Presentation at Senior Management Meeting in the Ministry of Education, Rwanda. 11th May 2015 by Satu Järvinen & Esko Lius

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Education for work and life in Finland
Satu Järvinen, Esko Lius
Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in Espoo Region

2. 5/11/2015 THINK FINLAND 2EXPERIENCE / INGENUITY / COURAGE
POPULATION: 5.4 million
CURRENCY: Euro
INTERNATIONAL STATUS: Achieved
independence in 1917; member of the
European Union since 1995; militarily non-
aligned
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE: Services 67 % of
GDP, industry 30 %, agriculture 3 %; exports
account for 39 % of GDP
AREA: 338,000 km² (130,500 square miles)
LOCATION: Northern Europe; shares borders
with Sweden, Norway and Russia
CAPITAL: Helsinki (population 596,000)
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: Finnish 90.4 %,
Swedish 5.4 %
RELIGIONS: Evangelical Lutheran Church 78 %;
Orthodox Church 1 %; no religious affiliation 19
%; other religious communities 2 %
SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary
democracy; presidential elections every six years;
Parliament (200 members) elected every four
years
GDP PER CAPITA
€ 33,600
USA
FINLAND
GERMANY
EU

3. Finland’s history is a history of progress on education.

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”…every child should have exactly the same
opportunity to learn, regardless of family
background, income, or geographic location.
Education has been seen first and foremost not as a
way to produce star performers, but as an instrument
to even out social inequality.”
- Pasi Sahlberg

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HOW DO WE DO IT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcC2l8zioIw

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Top scores are achieved
where everyone has equal opportunities.

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Free education for all.

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Life-long learning.

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Teachers are highly trained &
appreciated.

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ISCED
6
5
4
3
1&2
0
Finnish Education System

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National Administration of Education
Two-tier structure:
 The Ministry of Education and Culture is the highest authority
educational legislation, all necessary decisions and its share of
the state budget.
 Finnish National Board of Education
national development agency responsible for primary and
secondary education as well as for adult education and training.
Higher education is the responsibility of the Ministry of
Education and Culture.

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VET in Finland
 Finnish National Board of Education,
 Regulations on vocational qualifications
 qualification requirements
 assessment criteria
 other regulations concerning vocational education and training
 At present, there are 371 qualifications in Finland
 52 vocational qualifications divided into 113 study programs
 88 further vocational qualifications
 131 specialist vocational qualifications

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Funding of VET in Finland (2015)
Vocational basic education 1,646 m. €
Vocational additional education 170 m. €
Apprenticeship training, basic education 70 m. €
Apprenticeship training, additional education 70 m. €
State budget 54.3 billion € of which MinEdu 6.8 billion €
Gross national product (2014) 204 billion €

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 Vocational education has a high profile in
Finland.
 apr. 50 % of 9th graders apply to vocational
institutions.
 Optional double degree track; vocational
qualification and matriculation certificate.
 No dead ends! A graduate can continue to a
university or polytechnic with a vocational
qualification.
Strengths of Finnish VET 1/2

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Stengths of Finnish VET 2/2
 Lifelong learning skills embedded into the curriculum.
 All teachers have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, job experience and have
completed a 60 credit teacher training program.
 The Finnish National Board of Education has focused programs on
developing the VET curriculum, learning environments and working life
cooperation.

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EDUCATION FOR WORK

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Long Term Laborforce Planning
 Study to get forecasts of the supply and demand for labor within 12 main
sectors. Scenarios cover the next 25 years.
 The Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) uses the LLM results to
anticipate educational needs on a time frame for the next 5 to 7 years.

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Long-term anticipation of demand for labor
and educational needs in Finland

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TRAINING OF VET TEACHERS IN FINLAND

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VET Teacher Qualification in Finland
Applicable university or polytechnics degree
Three years of working experience
Vocational teacher education: pedagogical qualification
Further professional training

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National Goals
Finland to be the most competent nation in the world in 2020
85% of VET teachers have their Vocational Teacher Qualification
- Omnia: 91.6%

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Vocational Teacher Education
● Arranged by universities and polytechnics
● Connected to work environment and contexts, interaction,
collaboration and networking
● Personal development plan, takes into account previous acquired
competences
● Teacher is a team-player, guidance-counselor > reflected in studies

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VET Teacher Studies Consist of
Recognition, display, development plan and
assessment of competence 5 cp
Basic studies in pedagogy 25 cp
Teacher activity in communities and networks 6 cp
Teaching practice 13 cp
Research and development of learning and
the Work of Teachers 6 cp
Advanced studies 5 cp

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Further Professional Training
National Board of Education (NBE) sets the emphasis on the areas of
development and further professional training
NBE funds further professional training for 8.4 m. € (2015)
▪ Particularly allocated to VET 1.7 m. €
The pedagogical studies for vocational teachers are regulated by
the competence objectives and qualification requirements set by
vocational institutes or universities of applied sciences
(law on universities of applied sciences 351/2003 and the
decree on teaching personnel qualification requirements 986/1998)

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Topics and Forms of
Further Professional Training
 Pedagogical competences
 ICT competences
 Specialist in competence based qualifications
 Workplace instructor training
 Short term courses
 Long term courses
 Combined with development projects
 RPL & open badges

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Further Professional Training in Omnia
Pedagogical competences
Substance competences (on-the-job training minimum every 5th year)
 70% of personnel (2014)
Management development
ICT competences
Specialist in competence based qualifications
5.7 training days / year / person (2014)
Development projects, peer mentoring, ICT-support, RPL & open badges
Annual personal development discussions with manager

