Aihearkisto: henkilöstö

We and I culture with Rijn Ijssel

henkilöstö, kotikansainvälisyys, koulutusjärjestelmät, osaaminen

The week before our mid-term break we had the pleasure of hosting ten visitors from the Netherlands. They came from one of our core partners, Rijn Ijssel VET College in Arnhem. The visit was a follow-up of several of our guidance and support staff having visited Arnhem in the recent years. The theme of this study visit was  to explore the various elements in student centered support systems in the Finnish VET. The programme included many visits and lots of discussion on themes such as avoiding drop-outs, individualisation of learning and transition from comprehensive education to upper secondary education.

 

 

 

 

 

On the final day of the visit, the visitors themselves were put in ‘the driver’s seat’ and they arranged a workshop on cultural differences – on the topic of we and I cultures – for the staff of Jyväskylä College and the five German trainee teachers that had been doing their placement with us for three weeks by then.

At the end of the day we also arranged an extensive feedback session for the visitors and asked them to share their thoughts on the visit and what they had learned. Here are some of their answers:

What was new?

  • entrerpreneurship
  • flexible start of studies
  • own path/ individual learning/ focus more on individual than group
  • practical learning at school
  • the flexibility of the whole system
  • possibilities in education also for adults / lifelong learning easier
  • closer relationship between teacher and student
  • free breakfast and lunch
  • respect for teacher, each other, environment and buildings

What surprised you?

  • same problems with the students e.g. drop-outs, attendance
  • self-reflection at such an early age/ spending a lot of time on self-reflection
  • no national tests/exams
  • students are quiet
  • great equipment
  • education is free
  • validation of previously acquired competences ( holiday jobs, social activities)
  • no grade/ exam pressure
  • personal help and support of the teacher for their students
  • calling  the teacher by their first name

What will you do? What kind of an impact will your visit in Finland have on your thinking, actions, way of working and/ or your organisation?

  • changing school and lessons into a place the students like to go to
  • individualize teaching more
  • value traditions but also appreciate changes
  • self-reflection for teacher and students
  • focus on skills (still missing) and (not so much) on what students already can do
  • introduce team teaching to my school
  • introduce self-reflection
  • lower the distance between teacher + team + counselor
  • long term goal:  start a course on entrepreneurship in my school
  • make more use of what students do in their free-time and side jobs

I want more! What would you like to happen next?

  • learn more about the matter of self-reflection
  • continue exchange with the purpose of learning from each other
  • learn more about education systems in Europe
  • (have a system where students can) start education any time
  • start pre-vocational programmes (valma)
  • make a project on avoiding dropouts
  • create warm, open, flexible individual learning paths without using so many hours for the inspections
  • international exchanges

A lot of food for thought! The next step of this cooperation will take place in November when Principal Pirjo Kauhanen and Programme Manager Minna Ahokas will visit Rijn Ijssel. During this meeting the memorandum of understanding between the two colleges will be renewed, and who knows, perhaps some of the issues mentioned above will also be discussed?

More information

Minna Ahokas (at)jao.fi

Rea Tuominen (at) jao.fi

Network of Networks in Glasgow

ECVET, henkilöstö, kielitaito, kilpailutoiminta, kotikansainvälisyys, koulutusjärjestelmät, koulutusvienti, opiskelijaliikkuvuus, osaaminen, rahoitus, saapuvat opiskelijat

35 members from 16 VET colleges and four other organisations came together on Monday 2 October in Glasgow for three consecutive days of discussions and sharing project ideas. The Finnish network was represented by staff from all four VET providers Tredu, Varia, Salpaus and Jyväskylä.Jyväskylä Educational Consortium was represented by Chief IT and Quality Officer, Hanna Rajala and International Coordinators Milka Niskanen and Rea Tuominen.

Network of Networks is a cooperation forum of five national networks; Finn Net from Finland, The Dutch Alliance from the Netherlands, Colleges Partnership from West Scotland, Colleges NI from Northern Ireland and HETEL from the Basque country in Spain.

