESCO performs to fulfil its mandate. As such, one of the top priorities for implementing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is its global capacity-building programme. The Programme was put in place in 2009 to support countries in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage and harness its potential for sustainable development, while promoting broad public knowledge and support for the Convention.

The Finnish Wiki-Inventory for Living heritage has received a lot of attention among communities in the country: it has gathered over 250 articles of living heritage from 400 communities in six languages. While inventorying and awareness-raising about safeguarding of living heritage are already well underway in Finland, there is a need for strengthening capacities in safeguarding methodologies. 

The course dates are 3rd and 4th November 2-4 pm (online) and  10^th and 11^th November 9 am to 4:30 pm in Hakaniemenranta 6, Helsinki. The language of the course is English.

The course is free of charge and accepts max 40 participants. The participants will receive a UNESCO Participation certificate at the end of the course.

The course is organized by the Finnish Heritage Agency in cooperation with UNESCO, Workshop Intangible Heritage (BE) and the Finnish Folk Music Institute.

The program schedule of this course will be released soon.

Please register through the link below by latest 20^th October 2025. We will confirm your participation by 24^th October 2025.

 (Photo: Sanna Breilin, Finnish National Theatre / Culture kids)