Pathways to achieving high-impact TVET are in the close relationship between work life and education. Wherever we are in the world we can see how working life can change very rapidly. Finnish TVET has advanced through raising the profile of educators and students, designing state-of-the-art futures-oriented training to students, and giving access to competence-based qualifications for rapid student entry into working life. In Finnish TVET our mantra is ‘working together works’ – and now this includes working with TVET teachers and students across the globe.
Nurturing Collaborative Learning & Teamwork
Realizing teacher teamwork in everyday TVET life
Finnish education is based on socio-constructivist theories of learning. Active student learning and collaboration throughout Finnish education leads to successful learning of knowledge and skills. This approach can be increasingly seen in leading schools, and especially in TVET. However, this is only half the picture.
If a TVET school is to become a powerful learning community, teachers also must cooperate, collaborate, and set an example of genuine teamwork – now a key 21st Century competence.
Finnish education recognised this some 30 years ago and has developed systemic ways in which the curriculum can be operationalized, and teaching schedules synchronized, to make teacher teamwork a normal practice in day-to-day school life. From an administrative point of view this must be done without extra expense, and with maximum efficiency.
The outcomes in TVET are impressive in relation to time-on-task and student learning. Research shows that co-teaching improves teachers’ job satisfaction and supports professional learning.
The secret of successful is where TVET
- has a systemic plan which continuously boosts fluidity of teaching practices
- communicates the value of teacher collaboration
- identifies and harnesses individual teachers’ strengths in creating opportunities for teamwork
- clarifies co-teacher roles and responsibilities and enables co-planning
- organizes professional development to support co-teaching practice
1st place
best country in Europe in lifelong learning, European Innovation Scoreboard, 2019
Generating TVET High Impact Learning Practices
Developing high-impact teaching and learning activities for Generation Z
Finland has an impressive track record in challenging conventional wisdom and showing evidence of teaching practices that are particularly successful. Educational practices in Finland are also highly adaptable. This adaptability has been vital in responding to the learning needs of Generations Z and A (born 1995-2025). These young people are neo-digital natives who devote considerable time and energy to on-screen activities. This affects how they behave at school, and in classrooms.
In long-standing Finnish tradition our TVET teachers have turned challenges into opportunities, and problems into solutions. This is through designing and testing high impact practices. These practices are then compared to the outcomes of global educational meta-analysis research.
Perhaps surprisingly they include a wide range of activities such as in-class methods, augmented and virtual reality, school interpersonal atmosphere, and working life placements, – all of which have been found to have a high effect size – literally high-magnitude features of TVET which work well with students of today and tomorrow.
This enables Finland to sustain high performance global ranking in education year-on-year by designing, testing, and scaling up quality teaching and learning practices. Finland’s ability to score high levels of success in global comparisons of education since 2000 is based partly on the 3 L’s – Look, Listen and Learn (look at what is happening in society, listen to what students, parents and teachers say, learn to make change happen).
The secret of success is where TVET
- develops a school culture which combines successful performance with maximum well-being
- examines if and how practices have been adapted in recent years
- consults with employers and students on competence needs and preferred ways of learning
- creates a Finnish-style plan to enable change management
- demonstrates successful learning outcomes through diverse channels
11st place
national digitalization in Europe, Digital Economy and Society Index, 2019
Mobilising Entrepreneurial Education
Encourage knowledge, skills, and motivation for entrepreneurial success
Entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurial mindset are something that can be learned. The components are creativity, ability to innovate, capabilities for risk management, ability to take responsibility, planning and setting goals, and managing activities to achieve these goals. As labour markets continue to experience rapid and often unpredictable change, entrepreneurial education has become a major area of interest in TVET development.
In Finland entrepreneurial education serves to target, develop and nurture enterprising discovery processes for students. Even if some students are not interested or otherwise engaged with developing economic ventures or enterprises, the personal qualities developed in these programmes are of value to all. Being entrepreneurial is not only about skills in planning, finance, and organization. It is a way of thinking.
The secret of success is where TVET
- applies a Finnish-style entrepreneurial curricular action plan
- develops co-learning methods to integrate entrepreneurial studies into other subjects
- creates the learning environment(s) to support the entrepreneurial studies
- enables students to create their own innovative ideas
- networks with working life and stakeholders to establish opportunities for ventures to be fielded and tested
8th place
best place to be a social entrepreneur, Thomson Reuters Foundation and Deutsche Bank, 2019
1st place
best country for business in the world, The Global Innovation Index, 2019
Enhancing Creativity
Fostering creativity in TVET
Creativity is the way, and innovation is the outcome. When talking about important future skills and competences, creative thinking always comes at the top of the list. Sophisticated artificial intelligence may soon perform many tasks previously done by people, but creative thinking is an area where human curiosity will continue to outshine Big Data into the foreseeable future.
