Vocational education has also continuously expanded to guarantee ever better the basic skills required of the labour force. Vocational colleges were mainly established already during the late 19th century. Vocational school education started in the after war period. The Act on vocational schools was passed in 1958. The foundation of the network of vocational schools was formed of the general vocational schools, which could be attended after primary school. Educational institutions at the school level or upper secondary level evolved alongside vocational schools.
In the early 20th century, the number of students attending vocational education was 8,000. In 1940 they numbered about 20,000 and in 2005 the number of students attending some form of vocational education leading to a qualification was nearly 250,000.
Vocational education has undergone continuous change and development over the past decades. Currently it takes three years to obtain an initial vocational qualification. In recent years especially apprenticeship training and vocational education completed as a competence-based skills examination have increased and broadened the field of vocational education. Currently nearly one-half of vocational qualifications are completed as a competence-based skills examination.
Thursday
Bringing the world’s diversity agenda to England
Underlying each is provision of educational opportunities. At the root of
It is important to realise that these reforms are the creating of a diversity agenda in
each reform is the key assumption that there is no reason why government and localauthority
bodies should deliver education – even if it is assumed that the government
should fund it. We have social benefits so that people can afford food and clothing, but
the government does not run food and clothing stores; and indeed everyone benefits from
having a large and diverse number of outlets providing these goods.
As we have seen, the overwhelming majority of European governments adopt this same
strategy in education, giving at least some measure of support to non-state education
providers – often small, parent-led learning initiatives. In England and Wales the
proposals here will help to:
-Break down the social apartheid between state and private sectors,
-Expand the diversity agenda more rapidly than might be possible by attempts at statesector
-Provide innovative approaches that in turn will stimulate state schools to adopt new
Future plans in Finland education system
Pre-School Education
Pre-school education shall build on the basic values of society. These have been stipulated in national legislation and international declarations, recommendations or conventions, which endeavour to safeguard human rights and the viability of the globe. The role of pre-school education shall be to promote children’s growth into humane individuals and ethically responsible membership of society by guiding them towards responsible action and compliance with generally accepted rules and towards appreciation for other people. The core role of pre-school education shall be to promote children’s favourable growth, development and learning opportunities. The plan shall include the objectives set for the child’s growth and development and an assessment of the child’s strengths and risk factors and difficulties related to learning. The plan shall indicate any change needs related to child’s learning environment and the support and pupil welfare services required for participation in instruction, the bodies responsible for those and the monitoring and assessment of progress.
Compulsory Schooling
Compulsory Schooling
Individual education plans are drawn up so as to enable assessment and monitoring of pupils’ learning processes, rehabilitation and achievement of their individual educational objectives. Each plan must include the following information as required to individualise instruction provided for the pupil:
- a description of the pupil’s learning abilities and strengths, special needs related to learning and the needs to develop teaching and learning environments as required by these;
- long- and short-term objectives for instruction and learning;
- the numbers of weekly lessons per year included in the pupil’s study plan;
- a list of those subjects where the pupil’s studies differ from syllabi for regular instruction;
- the objectives and core contents of those subjects where the pupil follows an individual syllabus;
- principles for monitoring and assessment of the pupil’s progress;
- interpreting and assistant services, other teaching and pupil welfare services, communication methods and special aids and teaching materials required for participation in education;
- a description of the provision of instruction for the pupil in conjunction with other education and/or in a special education group;
- people participating in organisation of the pupil’s teaching and support services and their areas of responsibility;
- monitoring of the implementation of support services.
Transition Period
Additional Education
Young people who have completed the basic education syllabus may be provided with additional education lasting one extra school year in accordance with the Basic Education Act. Additional education is open to young people who have received their basic education leaving certificate in the same or previous year. No national lesson allocation or syllabus has been determined for additional education. The curriculum for additional education may include the core subjects common to all pupils as part of the basic education syllabus, elective subjects within basic education, other subjects and subject groups conforming to the role of basic education, vocational orientation studies and periods of workplace guidance.
Vocational Education
Students in need of special support may apply to ordinary vocational institutions within the national joint application system or through the related flexible application procedure. Pupil counsellors in basic education and student counsellors in vocational education and training aim to find a suitable place for each student according to the student’s wishes.
In vocational education and training, students in need of special educational or student welfare services are provided with instruction in the form of special education and training. An individual education plan is to be drawn up for each student receiving special education and training.
