Finland: VET in immigrant integration
The challenges in the Finnish VET system will increase dramatically in the near future. Next year the budget is cut by 12,5%, that amounts to over 200 million Euro. At the same time Finland is making its biggest reform to VET. The equation of dwindling resources in a constantly changing and growing pool of tasks is a dangerous one. One of the tasks is also VET contribution to integration of immigrants in Finland.
Integration means that you settle in and acquire knowledge and skills needed in the new society. The three biggest factors to support this process are language, a job or a student position and forming contacts within the society.
In Finland you are offered many services in order to help with the integration: initial assessment, integration plan and integration training. Also information services, with basic information about Finland and including where to find job opportunities is given to everyone after receiving a resident permit or registering your right to reside in the country.
The challenge with this system is its heaviness. It requires efficiency, a lot of resources and most of all patience.
Many countries in Europe are now trying to figure out how to manage the integration of immigrants into their society in the best way possible. More and more asylum seekers and other immigrants come with different educational backgrounds and their difficulty of getting a job or a place to study is a situation that is vastly noted. For example; high language requirements are a common obstacle that people face.
In Finland, it is to be presumed that most of the immigrants in need of an education will go into VET. The low language requirements and the individual educational paths offer huge possibilities in getting an education rather quickly.
VET will face new challenges when the increase of immigrants joining the education system. At the same time the Finnish VET system will face a reform that changes everything from the amount of on-the-job learning to how the financing is determined. The direction is for the better, but the reform also makes the education more subjective and therefore more guidance dependent. So an already under resourced education will face big budget cuts and at the same time receive more students, most of which have diverse educational backgrounds and need guidance more than the average student. How is this combination supposed to work?
By the looks of it, poorly, we fear. Some supporting measures to the issue have been planned by the government, an extra 2000 places have been targeted specifically to place migrant students all around Finland, focusing on the areas where the number of immigrants is high. Also various projects have been started to help with inclusion by the third sector. But the biggest potential with helping these individual students as well as the whole school environment is still yet to be tapped.
Research has shown that in many cases the importance of sense of community is key in minimizing school drop outs. Ways to improve the atmosphere at schools are small and cheap but require active effort in making the new ways a habit. For example playing team sports/ games during school days, offering the students a way of being actively a part of decision making in school etc. A well executed team building makes sure that all students are seen and heard and makes a great environment for us to learn social and networking skills needed for the future.
This is where we, as school students, have a big task ahead of us. Let’s make sure that we create the environment that supports integration of migrants in our schools.
To make it happen, OBESSU launched a programme of micro-grants that you can apply for with your school union, on regional or national level – check it out at www.seedsforintegration.org
Written by Jasmina Khabbal, Working Group on VET member