Many countries have directed their education systems to focus on mathematics and reading literacy skills that are measured with regular standardized testing. Therefore, attention in other areas is generally given only to academic performance as measured by standardized tests. Finnish TVET has bypassed this trend by maintaining focus on both achievement of strong skills and enhancing creative thinking across all subjects.
Globally there is an increasing realization that some learning may be highly valuable even though it cannot easily be measured. Creativity is one of these elusive but essential curricular goals.
Creative thinking can be successfully realized in a TVET that
- embeds creativity training in a wide spectrum of subjects and learning activities
- understands that creativity can be found everywhere, and does not require exceptional skills or talent
- tolerates divergence in the thinking of students
- pays attention to student motivation and emotions when practicing creativity
3rd place
most innovative country globally, Bloomberg Innovation Index, 2019
Equipping Educational Leadership
Establishing the TVET college as an efficient and profound learning community
Leading and managing a TVET college as an effective professional community involves strategic, academic, and operational functions in day-to-day school life. The overall goal of every college leader is to encourage a culture of learning, and often to lead transformation processes. This is a professional role requiring multi-professional skills which can be highly demanding.
Finland has developed a portfolio of knowledge and skills to equip TVET college leaders to manage effectively, fairly, and wisely.
These skills include promoting a vision for the college that aligns with the aspirations of parents and students, achieving high standards in relation to student’s academic outcomes and personal development, and facilitating innovation for continuous and proactive TVET college development. The outcome is a high performing TVET environment in which the best potential of each student is realized in both learning performance and human development.
One Finnish success driver involves enabling TVET leaders to understand both organisational management and pedagogy (the theory and practice of learning). This person can then successfully steer a TVET college because they understand the design and delivery of the curriculum. They also understand how students best learn, the difference between high and low impact teaching, alongside prerequisite organisational, social, and interpersonal skills. Research consistently reveals that these skills are essential for leadership of high-performing TVET whether in Finland or other countries.
The secret of success is where TVET
- Transforms vision to reality through informed distributive leadership
- Puts into practice understanding of recent research on teaching and learning processes
- Provides opportunities for continuous development
- Organises and manages financial resources effectively to enable high quality teaching and learning
- Becomes a vibrant professional learning community
1st place
most human capital globally, The Lancet, 2016
1st Place
best governance globally, The Legatum Prosperity Index, 2018
Developing Learning Environments
Understanding how the physical environment affects learning performance
Finland excels in both designing new teaching and learning facilities and finding ways to convert existing structures into effective teaching and learning spaces. Well-designed learning environments form a pedagogically versatile setting to facilitate the flow of learning. The key is to create a healthy space which nurtures a positive pedagogical environment for teachers and students.
A healthy learning environment needs to facilitate the use of individualized learning, group work, team teaching, and judicious use of technology. The research shows that physical differences of classroom environment can account for a highly significant improvement in learning outcomes.
In Finland, the design of learning spaces involves pedagogical architecture. In the past we have had what has been called the egg-crate model for classroom design. Now with changes in awareness of design, construction materials, and most importantly the interface between architectural and pedagogical expertise, it is possible to be highly transformative in adapting interior and exterior TVET teaching and learning spaces.
Finnish educational learning space design takes into account the impact on cognitive and psychological mindsets of teachers, and students in relation to the intended learning outcomes (a healthy, well-educated, and confident student).
This means attention is given to accessibility (for students who have physical impairment), floor space size (m2 per student), laboratories and simulated working life spaces, acoustics and sound control (sound-absorbing materials), colour (aesthetics), furniture (flexible and ergonomic), indoor air quality (mixture of fresh and re-circulated air, temperature and dust control), natural light control (windows and blinds), electrical points (assuming use by students and use of own devices), storage space (for student clothes and bags), internet access (strength and breadth), and projection qualities amongst others.
The secret of success is where TVET
- understands the relationship between environment, student wellbeing and learning performance
- Conducts cost analysis of return on investment for facilities planning
- Analyzing future pedagogies and their impact on the physical environment
- Review of existing physical environments and working life competence needs
- Conduct physical infrastructure curriculum mapping review
1st place
environmental health, Environmental Performance Index, 2018
Enabling Phenomenon-based Learning
Finland’s new curricular innovation: developing systems thinking and global competences
Finland is a global leader at integrating learning through different subjects using high-impact teaching methods. It also believes that education is a process not an event. Maintaining its position at the top of international rankings such as PISA means continuously innovating and responding to rapid changes in the local and global environments. This is where Phenomenon-based Learning (PhBL), which is a sophisticated form of problem-solving, is a force to achieve excellence in teaching and learning practices, and overall high educational performance.
PhBL is a curricular technique which has become the hallmark of the latest Finnish National Curriculum Framework. It involves integration of different subjects to create a single learning experience in which students look at a phenomenon from different academic real-world perspectives. In Finnish TVET the same approach is now well-established.
