MEMBER REPORT SWEDISH VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE www.gebp.net
Project leader Carina Kekäle Background: about the Swedish Vocational Institute (SYI) The Swedish Vocational Institute is a vocational school on the secondary level. The position can be seen in the following picture. SYI SYI was established in the autumn of 1997.The school has 1200 student and about 220 staff, which includes all staff, not only the teachers. The education is intended to produce students with skills and know-how that would enable them to contribute successfully to the society of tomorrow.
The teaching is organised in study programmes offering an opportunity to obtain more than 30 different degrees or certificates at vocational/secondary level. The aim is as far as possible to take into account the labour markets' needs for practical training. The students at SYI do also have the possibility to combine a vocational degree with a matriculation examination. SYI provides vocational instruction in the following sectors: Health Care and Social Welfare Technology and Transport Renewable Natural Resources Hotel, Catering and Home Economics Culture SYI have also a quite big Adult Vocational Education and Training. The area where SYI is working is the Swedish speaking area at the west coast in the middle of Finland (Osthrobothia). The working life here consists mosly of small and medium-size businesses. The area of socialand healthcare, with the following specializations: Practical nurse: specialized in different areas Pharmaceutical assistent Hairdresser Restaurant and institutional cook
has been most involved in the GEBP project. More information is available on the web site www.syi.fi Introduction The Swedish Vocational Institute joined the project in October 2004. Before this we visited the GEBP conferences in Dublin and Galway. Our expectation about the project was to find new models of working and to find partners in Europe to cooperate with. The project working method has been through conferences and work packages. We have participated in every conference since we joined the project: Murcia, Gotland, Helsinki and Stockholm (and before this in Dublin/Galway as noted). The project leader has been active participant in all of these conferences. In some other conferences, even people from elsewhere in our organisation have participated (for example Head of Studies in social- and healthcare has participated in Murcia and Stockholm and our school welfare officer in the Helsinki conference). In this way we could disseminate the results better in our organisation. The project packages and their aims The Swedish Vocational Institute has worked in the package Students involvement (WP 1a) with Galway Education Centre from Ireland, Murcia IMIDA from Spain, Wellant College from the Netherlands and Sandbacka skola in Arvidsjaur, Sweden. The aims in this package were: 1.To study, analyse, develop and disseminate good practice of student involvement in work related learning 2 To develop students' creativity and entrepreneurial skills and also encourage the system to take advantage of these findings and results. 3 To influence, encourage and promote an increasing number of young enterprise examples and good practices in the vocational education systems of the participating regions. In the Swedish Vocational school we were also working with developing aims that regards to some of the other packages' aims (below marked with an arrow, "->") such as: - WORK PACKAGE 1b WORK RELATED LEARNING; Education and business personnel involvement Aims: 1. To define, identify and analyse how different types of Entrepreneurial education systems appear in different contexts within the participating regions.
