We in Finland like to think that sisu (resilience) is culturally  a very Finnish phenomenon and maybe it is, but it is also a characteristic more and more in demand in the modern world of constant changes and challenges. Effective strategies to manage wellbeing are increasingly important for everyone. Upper secondary education -both VET and academic –  must prepare learners for a world where they are required to cope with the pressures whether they choose to continue directly to further education or go into the labour market. Coping with stressful situations like interviews, managing workloads and deadlines are essential working life skills today.

Building Resilience is an Erasmus + KA2 project where three European colleges (VWNotts/ UK, BBS Osnabruck/DE and Jyväskylä College/ FI) share and develop their current strategies to support students with stress and anxiety for example by making individual exam arrangements and increasing pastoral care.

The partners met for a kick off meeting in Mansfield, UK for two very productive days 31 Oct and 1 Nov to plan the next steps including the small study that the partners are going to undertake as part of the project. More information in this blog after the first results are ready at the start of 2018.

More information Minna Ahokas and Rea Tuominen (at)jao.fi