Topics discussed during the first project workshops were among other things: skills mismatch, digitalisation, continous professional development of VET staff, preparing VET staff for a less classroom based future as well as collaboration for improving commercial income streams.

More information Rea Tuominen

GBS St. Gallen in Jyväskylä

Board  members of GBS St. Gallen from Switzerland have visited Jyväskylä Educational Consortium for two very  intensive days 24-25 August 2017. 

The visitors were given an extensive overview of the organisation, education system and all the development going on at the moment. GBS St. Gallen is since several years a partner for the media  sector (printing, photography). They are also one of the external partners in the KA2 project Commercialpolis. One of the concrete aims of this visit was to expand this cooperation to other fields and to the strategic level as well.

Amongst many other things the principals and managers of GBS St Gallen (name list below) were introduced to Finnish vocational teacher training,  development regarding digitalisation of both processes and learning, quality assurance, language teaching and guidance processes. Teacher training was presented by Harri Keurulainen, Hannele Torvinen and Tuulia Kiilavuori from JAMK Teacher Education College.

Thursday afternoon the visitors met with Principal Pirjo Kauhanen to discuss the organisational changes and the VET reform.

Friday morning was devoted to regional development and global partnerships presented by Director of Development Anu Tokila and Programme Manager Marleena Tuuri.

 

During the visit both parties found out that, although there are significant systemic level differences, there are a lot of similiarities on strategic level that can be advanced through cooperation between the two VET providers. In the more immediate future there is hope to work on issues around digitalisation as well as staff and student mobilities. We are expecting the first mobilities to take place during this school year from electrical engineering and hairdressing programmes.

Participants from GBS St. Gallen

  • Lukas Reichle, director of GBS
  • Daniel Kehl,  deputy-director of GBS, head of vocational education and training at GBS
  • Thomas Klement, head of the technical departement of GBS
  • Patrik Forrer, head of the school of design of GBS
  • Nicole Bauer, head of KSD – social care team of GBS
  • Jürg Pfeiffer, head of paedagogical advice and support team of GBS
  • Michael Andrist, head of IT at GBS

More information on the Commercialpolis project:

http://www.commercialpolis.eu/project/about-commercialpolis/ project

Picture credit: Daniel Kehl

More information: Rea Tuominen, international coordinator

 

More visitors from VWNotts

ECVET, globaalistuminen, henkilöstö, koulutusjärjestelmät, opiskelijaliikkuvuus, osaaminen, saapuvat opiskelijat

Jyväskylä Educational Consortium had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Andrew King (Director of Innovation and Strategy) and Ms. Kadri Saat (International Coordinator)  from our partner college in Mansfield, UK for three days between 10-12 April 2017.

The visit was short and intensive covering many areas of mutual interest including entrepreneurship education, management of the blended learning (VET & Adults), use of technology, plans for the future as well as relationships with employers (delivery and what part they play in VET) and relationship with HE and progressions for VET learners.

Kadri Saat, Pirjo Kauhanen and Andrew King

The visitors impressions were very positive and although the visit was short  we were able to indentify several areas where we can continue cooperation and learn from each other. When asked to mention three main takeaways from the meetings and discussions they had during their visit Andrew and Kadri mentioned the following:

“Firstly,  the relationship you have with the local employers: the way you nurture these, the impact to the skills and competencies from an extended on-the-job learning and how the end competency test is often completed at the workplace.

Then, how the entrepreneurship is embedded across the college and how all students are encouraged to establish and run mini companies with the support from the college.

The partnership and strong collaborative work that you do with two local universities. The new centrally based joint company to share the resource, expertise and support the progression.”

Andrew King, Jaana Virtanen and Hanna Frilander visiting the new facilites at Harju Campus.

