Community walking tour through Vallinin to Helsinki inner city

Otto Burman from Helsinki Business College (HBC) offered to walk me the 3-4 km back to Helsinki city and show me the community that he grew up in. Otto is a 3rd generation resident of this beautiful Vallinin community that is right on the edge of Helsinki city.

This was a great opportunity to get a feel for our Finns live and what are the issues that matter to them.

Observations

• Housing is mainly apartments due to space restrictions but they have still managed to retain lots of green space with parks, trees and plazas.
• Winters can be very challenging so buildings have to have a mix of outdoor space but also extensive interior space so they can cope with the winters that get down to -30C at times
• Otto showed me the schools where he and his children went. They are mainly 4-5 story building with a play ground. Buildings look to be in recently renovated and well kept
• The community is trying to renovate many older apartment blocks yet still retain the historical character of the community.
• There are several Preschools including 1 very large one 3-4 stories high with a big playground next to it.
• I saw lots of children walking to and from school on the own, this seems a very safe city. 
• I often saw groups of pre-school children going on excursions with their teachers, they would be dressed in bright overall suites and would walk together right through the inner city to get to their destination
• Seems a very safe community, very few sirens or any other aspects that would indicate danger
• Public parks are pretty, simple and have simple play facilities
• They don't seem to be as WHS paranoid as we are in Australia, Not as much safety matting under play equipment and they seem to be more interested in educating kids to be careful than wrapping them in cotton wool
• There's a very strong sense of community
• Very little graffiti, a free graffiti wall is provided but I rarely saw other examples of graffiti or any vandalism
• The Finns are very focused on civic responsibilities and don't appear to be a rules based society eg. It is a legal requirement to wear bike helmets but police will not waste their time prosecuting this. It is your personal responsibility to do the right thing or be responsible for the outcome. There is a strong sense of responsibility of the individual and the need to do the right thing by your community
• Teacher conditions - The Finns have similar wages, teaching hours and holidays as we do in Australia. 
• Wages and teaching conditions seemed very similar allowing for exchange rates. I asked how they could afford the education system they have, they were puzzled by my question and instead asked me where our money was going? It's a good question.
• Taxation seems to be higher than Australia but I suspect the real final cost is similar as we have to pay for medical and education services.
• They seem very focused on educational outcomes and are determined not to complicate education with any excessive bureaucratic processes.
• They were shocked about our staff often eating at their desks, they stress that we need time to relax, reflect and communicate. They seem to always eat together in their large staff cafeteria
• The Finnish qualifications are less complicated than ours but have plenty of choices through electives
• They have less qualifications but more choices in electives to fine tune their course to student needs. Students have the right to select electives
• Entrepreneurial concepts are built into most courses
• There is a strong sense of respect for the teachers judgement.
• It is a shared responsibility for students, teachers and employers to make assessments. Students are always assessed in the workplace
• There is a simple documentation process to record assessments results, they refer to the individual student training plan rather than duplicating any data from them.
• We visited a community library that was busy and well used. They had quiet and breakout rooms. Anyone was welcome to borrow a book including me! There was no complex process to register. 
• HSB students do projects in the community library where they provide a help desk service to the community and elderly in particular on how to use their mobile phones and basic PC troubleshooting, 
• We walked past several trade union offices on the way. About 75% of Finns are in a union and there appears to be a very active constructive consultation between the unions, employers and education. Sometimes they protest if they are not happy about an issue but usually it is all very consultative
• We walked over a bridge on the edge of the city that still had bullet holes and shell damage from the past. They left some of the damage visible to remind themselves of the war and their desire never to go to war again.
• I lost count of the number of buildings that belonged to Libraries, colleges, schools and universities. Education is obviously very important to them!