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Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in
Espoo Region
 Our Vision
 Omnia – the path to top competence
 Our Values
– High appreciation of professional skills
– Customer orientation
– Responsibility
– Social cohesion
 Our Strategies
– Socially and Ecologically Responsible
Development
– Innovative Learning Solutions
– Effective Regional Development
– Effective Performance

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Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education
in Espoo Region 2015
Consortium meeting
Executive board
Inspection board
General director of Omnia
Committees
Consortium services
Accounting and financial
services
HR services ICT services Facility services
Communication and development services InnoOmnia
General administration
Information, advice and guidance services InfoOmnia
Vocational upper-
seondary school
Vocational adult
education and training
Youth workshops
Apprenticeship
training
General upper
secondary school for
adults
Liberal adult
education
Learning solutions for youth Learning solutions for adults
Board of directors

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Omnia in numbers…
 Students 40 000
– In vocational education apr. 11 000
– General upper secondary education
– Liberal adult education
 Personell 850
– Full-time teachers 2/3
 Our region
– Capital region
– Population is growing
– SMEs at our focus

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…and with keywords
 Life Long Learning , LLL
 Life Long Guidance
 Multi-sectoral training programmes
– Focus on competencies and the needs of worklife
 Enterprises and worklife have a central role
– As clients
– As partners: Working life development and service assignment
 Multi-cultural population
– Importance of international co-operation

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In Practice
 Authentic, practical & real learning
an learning environments
 Work based learning
 Examinations based on
demonstration of skills and
competences
 Context and needs-specific design
of training
– Competences must meet the
needs of worklife
 Marketing: awareness raising and
dialogue with enterprises and
potential students
 Development work in partnership
with stakeholders

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Vocational training cannot be relevant without close
connection to working life
There are many ways to do it - but we must do it
– and listen to the stakeholders:
Enterprises/employers, students
–and those who pay the bill

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InnoOmnia
 creates 21st century learning
solutions and entrepreneurship
together with local working life.
 offers training, rents workspace, but
above all is a buzzing community of
people with a passion for innovation
& entrepreneurship.
 strengthens bridges between
employers and VET students.
 aims at ensuring employability and
successful careers and life paths for
Omnia sudents.

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Regional Development
 Ongoing dialogue with the three
municipalities owning Omnia, the local
entrepreneurs’ associations and working
life to improve the impact.
 Multiple entrepreneurial and
pedagogical projects at the national and
international level.
 Wide local, national and international
networks.

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Why new approaches?
 Structural changes in Finnish industries
 Increasing youth unemployment
 Low rate of VET graduates’
entrepreneurship
 Need for entrepreneurial education within
VET system
 Need for novel ways of creating
innovations and services

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New Approaches Needed
for Staff Development
 21st century transforms the world of work
 Less money available
 Teachers are not motivated to find time to attend training
 Onsite training is not always available

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Anticipation of Demand for
Labor and Educational Needs
 National skills & competences standards
 Vision, mission, objectives, and strategies
 Pedagogical and pedagogical ICT strategy
 HR development strategy

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Action Plan for 21st Century VET
 Set minimum skill requirements for permanent staff (including management)
 School management must internalise the process and engage to it
 Motivate to self-steering development
 Mechanism how to assess and analyse development in organization
 Peer mentoring
 Public-private partnership

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Professional Development Based on
Recognition of Prior Learning
 Open systems for recognizing competence according to
minimum requirements
 Personalized learning paths
 Use of ICT in competence development
 Use of existing open standard systems like Mozilla Open Badges
 Gamification: motivation of personal, team and organization competition
 Updating the tools and environments of work and professional development
 Open educational resources easily accessible
 BYOD: Own smart phones in teaching and learning

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Applying Open Badges in Staff Development
 Badges provide an easy and scalable tool for structuring HR development
 Build a practical approach on minimum requirements
 Let the operative field to set criteria and create badges
 Utilize pools of ICT-competent teachers and organizations
 Collaborate with private sector and third sector

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Some examples of our projects:
 Egypt (Twinning)
 Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Productivity and
Vocational Training Department PVDT within the Vocational Training
System in Egypt
 Kosovo (Twinning)
 Support Implementation of the Kosovo Education Sector Strategic Plan
2011-2016
 Tunisia (AfDB)
 Elaboration et mise en oeuvre d’un dispositif de formation en
entreprenariat et en pédagogie active au profit des Universités et
centres de formation professionnelle.

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Awarded work
• National Quality Award with special recognition for entrepreneurial learning
• Konsta award for promoting innovation in learning
• Member of UNEVOC, a global community promoting excellence in vocational
education and training
• 2013 WISE book Learning a Living: Radical Innovation in Education for Work
• InnoOmnia's mobile learning initiatives showcased by VISIR, a network
promoting micro innovation practices in the field of ICT for learning
• Member of the ETF good practice network striving to develop indicators for
entrepreneurship education
• Omnia's achievements in innovating vocational education and training were
disseminated as part of the Torino process
• Certificate of Sustainable Development in 2014
• Seniori365.fi rewarded by Design for All Foundation’s Best Practice 2014
• Awarded in Digital Media and Learning Competition: Open Badge Passport

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Thank you for your attention !
satu.jarvinen@omnia.fi esko.lius@omnia.fi