APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING IN FINLAND IN A NUTSHELL

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APPRENTICESHIP TRAININGIN FINLANDIN A NUTSHELL
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The secondary vocational education is divided in
Finland between vocational institutes and
apprenticeship training. The number of
apprentices amount to 30.000, out of which the
majority consists of adult students. The average
age of an apprentice in Finland is 36 years.
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Apprenticeship training in Finland is based
upon TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT and on
voluntarism. The majority of those who are
studying by apprenticeship contract is already
employed. Some 80 of the learning takes place
on the job and only remaining 20 in the
vocational institutes under tuition of a teacher.
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A specific feature of the Finnish secondary
vocational education is the fact that all the 340
degrees at the secondary level can be taken by
apprenticeship contract. Prior, even demanding
degrees do not present any obstacle to take a new
degree.
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A PERSONAL LEARNING PROGRAMME is presupposed to
be attached to the apprenticeship contract by the
Finnish law, taking into consideration multiple
educational/training needs of the students and
apprentices at different levels and also
considering the training ability on the various
jobs. The personal learning programme will be
formulated by the employer, apprentice and
training adviser as well as the teacher in the
corresponding vocational institute. When
formulating the learning programme, division of
learning on-the-job and theoretical studies must
be agreed upon with the employer. Suppliers in
theoretical studies are vocational institutes,
adult learning centres and some big private
educational enterprises. The choice between
institutes/ centres etc. is made by the
apprenticeship centre based upon offers.
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THE TRAINING OF TRAINERS/TUTORS On-the-job is
based upon voluntarism in Finland. Any person
accepted by the training adviser can act as the
trainer on-the-job. There are no requirements for
formal qualifications. This applies to the
training adviser, too. It is usually a foreman
or an older, more experienced co-worker on the
job who will be responsible for the
training on-the-job. In recent years a few
thousand trainers on-the-job have received
training, which is considered important.
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• The marjos part of this training has lately been
  co-ordinated
• by the Ministry of Education and financed by the
  European
• social fund.
• The duration of the training is 4-6 days. The
  substance of
• the training also focuses on self-knowledge and
  on
• developing interactional skills.
• The contents consists of
• introduction to todays vocational education in
  Finland
• training the students/apprentices
• reigning practices in learning through work or
  in training
• on-the-job
• evaluations, which is compulsory during
  apprenticeship
• training
• Participation in the training is normally free of
  charges
• for the trainer and of free-will.

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In Finland the training person is called A
MENTOR, a supervising co-worker, whereas the
European equivalent is A TUTOR, i.e. a trained
supervisor. It is quite common that the same
people supervise both students in their practical
training period and apprentices who are employed
and have signed an apprenticeship contract.