Collinstown Park Community College FET were delighted to welcome visitors from SASKY Sastamala Municipal Education and Training Consortium Finland on Wednesday 13th November.
Tutors from VET and FET
The visitors were absolutely delighted to see a very visible welcome, displayed in our main entrance to the building, on their arrival!
A Fitting Welcome
Six VET tutors made the long journey from a snowy Finland, and we were delighted to be able to accommodate them with some time in all areas of FET CPCC including our Microsoft Datacenter Academy.
In the Datacenter Academy
A packed room of CPCC FET learners and tutors heard about the VET experience in Finland. It was clear that in spite of the large number of airmiles between Finland and Dublin, VET Finland and FET Clondalkin had a lot in common.
Heli and Anne Mari Presenting VET in Finland
The teachers visiting us represented a number of VET colleges and specialisms:
- Anne-Mari Alakoski / Guidance counselor & Teacher for Restaurant services, Vammala Vocational College
- Kirsi Mäki / Teacher for Marketing/ Business and Administration & Teacher for Common units, Huittinen Vocational and Business College
- Jarno Haapaniemi / Developer & Coordinator of e-learning, Sasky
- Aki Koivumäki / Teacher for Information and communications technology, Ikaalinen Business College
- Arto Ojala / Teacher for Information and communications technology, Tampere College of Services
- Heli Silvennoinen / International Coordinator & Teacher for Clothing, Ikaalinen College of Crafts and Design
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Learning about VET in Finland
During the talk, we learned about the sectors of study in Finland.
We discovered that the sectors of study in VET colleges in Finland are similar to areas of learning across FET colleges in Ireland. In Finland, the learning content and subject matter includes:
- Arts and humanities
- Business, administration and law
- Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics
- Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and veterinary services
- Engineering, manufacturing and construction
- Health and welfare
- Information and communication technologies
These sectors are similar to those we see in vocational areas in Ireland.
The operational values in VET are:
- Work-life oriented training
- Support for the students’ vocational growth into responsible members of society and
- Wide-ranging activities for the competitiveness of the regional industries and for the communal well-being
These values are shared across our international communities.
Everyone who attended the presentation given, enjoyed engaging with the Finnish visitors. Plenty of questions were asked by our FET students and similarities were seen and noted between VET and FET in Ireland and more locally in Collinstown Park Community College. But more than anything else noted and observed, it can truly be stated that the best learning comes from identifying that sense of belonging and validation. This sense comes from looking through a wider view and lens of the world around us, as captured in camera and print, while spending some time with our international Finnish Neighbours.