Aihearkisto: kielitaito

Nature Tourism in Finland

ECVET, kielitaito, kotikansainvälisyys, osaaminen, saapuvat opiskelijat

Tourism Activities programme has hosted the first official international study module on nature sports tourism in Jyväskylä 14 August – 8 September 2017. 

Teachers Hanna Syvälahti and Timo Lehtonen, led by Programme Manager Eeva-Liisa Hjelt, have created a 3-4 week module that integrates the incoming students into a Finnish class and immerses all participants into the possibilities of Finnish nature tourism. The incoming participants were 9 learners from SŠGT Celje High school for tourism (Slovenia) and 5 learners from BBS Wittmund (Germany).  The concept has been tested and developed in previous years, with participants from Germany, Estonia and Italy.  The programme this time included e.g. kayaking, fat biking, nature trails, Finnish food and sauna culture, a variety of summer activities as well as great events.  For the Finnish students the module has also been an excellent opportunity for Internationalisation at Home (IaH).

The module is developed based on the current teaching programme at our college with the help of the ECVET recommendation to facilitate easier validation and recognition at the sending organisations. The module is described in terms of learning outcomes (knowledge, skills and competences) and the assessment is done in a valid, reliable and transparent manner.

The expected learning outcomes of the module were:

  • to use appropriate equipment in different situations (various outdoor activities)
  • to take care of equipment (maintenance)
  • to take care of different venues (preparatory tasks, service, cleaning, maintenance)
  • to utilize sector specific language in customer service situations and guiding (English)
  • to take responsibility for guidance
  • to take care of own safety and to take care of customer safety (theory of safety plans in practical assignments)
  • to co-operate in his/her working community, to work in a team
  • to assess his/her own work and actions

The  development of the module will continue in the Winter School which will take place in March 2018, when the Ma17b class  will study nature tourism activities in completely different conditions with another group of incoming Erasmus students.

Photos courtesy of SŠGT Celje

More information:

Teachers Hanna Syvälahti (at)jao.fi and Timo Lehtonen

International Coordinator Rea Tuominen (at)jao.fi

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

 

Tourism Winter School

ECVET, kielitaito, kotikansainvälisyys, osaaminen, saapuvat opiskelijat

Who are you and where do you come from?

We are a group of six students from East Frisia in Germany. Our names are Angelina (24), Fenna (25), Nadja (27), Imke (23), Julia (23), and Deike (23).

What are you studying?

We are in the second and third year of a school for business administration with the subject tourism in Wittmund, Germany. We learn a lot about marketing, accounting and the management from companies, especially tourism companies like tourist information, bus companies or hotels.

Our school includes three work placements, each of them takes 6 months. We can collect many experiences in that time.

What have you been doing in Jyväskylä?

We were on a school for tourism and did many interesting things in Jyväskylä. The special attention was sustainability in other European countries, how to do tourism activities in bigger groups and how to act with problems while guiding a group. We did many winter sports like snowshoeing, fat biking and cross-country skiing. We were doing some sports we have not done before and we have collected great experiences.

How long have you stayed in Jyväskylä?

We were in Jyväskylä for two weeks. (11.03.-25.03.2017)

Do you think the time has been too short (why?), too long (why?)

It was a perfect time for winter tourism. The time was not too long or too short. It was very physical to do all the kinds of sports all day but in the two weeks we had the chance to do some sports two times to assure the skills.

What have you learned during your stay?

At first, we learned how to work in a group and of course the new sports. As a second aspect, we learned lots of the culture and the people in Finland. It was awesome to become friends with some classmates, to spent time with them and to be in another country.

What have been the best moments during your stay?  

The best moments were definitely the excursions to different places, the flexibility of the teachers and the program, the different kinds of sports and the people. Our class became more a class like before the trip and we are now a good team. The people we met were also great, they were so nice to us and it will be a pleasure to meet them again.

Give three tops and tips (based on your own experience) to someone who is planning to come to Jyväskylä. How should they prepare? What should they do/see/visit/experience?

  1. Visit the tower of Jyväskylä. You will have a great view of Jyväskylä and the lakes around the city.
  2. Go to an Ice-Hockey game. The spirit is incredible.
  3. If you have, the chance enjoy a finish sauna and go after it into the icy lake to cool down.
  4. On a nice clearly evening in the right time, you have to see the northern lights.

More information Timo Lehtonen and Hanna Syvälahti

ECVET and entrepreneurial mindset in Wien

ECVET, kielitaito, koulutusjärjestelmät, opiskelijaliikkuvuus, osaaminen

Learners from the project partner colleges from Macedonia, Slovenia and Finland had an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the workshops for VET learners in Vienna, Austria, organised by IFTE organization.