This plan must set out details of the qualification to be completed, the national core curriculum or the requirements of the competence-based qualification observed in education and training, the scope of the qualification, the individual curriculum drawn up for the student, grounds for providing special education and training, special educational and student welfare services required for studying as well as other services and support measures provided for the student.
Each education provider is responsible for organising special education and training and services for students in special education and training.
This plan must set out details of the qualification to be completed, the national core curriculum or the requirements of the competence-based qualification observed in education and training, the scope of the qualification, the individual curriculum drawn up for the student, grounds for providing special education and training, special educational and student welfare services required for studying as well as other services and support measures provided for the student.
Each education provider is responsible for organising special education and training and services for students in special education and training.
Sunday
Why Education in Finland is considered the best?
As we all know Finland education system is considered one of the best in the world.Below you can see the benefits of Finland education system.
High math and science performance
- Students are confident of their mathematical abilities.
- The math and science curriculum emphasize the use and application of knowledge and problem solving.
- Since 1996, the Finnish education system has focussed on math and science literacy through a national program (LUMA) aimed at developing knowledge and skills in math and science at all levels of schooling.
High equality of educational outcomes
- Finland provides all students with equal educational opportunities and removes obstacles to learning especially among the least successful students.
- Finland has sought to provide all students, whatever their place of residence, with equal opportunities for high-quality education.
- Finland has an extensive network of schools and recruits highly qualified teachers in all schools.
- The comprehensive school is not only a system; it is a matter of pedagogical philosophy and practice.
- With a population of more than five million, Finland has more than 4,000 comprehensive schools, 750 upper-secondary schools, 20 universities, and a great many other educational institutions.
- The comprehensive school is for each child; hence, it has to adjust to the needs of each child.
- Teaching and pedagogy are structured to work with heterogeneous student groups.
- No student can be excluded and sent to another school.
- The interests and choices of students are taken into account when schools plan and select the curriculum, content, textbooks, learning strategies, and methods of assessment.
- All this calls for a flexible, school-based and teacher-planned curriculum along with student-centred instruction, counselling, and remedial teaching.
- The teacher takes care of every single student and allows, in everyday school work, for a diverse student body.
- Special education is usually closely integrated into normal teaching and is highly inclusive (approximately 2% of students attend special education institutions).
- Every student has the right to student counselling, and schools provide students with guidance in study skills, options, and planning post-secondary studies. At grade levels 7 to 9, every school has a student counsellor who provides individual guidance to those in need or wanting it.
- The class sizes in Finland are among the smallest in the countries in the study. Finnish teachers are constantly worried about what they consider too-large class sizes, finding it demanding to look after the individual needs of different students.
- In Finnish culture, teaching is one of the most important professions of society, and substantial resources are invested in teacher education.
- Teachers are trusted to do their best as true professionals of education. They are entrusted with considerable pedagogical independence in the classroom, and schools have likewise enjoyed significant autonomy in organizing their work within the national curriculum.
- All Finnish teachers complete a master’s degree, either in education or in a teaching subject. They are considered pedagogical experts.
- Additionally, the profession of classroom teacher is greatly valued and popular among post-secondary students. Only 10% of the applicants for teacher-education programs are admitted.
- Finnish teachers set high standards for students’ literacy skills and interests.
- Regarded as educational experts, Finnish teachers are relied on when it comes to student assessment, which usually draws on students’ class work, projects, teacher-made exams, and portfolios. In Finland, teacher-based assessment is all the more important because at Finnish comprehensive schools students are not assessed by national tests or examinations during the school years or upon completing school.
- Teachers are vested with considerable decision-making authority as concerns school policy and management. They have almost exclusive responsibility for the choice of textbooks and have more say than their counterparts in the OECD countries in determining course content, establishing student assessment policies, deciding which courses the school should offer, and allocating budgets within the school.
- The comprehensive school is underpinned by an exceptionally broad cultural and political concensus about the purpose and direction for the school system. In Finnish culture, significant political conflicts and sudden changes in educational policy have been rare.
- Since 1990, the national curriculum has become flexible, decentralized, and less detailed.
- Finland has established national grading guidelines for performance that allow for student effort and activity to be taken into consideration.
- The outcomes of all Finnish nine-year comprehensive schools are followed by sample-based surveys. The results are published only on the system level. Schools have a high degree of autonomy with regard to pedagogical practices.
- Governing bodies of schools and local educational authorities have less decision-making power in Finland than in the other OECD countries.
- Finland’s high performance in the OECD assessment is generally attributed to a high degree of school and teacher autonomy in decision-making.
What is the Literacy rate in Finland?