->2 To study, analyse and develop work placements for both teachers and business personnel together and organise in service training involving both. 3 To develop the creativity and entrepreneurial skills of the personnel and also encourage the system to take advantage of these findings and results. 4 To influence, encourage and promote an increasing number of young enterprise examples and good practices in the vocational education systems of the participating regions. WORK PACKAGE 1c WORK RELATED LEARNING; Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Curriculum Aims: -> 1 To influence, encourage and promote a teacher training system involving modules and/or models of work related learning courses. 2 To define, identify and analyse how different types of Entrepreneurial education systems appear in different contexts within the participating regions. 3 To influence, encourage and promote an increasing number of young enterprise examples and good practices in the vocational education systems of the participating regions. - WORK PACKAGE 2 WORK RELATED LEARNING; social inclusion Aims: 1 To prevent students (especially students at risk) from dropping out of their studies and support them to remain in education or gain employment 2 To support vocational studies/learning of students ->3 To organise innovative links between vocational education and working life to support student placements and improve employability skills for young people -> 4 To give students effective guidance, counselling and mentoring - WORK RELATED LEARNING; Partnerships Aims: 1 To study models of education business partnerships. 2 Analyse the basic structure of a functional and effective partnership. -> 3 To disseminate the outcomes through meetings at first to partners within this project and then over a wider area such as the southern parts of Europe. 4 To use database VETNET (The Vocational Education and Training NETwork)for dissemination purposes. Work done in our school SYI
Cooperation with others - Regional co-operation between university, the municipal school office, and schools at different levels. This means co-operation between school levels and language groups. o We have had joint meetings, information and interaction o Presenting GEBP project on an education fair Know How. SYI hade a picture collage about the Karelia student project (you can find the description of the project later in this rapport). o When we have got visitors we have visited other schools for presenting the whole perspective of how we work, especially when the aim has been entrepreneurship (for example, visitors from Manchester, the Netherlands, Spain and Africa). - International contacts and exchange from the contacts in GEBP o 10 teachers visited Wellant College February 2005. This visit was arranged for teachers, planners and head of studies in order to give a good example of how to work in a school to get the students involved in the most complete and effective way. o Teacher and student exchange in the social and healthcare sector. Oct-Nov 2005 Elfrida Elionore secondary school was in Vaasa. We got in contact with teachers from this school in one of the conferences and found possibilities to cooperate in this way. This school has now joined a bigger network in social and healthcare in the Nordic countries. o For projects in special sectors (e.g. Entrepreneurship in social and healthcare and Virtual Care) have we found new project partners through this project. These partners are not in the GEBP network but we found the partners through a GEBP partner in the Netherlands. o Wellant College and IMIDA visited our school in Sept 2005, for finding connections with our school in similar area and to disseminate the pedagogical model they use. We are right now working on new project and exchange many of our teachers and students so that they could see and understand how they work. This will build for new methods to work in our school. - Cooperation with business and business organisations o Discussions with business organisations; Chamber of Commerce, Association of entrepreneurs and with the Regional development centre VASEK were conducted in 2005. We have shown them how we want to work and asked how they can support us. We will take a new discussion because of new projects in social and health care sector. o Cooperation with business and working life in all our sectors. Students conduct on-the-job-learning at least for 20 study weeks. This means that teachers have a close cooperation with the working life
In the on-the-job-learning period we need tutors in the working life and examiners to the practical skills' examinations. We arrange continuing education for tutors and examiners. This will include all sectors in our school. Tutors and examiners in the working life are coming to school for some days to get knowledge about the education and the idea of on-the-job-learning. We have worked a lot to help small and micro businesses to manage time for counselling students in their companies. For example, hairdressers are often micro businesses and they have not time to come to school for information about the education and what the school expects from them. This has been a problem for getting practice places for our students to get a place in the businesses for their practical periods. We work on good models for these small businesses. In the current model, a teacher visits them and gives them the most important information. We have also made short and clear instructions for the tutors so they easily can find solutions to eventual problems. This contact will build a very close partnership. o New networks and projects in special sectors In social and healthcare network and pilot project in entrepreneurship, we have arranged a visit to a private business in social- and healthcare. o Teachers involvement Teachers have had the chance to be in the working life practice for 6-8 weeks. Work we have done in our own school o Students' involvement Students participate in trade fairs and competitions. Students can show their own practical vocational skills. This will strengthen their own vocational identity and in trade fairs they will also learn to sell their services. Project Karelia leads students to work in many different ways; in economic planning, collecting material and cooperation with new kind of organisations. EXAMPLE: PROJECT KARELIA In the Swedish Vocational Institute there is nowadays an optional course. In the beginning it was a project started from the students' own initiative. The students collect knowledge they need for example about the culture, religion, history, political situation, language and the social and healthcare organisations. Nowadays the students get a