IFTE is an Austrian association that promotes entrepreneurial attitudes of young people for their professional and entrepreneurial independence in order to create a culture of entrepreneurship. http://www.ifte.at/

The training activities during the blended learning activity  will enable students  to gain new experiences of entrepreneurial learning and  development of the students’ entrepreneurial mind. Challenges trigger brain activity and they provoke development of the essential entrepreneurial skills such as self-motivation, leadership qualities, innovative mind and competitive spirit.  The training workshops were held by IFTE’s professionals and they inspired students to work towards broadening their entrepreneurial minds and developing logical and skills of negotiation.

The Finnish participants Veera Romppainen, Milja Lahdenvesi, Saara Vänni and Taija Nuorgam from the surface treatment programme (painting and decorating) were especially impressed by how sustainability and environmental issues were always at the core of all activities and presentations no matter what the sector was in question. CSR – corporate social responsibility is a corporation’s  initiatives to assess and take responsibility for the company’s effects on environmental and social wellbeing. The term generally applies to efforts that go beyond what may be required by regulators or environmental protection groups.

Participating staff (Maja, Brigitta and Mimi) discussing implementing ECVET into curriculum planning for the next and final PEEISS blended learning activity in Macedonia in May 2017.

More information  about the project http://peeiss.com

LINK 2 becomes LINK 3

ECVET, kielitaito, koulutusjärjestelmät, opiskelijaliikkuvuus, osaaminen

LINK 2 project has been running for almost three years and it is the time for analyzing the results and submitting the final report. During the project seven transnational meetings and five blended learning activities were arranged with participants from all five partners and the associated partner from Switzerland. The blended learning activities gave the possibility to work together during  five working days combining the teaching activities and the other areas that are covered in this project – administration of the project, meta theme and frame theme.

The project had three major areas to cover in the project:

  1. The basic theme on packaging design and production should result in the planning and description of 5 week courses with different focus on topics in the area of ‘packaging’.
  2. The meta theme should result in inspiration, guidance of best practice and experience on pedagogic practice and the education of teachers in each country. The possibility of blended learning and digital classroom should be investigated.
  3. Theframe theme about how to prevent dropout from the VET educations should likewise result in inspiration, guidance of best practice and experience of effective actions.

The major achievements of this project are as follows (in no particular order of importance):

INSPIRATION – A great inspiration for all participants – both staff members and students- to work together and share knowledge and methods. The staff members have been almost the same persons in all meetings and the possibility of learning other professionals working in the graphic area of education and work together have produced a lot of good ideas and along the way developed the way teachers work in their own environment. The added value of being together and see each other work as coaches in the students working groups has produced new ideas and knowledge to each teacher.

JOB-SPECIFIC AND TRANSVERSAL SKILLS – The students have learned a lot about the specific topics of the activities they participated in. Apart from that the challenges of working together in groups where each group member represented a different level of skills and knowledge and with different levels of language skills  have been rewarding and a positive experience to almost all. During one week of intensive learning and with intensive social life aside transnational friendships has developed.

CULTURAL LEARNING – Each of the participants – students and staff members – have learned a lot about the ways of living in the participating partner countries, learned about design and production traditions in the area of packaging in the counties and first of all the language skills (in English) has improved during the project-period. For the staff-members because we have had the opportunity to develop a common language, and for the students we have experienced that the level of English skills have become better and better.

INNOVATION –New curricula in the field of packaging design and marketing has not formerly been running. It has been innovative to develop these curricula’s alongside with the two other themes on pedagogic and didactic aspects in teachingin the area of graphic design and production and politics to prevent students drop out from the educational systems. The awareness of having a focus on the to last themes when performing educational activities have produced new ideas and developed new methods of teaching.

DIGITAL SKILLS – New software skillshas been introduced – unknown to both teachers and students – like ESKO and EngView for cad/cam production of packaging and Balsamiq, Sketch and Invision for design of e-business homepages.

SUSTAINABILITY – LINK 2 is a testament of the effectiveness of long-term partnerships. Less time is spent on getting to know each other and more is spent on co-creating, peer learning and producing results. The network is strong enough now to also evolve into completely new vocational areas and themes.

From the start of the project the participants have had two sayings in their minds: “thinking out of the box” and “looking over the fence” to express the idea of leaving habits and as-usual’s back home and be innovative and bring in elements that are complementary to the ways things are normally done.

The project team is convinced that the project has brought new ideas and methods to all of the partners and that the results that achieved will bring inspiration to other schools and organizations working in the field of graphic education.

Learn more about the project here: https://thebestlink.org/

A follow-up project, LINK 3  – Quality of digitalization in VET, with a slightly wider focus will be submitted by HANSENBERG, DK in March 2017.

More information:

Jyväskylä College – Vesa Iltola and Markku Tiihonen (at)jao.fi

NEXT, Copenhagen – Project Leader Claus Bojsen Pedersen cbp(at)nextkbn.dk