Education and Development BETTER TOGETHER THE FEDERATION OF EDUCATION IN CENTRAL OSTROBOTHNIA Leaders Greetings s a group of vocational schools interna- tional contacts are important for us. In AFinland the work places have more and more foreign customers and workers from other countries. There will be new foreign companies in our country and exports are an increasing activity in business life. That is why we want our students to get internatio- nal experience during their studies. Our target is that it will be natural for them to meet people from other countries and speak foreign languages. We send students abroad to get international work experience. We also receive foreign guests; stu- dents, teachers and experts. Our staff participates in development projects with partners from other countries. Internationality is already an everyday routine for us and it will not disappear. It is our main task to educate good workers who are proud of their skills and who manage every situation in working life! Liisa Sadeharju Director Federation of Education in Central Ostrobothnia 2 About Finland Truly Finnish experiences • walks in the forests • sunshine in summer nights • summer cottages by the lake • picking wild berries and mushrooms in forest • fields of sunny and crusty snow in the spring • skiing, skating, kicksledding • winter swimming in the outdoors • walking on the frozen sea (do remember safety!) • the sauna 3 KOKKOLA PIETARSAARI OULU HELSINKI Federation of Education KPEDU in Central Ostrobothnia We are a group of schools organising a wide range of vocational upper secondary education as well as other forms or education and training for youth and adults in several sectors. We are active in regional development through diverse project work. he Federation of Education of Central Ostrobothnia is a The Federation of Education consists of six vocational insti- Finnish education provider owned by 14 municipalities tutes and staff of about 600. Our turnover is approximately 43 in Ostrobothnia region. We are a group of vocational M€. About 65 – 70 % of our income financing comes from the schools. Our bilingual operational area has a popula- Finnish Ministry of Education. Ttion of approx. 115,000 inhabitants. Our key strengths are our good reputation, a diversity of The number of students in vocational upper secondary educa- educational possibilities, skilled staff, active international opera- tion is about 2,500. In addition to these students working toward tions and stable finances. The considerable size of the federation vocational qualifications, the annual number of adult learners is enables us to take full advantage synergy benefits as well as to about 1,500. Therefore, our annual number of students is totally maintain extensive competence and know-how. Our financial about 4,000. latitude makes developing investments possible. One clear indicator of our services’ appeal is that one quarter We are an open, skilled and responsible cooperation partner. of our students come from outside the federation’s operational Our main objectives strongly emphasise cooperation and part- area. The drop-out rate in our institutes is among the lowest in nerships. Finland. In adult education, we operate in a multitude of fields on a national level. 4 Administration and organisation he Council is our highest authority between the municipal representatives and to decide. It consists of representa- the institutes. tives elected by the councils of the The Management Team consists of the member municipalities. The Board principals of the institutes and from the fed- Tof Directors is in charge of practical decision- eration services the team is represented by making and coordination and implementation the Federation Director, Educational Director of the matters handled by the council. The and Financial Director. The main duty of the main task of the Boards is to contribute to Management Team is to develop and adjust developing the institutes so as to benefit the all operations together as well as to prepare region and the students through co-operation joint matters. ORGANISATION AUDITING BOARD COUNCIL CODETERMINATION TEAM BOARD OF DIRECTORS - COMITTEES MEMBER MUNICIPALI- TIES · CORPORATE GROUP, SUBSIDIARIES AND PARTLY OWNED ORGANISATIONS · LOCAL BOARD FOR VOCA- MEMBERSHIPS · EDUCATION- TIONAL SKILLS DEMONSTRA- AL COOPERATION UPPER TIONS SECONDARY EDUCATION FEDERATION SERVICES COOPERATION TEAM - Federation Director - Board and Internal auditing STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION JOINT SERVICES VOCATIONAL INSTITUTES CENTRAL OSTROBOTHNIA OF KOKKOLA RURAL INSTITUTE ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES BOARD JOHTOKUNTA - Administration, Communications Direktion · Board and Marketing - Human resources, Financial adminis- tration, Information management - Quality assurance