Tavastia Way of Finnish Language Support during Vocational ... · PDF fileLanguage Support during Vocational Studies ... as their suitability for the field and their Finnish ... had

Tavastia Way of Finnish Language Support during Vocational Studies

Tiina Alhainen Coordinator of Multicultural Issues

Tavastia Education Consortium

Background - Needs of New Practices in the Tavastia Operating Area

Availability of competent labor has to be ensured

Low growth of the population in Häme area

Staying in the region as competent and as well-prepared

for working life as possible

Integration into society

Larger amount of asylum seekers and reception

centres

Models of integrating Finnish

language learning & vocational studies

15.11.2016 Tiina Alhainen /

Koulutuskuntayhtymä Tavastia 2

The Importance of Network and Cooperation

Tavastia Vocational College

The Finnish Red Cross reception center in Lammi

Hämeenlinnan Asunnot Oy / City of Hämeenlinna

Local NGOs; Häme Settlement Association

Upper Secondary School of Lammi

The Employment Authorities

Municipality authorities

Local people



Learning Environment: practical property

maintenance tasks, cleaning services, construction engineering

repairs



Easy to Find out What to Do in Concrete to Make Immigrants Living Conditions More Convenient



What to Do? For many immigrants with lower education background,

completing the entire qualification in one go is a challenge.

The NAO/AOV funding made it possible to organize the training periods to allow the student to start by completing a part of the qualification while improving their language skills and other competencies required to complete the qualification.

Vocational qualification in property maintenance was the partial qualification that was best suited for the programme, as it was practical and interesting to many immigrants and would provide a short route to working life.



About the Study Programme

Education module from 3 to 4 months.

One half of the contents of the preparatory training consisted of professional and working-life oriented Finnish language studies and studies related to Finnish society and working life.

The other half comprised guided practical learning conducted at work related to the maintenance of outdoor areas, construction engineering repairs and cleaning services, with the aim of preparing the student for completing a part of the qualification.



Carrying out the Study Programme

Many applicants – 5 groups

The students were selected from applicants qualified for the NAO/AOV funding, primarily on the basis of their employment and education plans, previous work experience and education, as well as their suitability for the field and their Finnish language skill level.

Some could compensate for their fairly weak Finnish skills by their professional technical skills acquired through prior work experience, as well as their strong motivation for finding employment and having an education suitable for property maintenance work in the Finnish labor market.

For some, the personalization of the application phase and the charting of wishes and previously acquired skills in the interview resulted in the applicant discovering more suitable study programmes.



About Teaching Team consisting of a vocational

teacher, an S2 Finnish language teacher, and a vocational instructor.

The vocational content and the integration-related content were combined to form a working lifeoriented whole.

The linguistic awareness of the vocational teachers improved, and they discovered different new ways to guide language acquisition while teaching the vocational contents.



About Active, Practical Way of Learning Most of the studies were conducted in a property that was

well-suited for functional learning, enabling guided activities such as cleaning the corridor, washing the windows, painting, installing fire alarms, repair work and snow clearing.

Many tasks, including outdoor area maintenance and the installation of lamps and fire alarms, have been learned at the Mainiemi emergency accommodation unit.

In a small village center, it has taken some effort to find suitable work placement locations that would allow the tasks to be learned to the extent required for completing the qualification.

15.11.2016

Tiina Alhainen /


Learning by Doing Together



Many Things to Be Happy for

Students’ had great enthusiasm for manual work, improving their own living conditions and working.

The Finnish language studies were linked to the vocational studies.

Tools utilized in the Finnish language studies included pictures, drama, linking vocabulary to vocational content, verbal communication tasks, games, functional exercises and introduction visits.

It was essential that the Finnish language studies and the development of professional competencies were clearly linked.



Facebook Supporting Learning

Pictures, videos

Group support

Converzation in Finnish

Notebook

Links

Translation apps

Easy to use



But also Challenges

The difficulty of completing parts of the qualifications remains a subject that requires developing.

○ Filling the documents and understanding the process needed for completing the qualifications

○ Finnish language skills required for the examination situation

There is needed longer duration

than that of the programmes

now carried out



What Did We Learn?



Importance of intense collaboration

between teachers

Vocational teacher’s understanding of

linguistic and multicultural awareness

Language teacher’s

understanding of the qualification

and language skills required

Ways to support the group process in the multicultural and –

linqual groups

Work life and network based way

of planning and carrying education

programmes

Ways to create safe and secure

environment to learn even by

making mistakes

Trials as a Way of Getting Prepared for the Reform



Real, extensive personalization in competence based education and proper intensive guidance

Orientation towards working life, learning in working life-based learning environment

Teacher collaboration and the integration of the contents of the studies

Thank You

Contact info

○ Tiina Alhainen

○ Tavastia Vocational College / Tavastia Education Consortium

○ 050 4347 008

○ [email protected]

○ https://ec.europa.eu/epale/sites/epale/files/support_during_studies_professional_finnish_language_support_for_foreigners.pdf

○ http://monikulttuurisuudestamonenmoista.blogspot.fi/

○ www.kktavastia.fi



mailto:[email protected]

https://ec.europa.eu/epale/sites/epale/files/support_during_studies_professional_finnish_language_support_for_foreigners.pdf





http://monikulttuurisuudestamonenmoista.blogspot.fi/

http://monikulttuurisuudestamonenmoista.blogspot.fi/

http://www.kktavastia.fi/

Tavastia Way of Finnish Language Support during Vocational ... · PDF fileLanguage Support during Vocational Studies ... as their suitability for the field and their Finnish ... had

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