Job Shadowing

Dilluns, 12 de maig

First day of the visit to the JEDU educational unit in Nivala.
We were welcomed by Eliisa and Timo Junnila from the language department and Hannu from the information and communication technologies department.
During the visit, we were introduced to how the Finnish education system works.
In summary, the following concepts were explained to us:

Free and universal education:
All educational levels, from early childhood education to university, are free of charge. This also includes school materials, meals, and transportation (if the student lives far from the center).

Educational stages:
The Finnish education system consists of the following stages:

Pre-primary education (6 years old): One compulsory year before basic education.
Basic education (ages 7 to 16): Lasts 9 years, is compulsory, and is common for all students (there are no schools separated by academic level).
Post-compulsory education (from age 16):
- General upper secondary education (lukio): More theoretical, prepares students for university.
- Vocational education (ammatillinen koulutus): More practical, aimed at the labor market, but also provides access to higher education.

Higher education: The options are:

Universities: Research-oriented.
Universities of applied sciences: More practical and professionally oriented approach.

Interesting facts:

There are no standardized exams until the end of upper secondary education.
Low pressure: A recent regulation change allows students to have less homework, fewer lessons, and more time to play and rest.
Highly qualified teaching staff: All teachers must hold a master’s degree and go through a rigorous selection process.
School autonomy: Schools have the freedom to decide how to teach, even though they follow a national curriculum.
Individualized approach: Learning is adapted to each student’s situation.

As mentioned above, each center has its own autonomy, and therefore, we will now describe the center that hosted us, JEDU:

JEDU is the common name for Northern Ostrobothnia Vocational College JEDU (Pohjois-Pohjanmaan ammattiopisto JEDU).
It is a Finnish public institution that offers vocational education for young people and adults in the Pohjois-Pohjanmaa region (Northern Ostrobothnia), in the north of the country.

Characteristics of JEDU:

It offers both initial vocational training and continuing education for adults.
It has multiple campuses located in various municipalities in northern Finland.
It is strongly connected to the working world: it combines classroom learning with real work placements in companies.
For example, students in various vocational programs build houses—from the foundations, through construction, plumbing, electricity, communications, and interior decoration. Afterwards, the center sells the houses and uses the money earned to buy more materials to build new ones.
It offers training in fields such as healthcare, technology, agriculture, hospitality, social services, etc.
Students can also provide these services to people outside the center.
JEDU also participates in international projects and Erasmus+.

Later, we toured the different areas of the center, where we saw the facilities used for the various vocational programs (Information and Communication Technologies, Electricity, Plumbing, Hairdressing, Personal Image, Construction, Interior Design, Mechanics, and Metalwork).

To end the day, we had dinner accompanied by members of JEDU and of the Saint-Affrique Institute, France, who were concluding their Erasmus+ stay.

Tuesday, 13 May:

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Wednesday, 14 May:

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Suspendisse potenti. Proin tempus tempor enim, non tincidunt ligula hendrerit vel. Donec a congue urna. Vestibulum facilisis non risus et sagittis. Nam viverra odio eu sodales condimentum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Vivamus ullamcorper lacinia elit eget vehicula. Mauris quis urna aliquet, feugiat ligula sit amet, blandit urna. Sed ultricies non enim pretium tristique. Aliquam convallis ut dolor ac sodales. Vestibulum nec tristique magna.

Thursday, 15 May:

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Mauris id magna est. Vestibulum a lorem consectetur, semper velit a, sodales sem. Curabitur pretium metus nec orci dignissim, interdum condimentum lacus sodales. Cras libero nunc, tincidunt at sapien eu, accumsan lobortis nulla. Vivamus sodales, dui a hendrerit ornare, enim felis ultricies lacus, quis lobortis mi ipsum nec urna. Donec placerat euismod sodales. Cras nec faucibus sem. Nunc quis interdum magna, in blandit lorem. Integer fermentum, leo quis sollicitudin pellentesque, massa purus cursus ante, in dapibus augue magna at turpis.

Friday, 16 May:

Vivamus quis arcu non erat gravida fermentum. Vivamus sollicitudin est id dolor tempor sagittis vitae sed augue. Maecenas vitae dolor felis. Cras velit lorem, mollis vel sagittis non, aliquam ut nisl. Fusce facilisis congue dolor sed pellentesque. Nulla at neque sed turpis venenatis semper sit amet vel nibh. Donec vulputate ipsum non sapien tincidunt, id efficitur ex commodo. Pellentesque pellentesque convallis est, vehicula rhoncus elit tempus vitae. Pellentesque eget blandit erat. Sed odio augue, ultricies quis nibh in, eleifend lacinia ante.

In dapibus odio ac libero pellentesque, in elementum mi laoreet. Integer eget erat quis nibh commodo dapibus. Praesent laoreet nunc eu aliquam congue. Maecenas commodo pellentesque mauris, in sodales elit efficitur vel. Curabitur ac massa leo. Pellentesque sodales varius venenatis. Aliquam sit amet dapibus quam, eu tincidunt purus. Aliquam vel lacus nec enim laoreet imperdiet. Vestibulum quis sapien ultricies, lobortis risus sit amet, condimentum diam.