and Statistics KOKKOLA VOCATIONAL THE UNIT OF KANNUS INSTITUTE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, EU-PROJECTS AND KOKKOLA BUSINESS THE UNIT OF KAUSTINEN INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES INSTITUTE THE UNIT OF PERHO FACILITIES SERVICES AND KOKKOLA INSTITUTE OF WORK SAFETY SOCIAL SERVICES AND HEALTH CARE THE UNIT OF TOHOLAMPI APPRENTICESHIP SERVICES CENTRAL OSTROBOTHNIA INSTITUTE CENTRAL OSTROBOTHNIA ADULT EDUCATION INSTITUTE RegiOnline · IT Services · The Board of Directors of the Federa- tion acts as the Board (net profit unit) 5 Strategy, vision and values Better together Our strategy can very well be summed up as: “Better together” and our vision is as follows: “Our success is built on cooperation, partnership and competence. Our educa- tion and development operations are of high quality, proactive and meet the needs of working life. We are an important actor in the development of our region as well as a highly-esteemed cooperation partner on both national and international level. Together we are able to do everything better!” Open cooperation with our partners and networks helps us to serve our customers even better. Our core values are Customer-orientation: We work in partnership cooperation with our cus- tomers. The needs and satisfaction of our students, working life and the region are of utmost importance to us. Know-how: We value vocational competence, cooperation, ener- getic and creative modes of operation and we put a lot of emphasis on lifelong learning. Responsibility: We emphasise communal spirit and tolerance in all that we do and we promote modes of operation which protect our environment. Openness: Our internal and external cooperation are based on openness and trust. 6 KPEDU in numbers and statistics Students in KPEDU Finance Study programmes approx. 50 Turnover 43 M€ Income from: 4 000 State 34,1 M€ per student 12 500 € Other incomes 10,3 M€ Projects 3,8 M€ We own: Young students Buildings 100 000 m2 land 220 ha 2 500 forests 450 ha Adult students 1 500 Staff in KPEDU 610 Teachers 320 Other 290 62% 38% Average age 46 Salary of a teacher is 2000-5000€/month (depends on teacher’s education, school type and length of the career) 7 Educational opportunities and development of education 8 he focal points of developing our vocational educa- Adult education and training tion are consolidating the working-life orientation, Adult education can aim at a qualification, it can be other diversifying learning environments and methods and vocational further education and training or it can be training personalising the learning process. Cooperation with without specified objectives. We offer opportunities to study Tgeneral upper secondary schools and liberal adult education sup- in the day programme, in the evenings and at weekends or as port our customers’ possibilities of diverse learning. multiform learning. When an adult wishes to obtain a qualification, they can par- Vocational upper secondary education for youth ticipate in vocational upper secondary education with the youth The education is primarily aimed at students under the age of or get a vocational, further or a specialist qualification in form of 25. You can obtain a vocational qualification from our range of a competence-based qualification. Competence-based qualifica- about 30 qualifications in eight different sectors. The education tions are based on a personal plan which comprises the studies takes an average of three years to complete and that includes at and the competencebased tests and takes the student’s previous least six months of work based learning. In student evaluation, education and work experience into account. It is possible to vocational skills demonstrations play an important role. obtain a competence-based qualification either as a full-time student or alongside your own work. Combined general and vocational upper secondary The objective of other than qualification-oriented further school & combined education programmes vocational education and training is to enhance vocational or It is possible to combine both vocational and general upper language skills, for example. We also offer staff training tailored secondary school studies. In this “ammattilukio” (combined to a company or target group. general and vocational upper secondary school) you can obtain not only a vocational qualification, but also a matriculation Apprenticeship training examination and the general upper secondary school syllabus. Apprenticeship training is organised at the workplace for the most The most common model in these combinations of studies is to part and it is based on a temporary employment contract, that attain a double qualification which means that you complete a is, an apprenticeship contract. A majority of the training takes vocational qualification and take