Kadri and Andrew would like to thank everyone who participated in their visit: Pirjo Kauhanen, Anu Tokila, Maarit Kaija, Hanna Rajala,  Niina Helin, Pia Kotro,  Sinikka Luukainen, Sari Mynttinen, Mira Ahtila, Milka Niskanen, Minna Ahokas, Jaana Virtanen, Hanna Frilander & Markku Tarvainen.

More information: Rea Tuominen p.6159

http://www.wnc.ac.uk/

Digitalisation in Northern Ireland

henkilöstö, koulutusjärjestelmät, osaaminen, rahoitus, seuranta

Money is tight and in all our development work the motto is “more for less” – there is an increased need to find new, efficient ways in organizing VET provision with the help of ICT and learning technology and all supportive services around them.

VET qualifications in Finland are fully competence based and in no way linked to any input elements anymore. With the exception of comprehensive school leavers for whom there is a targeted, national joint application process, also intake is now more or less non-stop which means that new learners can start their studies basically every week. This also means that VET providers are required to make learning plans for each learner individually.

With the above in mind, a team of Jyväskylä Educational Consortium staff members – including  Hanna Rajala, Chief Information Officer & Quality Manager, Jaana Virtanen, Learning Technology Expert, Vesa Pulkkinen, IT designer, specialized in student information systems and learning technology and Minna Ahokas, Programme Manager, guidance counselling, libraries – set out to investigate how our partners in Norther Ireland are using digital tools to improve and make their processes more effective.  The visit took place at three of the six NI VET providers, all members also of The Network of Networks (NoN) led by The Dutch Alliance (TDA).

Keith Kilpatrick, Assistant Director for ILT Development and ILT Systems

The group had with them a long list of question such as

  • How are ICT services organised; what is done internally, what is co-created with partners and what services, if any, are bought from a third party? Where client-software / cloud-software are used and what kind of support services are provided for college staff and (VET) learners?
  • Virtual learning policies and strategies; what is the procedure, how are decisions on eLearning tools used/ supported made? How is the support for teachers organized so that they can efficiently use learning technology in their teaching? What kind of virtual learning tools are used and how and how is the use monitored?
  • Guidance; how are guidance and career counselling processes organised? Who are responsible for various stages of guidance and career counselling (recruitment, student admission, guidance during and at the end of the studies? What kinds of digital or other tools are used in guidance?

Glen McMahon, International Manger, Belfast MET

More often than not, we find out that there are more similarities than differences between our practices and those of our partners, and this is also the conclusion of this benchmarking visit. In some areas we are a little bit behind, in others perhaps a step or two ahead. Although all hosts, Southern Regional College, Belfast Metropolitan College and Northern Regional College are operating in a relatively similar context, they had all solved some of the issues in slightly different ways or started their implementation process from a slightly different angle. These contrasts made the 3-day visit very interesting and not repetitive in the least.  Having said that, perhaps the most important outcome of the visit was the message of cooperation. Although all VET providers have their own processes and various things are created and provided for local use, they also benefit greatly from cooperation not just on regional but on national level as well.

The Northern Irish VET providers are all members of Jisc – the UK higher, further education and skills sectors’ not-for-profit organisation for digital services and solutions. Jisc champion the importance and potential of digital technologies for UK education and research; and do three main things: operate shared digital infrastructure and services, negotiate sector-wide deals with IT vendors and commercial publishers and  provide trusted advice and practical assistance for universities, colleges and learning providers. The research and development work done by Jisc is integrated across these three areas.

A relatively cheap Jisc annual membership provides its members a significant advantage by pooling resources and sharing expertise nationally.

Discussions on this issue will continue at the Network of Networks Annual Meeting in the UK in September 2017.

Jaana Virtanen, Hanna Rajala, Damien Caldwell, Minna Ahokas, Vesa Pulkkinen and Irvine Abraham at NRC Ballymena campus.

The JEC team wishes to thank the hosts Southern Regional College, Belfast MET and Norther Regional College. Hopefully we can return the favour to you all sometime in the not too distant future!