The intended learning outcomes include knowledge about the topic but most importantly systems thinking (seeing patterns in information). The result is development of advanced problem-solving skills and the potential for creative thinking. PhBL takes project-based learning to a new level of higher order thinking through deep focus on looking at a topic from different perspectives.
The secret of success is where TVET
- Recognizes the advantages of developing systems thinking
- Provides professional development for upskilling teachers of different TVET sectors
- Increases the level of inter-disciplinarity in the curriculum
- Engages students with topics of high relevance to society
- Operates small-scale PhBL projects simulating working life tasks
2nd place
most skilled workforce globally, World Economic Forum, 2019
Promoting Inclusive Learning
Achieving inclusion through individualized teaching practices
Like DNA each student is unique. Being unique makes that individual special.
Certain students have special needs, at certain times, in our schools. The need may not be a problem. It could be an opportunity because a student appears particularly gifted or skilled in achieving something valued in society. It could be a challenge caused by the student facing significant learning difficulties in a subject, having suffered loss of a loved one in the family or being hospitalized due to illness.
In Finnish schools, also in TVET schools, the logic is that every student is likely to have some form of special need at some point in their educational career. This need, whatever the cause, can result in barriers to learning. Overcoming these barriers in a timely and constructive way is one of the drivers of success in Finnish TVET. This results in high rates of inclusion (students not separated due to long or short term physical or psychological challenges) and equally high levels of student retention.
When a student has a special need the Finnish approach increases opportunities for individualized learning. This does not necessarily mean that the student studies alone in isolation from others. It means that learning pathways are provided by the teacher for the student to successfully manage a period of prolonged absence from school (such as hospitalization), a problem learning a subject such as maths (dyscalculia), reading (dyslexia), problems with concentrating on learning (attention deficit disorders), or problems with motivation.
Overcoming barriers to education means developing innovative ways to maintain the student’s membership of the TVET community (to avoid exclusion and maximize inclusion) and enhance the achievement of successful learning outcomes (through emotional support mechanisms and academic learning support).
The secret of success is where TVET
- promotes and values the importance ofindividualized learning and teaching practices
- has an operating culture enabling all students to reach their full potential
- is proactive in identifying the early signs of students’ support needs
- provides preventive methods and properly timed support
- develops teachers’ competences on inclusive teaching practices for TVET
3rd place
gender equality, Global Gender Gap Index, 2020
Career Guidance & Navigation
Developing student’s career management competences to navigate their future working lives
Yesterday people thought that schools prepared students for careers according to predictable paths, academic, vocational – one career one future – graduate, work, retire. This person for that job. That person for this job. One walk, one talk.
Today we need to prepare students for tomorrow.
This means that schools actively help students build and navigate career paths from an early age. This is not just through guidance. The key is in equipping students with confidence, knowledge, and skills so that they can become involved and inspired in thinking about future study options and potential careers.
This school-based background continues into TVET where it has a strong value in building the confidence, autonomy, and preparedness of students for working life. Development of navigation knowledge and skills in TVET enables each student to face a world of re-shaped work cultures.
The secret of success is where TVET
- creates a curricular plan that operationalizes Career Guidance & Navigation
- establishes career guidance and navigation into the teaching and learning
- communicates the why, what, and how of effective career management to students
- networks with working life on outreach activities
1st place
educating for the future -future skills, OECD Better Life Index, 2017
Advancing Student Wellbeing
Enhancing student mental and physical wellbeing to strengthen TVET communities
Healthy child development from early years through to late adolescence benefits from an informed and supportive relationship between home and school. In Finland, each school community is seen as being as strong as its weakest link. This has resulted in Finnish TVET giving a high level of attention to identifying strengths and weaknesses of relations (teacher-student; home-school; school-working life; student-student) and developing processes for maintaining high levels of diligence and proactivity. It has also resulted in Finnish TVET colleges across the country not having a high level of variance in relation to care, quality, and performance.
The fact that students represent the largest number of people in any school community means that Finnish TVET pays considerable attention to student wellbeing. This may be reactive (recognising a localized problem such as bullying) or pro-active (reacting to incoming data on future trends such as increases in student weight gain).
Wellbeing is a prerequisite for successful learning. Evidence shows that the experience of a positive, supportive, and collaborative atmosphere enhances the well-being and performance of everyone, students and teachers alike. A key Finnish strategy involves maximizing communication within the school on detecting potential problems (which may range from individual student loneliness through to problems with cyberbullying). Then, rapidly activating consensual localized solutions based on multi-professional research and insights.
The secret of success is where TVET
- enables recognition of localized problems and national/global trends (such as cyber security; healthy eating; impact of digital lifestyles on mind and body; fears and stress resulting from external realities such as COVID-19)
- rapidly activates practical solutions through working life engagement and outreach to multi-professional insights
- develops a culture of student engagement in school operations
- provides teachers with skills to detect potential individual or group causes for concern
- enables effective work life-student-school communication
1st place
happiness, World Happiness Report, 2019
3rd place
childhood security, Global Childhood Report, 2019
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