Day 2 - Helsinki Business College

Up at 5am and ready for another day. Getting used to time zone changes means I crash early and wake up super early.

I planned to take the train to Pasilin station but got lost and ended up on the wrong train and had to retrace one stop to find the right train. The interesting thing is that, the locals in Helsinki are incredibly hospitable and helpful. Their English language skills are great and they are more than happy to go out of their way to help you. I spoke to a series of locals for directions as I walked from the metro line to the main railway line. One lady even stopped to check her smart phone to confirm the platforms to make sure I was OK. These Finns are a very impressive people!

Getting around by public transport is great, it gives me the chance to interact with the locals and that is always much more interesting than the easier method of taxis

Today I was meeting with staff from the Helsinki Business College.
Harri is one of their ICT lecturers and has been incredibly helpful in setting up meetings with VET leaders here in Helsinki.

Harri was referred to me by an IT head teacher in Sydney who had met him in conjunction with the World Skills competition. I’m finding that personal referrals is the best way of setting up meetings. It just goes to prove how important it is that we all maintain a diverse and full contact list.

I started by sitting in on one of their IT department meetings, approx. 15 staff meeting with their IT department manager. It was all in Finnish but I sat their quietly watching the staff and trying to read the body language, Harri asked me later what i thought they were discussing and I explained that i thought it was managing student workload over times, the quality of work and how to help students to course complete. He said I was right and had passed my first test in the Finnish language, In all faireness that is what all good teachers discuss at a staff meeting ;-)

I met with several ICT department staff and then had lunch with Harri, Vesa Jokela(Director of adult education) and Antti Loukola(Managing Director and Principal)

Discussion points:

·         Discussed the Finnish vocational educational system(Wikipedia, good explanation but be careful of accuracy) and how students move through from comprehensive schools to either upper secondary schools or Vocational institutes and then onto either Universities(academic) or Universities(Applied Science).

·         There are no pre-organised articulated or integrated pathway programs in Finland yet but HSC is very keen to start one in conjunction with a university of applied sciences. They appear to be very interested in our integrated program with CSU

·         Institutes are often owned by a chamber of commerce or local municipalities.

·         The Finnish education system is going through changes at the moment:

-          Moving to a competency based system

-          Some jobs are being made redundant

-          Some potential changes to funding

·         Teachers appear to be a very highly respected profession. Teachers manage their own students with a sense of originality and flexibility based on student needs “No one tells a teacher how to do their job.”

·         Staff appear to have very high morale

·         All education is free  for the students, this even includes free lunch for the students. I found this amazing compared to the Australian system of user pays.

·         Students receive a “payment” from the government for taking part in a qualification

·         There is a single large staff lunch room where all staff eat and mix together. Lunch was delicious.

·         Course completion rates seem to be similar to Australia

·         Game design is a popular course but includes components so students could work in Programming or Web design and management as well. I thought the course structures were very clever with great subject choices that set students up to be versatile.

·         STEM seems to be as big an issue here as in Australia. It seems like young people are not as keen on technology jobs right across the developed world.

·         Students all have to do work placements, it is a required part of the course, some students complete almost their entire course from the workplace.

·         Assessment has to occur in the workplace and is based on a series of 3 way conversations (student, teacher, workplace supervisor). Assessment is based on the individual student teaching plans.

-          An assessment meeting could take 1-2 hours for a single student. The student needs to explain their evidence and rate their skills

-          Assessment scores- student self assessment 1-3, teacher assessment 1-3, workplace supervisor assessment 1-3, then averaged out to give a mark.

-          Assessment scores are recorded into a web interface based on summary points from the training plan. There doesn’t appear to be much duplication of data. It appears to be a very efficient process.
-     It fascinates me how willing local businesses are to accept students into the workplace. They seem to have a strong sense of responsibility to developing their future workforce. I need to try and meet with some of the employers to understand their motivations better.

·         The ICT and Business Diploma qualifications are typically made up of approx 5 modules(units). Module content descriptions from the Board of education seems to be based around a rubric style with descriptors of the level of understanding. This seems quite different to our Australian competency system but I need to see examples and ask more questions to understand this.

·         The ICT campus is moving to the main business campus.

-          More interaction between Business and ICT

-          New rooms with more modern layouts of classrooms

·         Business department uses simulated business learning environments similar to “practice firms”

·         The ICT department develop workplace simulated projects eg. Helpdesk run by students in conjunction with their main ICT support services

A fascinating day where I think I developed as many questions as answers. Harri has asked me to come back and visit again on Monday after I meet with the Finnish Board of Education.
Harri has been fantastic helping me to setup this study tour, I hope that one day I can repay his generosity.

Helsinki Business College Oy (Ltd.)

Helsinki Business College Ltd. operates a private vocational college, the mission of which is to educate professionals and thereby support the development of working life. Helsinki Business College provides a versatile environment for studying for vocational qualifications in business and administration or business information and communication technology.

We have 170 employees, 100 of whom are teachers, and approximately 3,000 students, of whom some 1,600 are young students. The college has two campuses, a Business Campus for business and administration studies, and an ICT Campus. Helsinki Business College offers the following qualifications:

• Vocational Qualification in Business and Administration, for comprehensive/upper secondary school graduates (Finnish)
• Vocational Qualification in Information and Communications Technology, for comprehensive/upper secondary school graduates (in Finnish)
• Vocational Qualification in Business and Administration and upper secondary school matriculation examination (double qualification) (in Finnish)
• Vocational Qualification in Information and Communications Technology and upper secondary school matriculation examination (double qualification) (in Finnish)
• Vocational Qualification in Business and Administration (QBA) in English for upper secondary school graduates
• Education for immigrants preparing for vocational training (‘Mava’ in Finnish) Helsinki Business College Ltd offers also adult education in the fields of Business and ICT.
• Helsinki Business College Ltd. offers also adult education in Business and ICT.

Helsinki Business College Excellence Center further and specialist qualifications in business administration. It also offers tailor-made programmes and coaching for companies.
https://www.businesscollege.fi/en/about-us/

Quality Management

Vocational Education and Training consists of various development and service tasks whose aim is to respond to the changing labour and competence needs of industry and commerce. The key objective in Quality Management at the Helsinki Business College is to develop the operations and improve their outcomes continuously. Quality Management is an integral part in all functions at each level of the organization.

Our systematic and determined quality management approach has contributed positively to the quality of our operations and education. Finnish Business College has been recognized with the Quality Award granted by the Ministry of Education in years 2004 and 2008.

Brochure of Quality Management

On-the-Job Learning

On-the-job learning became a compulsory part of Finnish vocational education in all areas in 2000. Working in partnership with employers, Helsinki Business College has provided on-the-job learning since 1998. The combination of business theory with practical learning in authentic work situations gives real-life competence to students and improves employers’ opportunities to find competent employees.

On-the-job learning consists of target-oriented, supervised and evaluated studies that take place in the workplace. On-the-job learning accounts for 20-24 credits in the Vocational Qualifications in Customer Services and Selling, Business Administration and User Support as well as Software Engineering. On-the-job learning is organised in two phases: six credits, i.e. six weeks of work during basic studies, and 14-18 credits in the final six months of study during specialising studies.
https://www.businesscollege.fi/en/working-life/on-the-job-learning/