According to CIA, Finland literacy rate is 100%. Meaning to say most of the people in Finland can read and write.Finland also have the high reading literacy rate as below:
- Formal reading instruction begins at age seven, when children enter the comprehensive school.
- Parents, community, and the culture itself support reading.
- Schools have aroused student interest in reading, and students are interested in and engaged in reading.
- Students read highly diverse materials.
- Finland has a comprehensive network of libraries, which have separate departments for children and youth.
Education in Finland
Elementary and Secondary Schools
Compulsory education consists of six years of primary schooling and three years of secondary schooling. In 1991 about 394,300 children annually attended some 4230 primary schools, and about 315,700 students went to approximately 1100 general secondary schools. Finland also maintains a system of secondary vocational education with schools of commerce, arts and crafts, domestic science, trade, agriculture, and technology; yearly enrollment totaled some 123,296 students in 1991.
Universities and Colleges
Compulsory education consists of six years of primary schooling and three years of secondary schooling. In 1991 about 394,300 children annually attended some 4230 primary schools, and about 315,700 students went to approximately 1100 general secondary schools. Finland also maintains a system of secondary vocational education with schools of commerce, arts and crafts, domestic science, trade, agriculture, and technology; yearly enrollment totaled some 123,296 students in 1991.
Universities and Colleges
Literacy,adult education and plans for England in education sector
According to UNESCO, the literacy rate in UK is 99% so the government is working to improve the adult education as the part of the revolution of the new education system. This is a time of considerable flux in the field of adult learning in England. While participation in general is rising, there is a clear divide between those who benefit from education and training, and those who do not. However, new government policies aim to widen participation. This review forms a baseline from which their impact can be measured. An ‘adult learner’ generally means anyone involved in education and training who has completed their initial education. Learning policy tends to treat ‘adults’ as people aged 19 or over. ‘Learning’ includes formal education or training leading to a qualification and, increasingly, the range of informal learning opportunities, some of which are significant sources of skill or knowledge development.
Development
Adult education has old roots in religious education, but became widespread as industrialisation fed the demand for popular democracy. Landmarks include the development of the Mechanics’ Institutes in the early 19th Century and in the early 20th, the Workers’ Educational Association and local adult education. Since the election of a new government, there has been an acknowledgement of the broader aims of education, including social inclusion. A ‘learning society’ is now seen as a desirable social as well as an economic goal. There is an even greater emphasis on widening participation in all forms of learning provision, including further and higher education. Central government of England has currently spends £11 billion a year on Lifelong Learning (including further and higher education provision covering young people as well as adults). Key elements of current policy include:
~efforts to maximise initial education attainment, particularly in basic literacy and numeracy
~basic skills training for adults especially on literacy and numeracy
~new forms of learning provision, using modern technologies to improve efficiency and access
~engaging a wider range of intermediaries to support participation for community learning
~a willingness to acknowledge and meet the additional costs to providers of attracting, recruiting and retaining non-traditional learners.
Learning needs
Recent skills audits in England highlight a deficit in basic and intermediate skills among adults. One in five adults has low levels of literacy and almost half have low levels of numeracy. Employers also report deficits in key skills, including working with others; improving own learning and performance; and problem solving. Other needs include learning for citizenship, for community regeneration and capacity building, and for parenting and family learning.Returns to learning
At an individual level, there is clear evidence of a positive relationship between education level and financial rewards. For instance, middle-aged men with a degree generally earn 60 per cent more than average earnings, while men without any qualification earn 40 per cent less. Some studies also suggest that people who receive training gain between five and 15 per cent in pay. Involvement in learning initiatives among the unemployed has been demonstrated to improve employment chances. The wider benefits of learning at an individual level include improved self-esteem and self-confidence. At an organisational level, the returns are less easy to identify, although studies do demonstrate a link between investment in training and improved productivity, and also between business success and involvement in Investors in People. At a family and community level, there are signs that adult engagement in learning can have a positive impact on families (especially children at school), and the wider community through a peer group and role model effect.
As a conclusion, this is a time of considerable flux in the field of adult learning in England as new structures and policies come on stream. However, there remain a number of challenges including-raising the demand for learning among those who need it most, but are interested in it least and encouraging a culture of continuous learning and development at all levels. Also ensuring that new initiatives aimed at widening participation are not dominated by current learners and ensuring that a concentration on qualifications does not distort funding and provision. Besides, maintaining a commitment to social inclusion and the wider purposes of learning in the face of institutional inertia and conservatism. Lastly, ensuring that the lifelong learning agenda includes people of all ages.
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