Ukrainians familiarised themselves with Finnish VET practices on a study visit
All 90 Ukrainian teachers participating in the project got to visit Finland towards the end of last year. On this week-long visit, the teachers familiarised themselves at the practical level with their Finnish colleagues' work by following the instruction in workshops and classrooms. The destinations of the visits were Hyria's secondary level vocational institution and its campuses in Hyvinkää and Riihimäki. Ukrainian visitors also had an opportunity to observe life at a Finnish teaching farm on Uumo's natural resources field campus in Hyvinkää.
The first participants of the Bridge2Skills project to visit Finland were the principals and deputy principals of all ten participating institutions, who came to Finland for a week in October. They were followed by VET teachers from three regions, who took turns to spend a week in Finland.
The aim of the study visit was to show the participants how the competence-based approach and training driven by labour market needs work in practice. The teachers had already learned about the policy priorities and recommendations of European vocational education and training during contact teaching periods in Lublin, Poland. They now had an opportunity to see how these priorities and recommendations are put into practice in Finland and consider how the lessons they learned could be merged with the objectives of Ukraine's national reform and compliance with the country's new law on vocational education and training.
On Hyria’s main campus, Principal Tuula Kortelainen and Vice-Principal Juho Pakarinen welcomed the visitors and explained Hyria’s operating methods to them, with a special focus on the competence-based approach and cooperation with employers. This also gave tourism students at Hyria an opportunity to introduce Finland as a tourist destination to the visitors. On Uumo's natural resources campus the Ukrainians visited HyriZoo pet care facilities, a cowshed and a garden. Students, supervisors and teachers showed them around the study facilities and explained how the instruction is delivered while working with animals. The Ukrainians were particularly interested in the pet care facilities, as they do not have a programme corresponding to an animal attendant qualification in their country. The cowshed was clearly a more familiar environment for them, however, even if none of the teachers worked at an agricultural institution. Students at Uumo can also complete qualifications for drivers and animal attendants in commercial animal transport subject to EU legislation and take the required competence test.
On Hyria's Sakonkatu campus, the Ukrainian teachers visited learning environments for the construction and building maintenance technology field as well as watched different stages of house building, first in the classroom and then in workshops on the campus tour. One of the teachers we followed was Ivan Kholodko, a VET teacher of surface treatment from Boryspil Vocational Institute in Kyiv, who watched students of building maintenance technology with particular attention. He was interested in how the responsibility for following work instructions was given to the students themselves and how they could ask the teacher or supervisor further questions about them if necessary.
The students’ age distribution also caught his attention: while all his students in Ukraine are young people aged under 20, he met several adult students on the campus tour. He had already learned that more than a half of Finnish VET students are adults – either students completing their first qualification or career changers. To illustrate the flexible education practices in Finland, the joint project of Hyria and the City of Riihimäki titled A path from comprehensive school to University of Applied Sciences was presented to the visitors as an example of flexible studies and the possibility of continuing to a higher level after comprehensive school and vocational studies.
Myroslava Dika from Kovel School located in Volyn oblast looked around Hyria’s car mechanics workshop, where she saw many familiar things. While Myroslava compared the learning environment to similar environments in Ukraine, there were also clear differences, especially regarding the customers of the car repair shop. In Ukraine the students fix their own cars or, at most, those of their teachers or teachers’ acquaintances or relatives. There is less cooperation with employers, and the students’ repair jobs are not marketed outside the school.
Taras Diachun, whose subject is the Defence of Ukraine, was also impressed by the car mechanics studies. – The high-quality instruction and guidance provided by the car mechanics students’ supervisors and teachers has been productive. This is proven by the large number of cars belonging to authentic customers that the students are repairing.
Taras got an answer to his questions about how the workshop operates: the customers pay the institution for maintenance and repairs, and the institution’s liability insurance covers any damage.
On Kruunu campus, the Ukrainian teachers watched a social welfare and health care field simulation, in which two practical nursing students paid a home visit to an imaginary client with diabetes. After the simulation, the Ukrainians observed the feedback discussion between the VET teacher, participants in the simulation and other students. Many Ukrainian VET teachers were impressed by the simulation work on their visit. One of them was Iryna Oleshko from Kyiv Vocational Institute of Artistic Design. “It would be so useful to teach the safety aspects of jewellery manufacturing as a simulation,” Iryna said.
Smartphones were used in the building maintenance technology class: students copied the work instructions to their phone, which allowed them to check the work stages as they started the practical work. The use of phones during lessons surprised Iryna, because in Ukraine students are not allowed to use their phones in workshops or theory lessons.
Hyria's representatives explained to the Ukrainians how they have organised student welfare and how the students and teachers create a community spirit together. The programme on Kruunu campus included an accessibility tour to showcase different learners' possibilities of moving around and studying on the campus. After the tour, the Ukrainians were introduced to sustainability in concrete terms on a visit to Kerkkä recycling centre owned by Hyria Foundation. Kerkkä is as a learning and training environment where students completing a Vocational Qualification in Business and future warehouse operatives can complete their on-the-job learning periods.
What Iryna will remember of her visit to Finland is good and well-organised quality of life and happiness. She was concerned over Ukrainian teachers' mental coping and support provided for it, and she wondered how teachers' prerequisites for well-being at work could be ensured in the current circumstances. Ivan noticed how quiet and calm Finnish people are. Rather than rushing, the students completed their work calmly, even in the building maintenance technology workshop.
Taras brought up the individualisation and flexibility of teaching in Finland, which allows students to complete their studies at a faster or slower pace, depending on their personal situations. Taras believed that this would reduce the high level of stress that Ukrainian students may experience as the instruction is precisely scheduled and the student must follow a strict, pre-defined timetable.
Myroslava noted that the students of her school come from the reformed comprehensive school, and she believed that the reforms would also extend to further studies following comprehensive school. A new law on vocational education and training, which brings the Ukrainian school system one step closer to its European counterpart, already responds to this wish in part.
Authors: Torun Eklund and Halyna Bondaruk
First photo: Laura Salminen, a tourism field instructor at Hyria, on an accessibility tour with Ukrainian teachers.