brief language course from three of the teachers in the school (they are involved in another project about Russia). The students collect clothes, medical articles and other things that are in short supply in this area. The students then create a budget for a trip to Karelia. Then they have to find out how to get money for the journey. They will apply for finance from different foundations and other funding sources. The students also have to invent activities for raising money, for example to make cakes for sale, to arrange lotteries and so on. If they get more money than they need to the journey the money will go to charity in Karelia. The students will learn a lot about the work of a voluntary organisation because of the cooperation with the journey arrangements and to get all the stuff across the border and to the right people in Karelia. The student s sort and pack the stuff they have collected. They will load all the stuff on a bus and then travel on it to Karelia where they visit childrens' homes, homes for old people, the social welfare centres and other places that concern their vocational area. They can learn how it works in another country and they can also help people there with the clothes and other stuff they have collected. In this way it s a good experience and it is safe to work with the voluntary organisation that have the knowledge and experience from this region and know how to do. Outcome / Result: The student commit themselves to help people in an area in Russia in the social and healthcare trade. They may at their own responsibility get all knowledge they need in order to understand people and the organisation in Karelia and to co-operate for collecting clothes, medical articles, money and other stuff that can help people over there. The students have learned how to budget and apply for financing the journey. They have got a lot of knowledge about a voluntary organisation's work. The students and the teachers have got a lot of experience from this course. Nobody has done the course unaffected and without a lot of commitment for the future. Students get knowledge about a place in Karelia, about the inhabitants, organisation system and the social and health care sector. They have to plan a budget and apply for finance for a trip to Karelia. The students learn a lot about the third sector because of cooperation with a voluntary organisation. The voluntary organisation will carry out the trip to Karelia and will help with the
materials that the students have collected and that is to benefit for the people in Karelia. In this way the students will learn a lot about their own vocation in another country. They can also help people in the children s' homes, the homes for older people and for people with welfare problems. This project will not leave any student unaffected. o Students' involvement in a more entrepreneurial way EXAMPLE: POINT CUT - THE SCHOOL'S OWN SALON The hairdressing education through an entrepreneurship perspective. Details: The students get the preparedness they need to start their own company. But they also get the preparedness to work as successful employees. During their entrepreneurship module they analyse, plan and start their own company. The students make their business idea and with the business idea as a starting point they choose what style, design, material and colour they want to have in their company. After that it is time for them to count what it is going to cost to buy, rent or renovate their rented apartment. The students also have to make the agreements between the landlord and themselves, they have to check out what insurances they need, how much a loan from the bank will be per month, etc. Besides all that, they are also calculating on prices for the treatments they are going to give in their company. They have to set the prices out: how much their fixed costs are but also what level of personal income they want. Point Cut makes a new deal every year with companies such as L Oreal and Schwarzkopf, all in order to get the best products to the lowest price but also with the teacher training in mind. The teachers and the students get to be trained by professionals, both exclusively for the school but they also have the possibility to attend training seminars for professional hairdressers. In the same way the students choose and deal with a certain company, so they will be prepared to negotiate with companies after finishing their education. Working in Point Cut with various kind of customers in various ages gives the students an extremely high preparedness for their coming job. Their days are hectic, clients arriving late or arriving with totally different
wishes than they did order. The students also practise their skills to sell both products and other treatments. During the days and weeks at Point Cut there is always a competitive spirit between the students. There are also competitions with real prices to be won, prices that come from the sponsoring companies. When evaluating the students' skills during their periods in Point cut, the teachers consider both their technical skills and their social skills. The evaluation consists of bigger modules. The students have to evaluate their own skills and level but they also have to be innovative when planning their examination. They have to describe in advance what certain skills they are going to demonstrate. Both teachers and employers / entrepreneurs evaluate the students' skills. The evaluation will be based on the students' description on what skills they are going to demonstrate. The skills they are going to demonstrate are both social skills and technical/practical skills. This examination includes certain risks for the students. They have to able to evaluate their own skills, they also have to able to describe what skills and on which level they are going to demonstrate. And, they have of course to be able to perform their demonstration in a successful way. The students also do a part of their on the job learning in different kinds of hairdressing companies. That part of the on the job learning gives them a rather good picture of what life looks like when running your own company. That part of the on the job learning also gives them a possibility to measure their own skills towards the skills of the professionals in the companies. The students are also analysing, planning and doing different kind of customer evenings. The evenings for special kind of target groups are very popular amongst many companies and their staffs. The students will do everything from planning, marketing till the treatments the customers ordered. The students have to make a budget, to market the event, to conduct the treatments and to serve eventual food and drinks during the evening. Outcome / Result: The students get a chance to be successful individuals both as an employee and if they are running their own business. The students get to understand the value of both time and money. They know that by not selling
treatments or products they are throwing away money. The students also get to understand that a decision of running your own business should be well planned, both economically and considering the choice of business idea. - The idea of entrepreneurship in hairdressing education contains of two different parts. One which is students calculating and analysing their own business and the other one which contains of students practising their skills, both their technical skills and their marketing skills to sell, both treatments and products. OTHER EXAMPLES Fyrklövern the School s lunch restaurant has the same idea as Point Cut. The students have the possibility to work in practice as in a business. But the business doesn t let the students do all things because of the quality risk. Here it was considered better that the school builds a lunch restaurant with an employed chef open for all people in the surroundings of the school. Here they can train all kinds of work that can be found in a restaurant, and then it s easier for the business to let the students work in their restaurants. Solrosen a shop selling the students flower arrangements, school-grown fruit and vegetables is open every day and in special seasons such as spring, autumn, Easter and Christmas they have bigger events for selling plants, vegetables, flower arrangements and all things to gardening, depending on what season it is. This is very well known and many people are waiting for these events. This is also a very good way of getting students involved in business and working life. Young Enterprise in many different sectors o We have seen many good practices in how to implement new pedagogical methods. We have also started the work in our school to make the structure of the pedagogical methods we want to implement in our school. Entrepreneurship is involved in our way of working. This is a process that takes a long time. We have seen many good ways of working but we have to find our own model. It will take a long time to implement this model in the school, but the start has been done. We will go on with this working process. o In our school we do also work for teacher training. We have planned a course for teachers in the second level in the Swedish speaking schools in entrepreneurship. This course is aimed for everyone, not only the teachers that educate in entrepreneurship, but for every teacher that educate in some
vocational area (everything from Social- and healthcare to handicraft or areas more typical for private entrepreneurship). The teacher training course will introduce how the teacher in every vocational aim can be a tutor for entrepreneurship in the vocational education. Outcomes from the project One outcome that has been good for us is the network we have developed in the project. This is not an outcome from the aims list but a second-tier effect. But there also must be something in the structure of the project that has given this good outcome. The network is beneficial in three ways: 1. The project leaders from all the organisations. We have found a new way of working that helps us and gives us a new way of thinking of Students involvement in the studies - for example the new methodology in Wellant College, that we have studied closely. We will find out a new methodology of our own to be based on this. We have started the process but are not ready yet. 2. In every conference there have been teachers from many countries participating. With these teachers we have found new possibilities to cooperate, for example teachers and students exchange, cooperation in a special vocational areas in an entrepreneurship project for Nordic countries etc. This will lead, in a longer perspective, to more involvement of the students in entrepreneurship in those vocational areas where this aim is quite new. 3. In our local area have we started with more cooperation between different grades of schools and between our both language groups. This is also a way of working together to improve students changeover to next school grades. It is also a way of working for language exchange in our bilingual town. We have also had some international visitors that we have introduced to each other and in a very practical way presented them to our way of working. Visions of the future Based on this project, we will in the longer term also - start a new project in entrepreneurship and how to implement it in the whole school organisation and in the surrounding society - find partners to new projects, mobility and other way of cooperation. Swedish Vocational Institute Vasa, Finland Carina Kekäle E-mail: carina.kekale@syi.fi Phone: + 358 63242372 Mobile: +358 504070054