Lecturer Sanna RuhalahtiHäme UAS, Vocational teacher education UnitFinlandhttp://voimaa.metropolia.fi

VOIMAA organisations

•VOIMAA is coordinated by Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and carried out in co-operation with HAMK University of Applied Sciences and Fakiirimedia Ltd

•VOIMAA is funded by State Provincial Office of Southern Finland and European Social Fund

• Project lasts for three years (August 2008 to July 2011)

Migrants in FinlandFACTS AND FIGURES

POPULATION OF FINLAND: 5.3M

NATIONALITY NATIVE LANGUAGE

STATE OF BIRTH

Finnish 5 167 776Foreigners 123 708BIGGEST GROUPSRussia 26 211Estonia 20 006Sweden 8 349Somalia 4 852China 3 978Thailand 3 470Germany 3 318Turkey 3 182Britannia 3 143Iraq 3 036

Finnish 4 836 183Swedish 289 596Saame 1 777Foreign 172 928BIGGEST GROUPSRussian 45 224Estonian 19 812English 10 589Somali 9 810Arabic 8 119 Kurd 5 893Albanian 5 791China 5 733

Finland 5 097 956Other 202 528BIGGEST GROUPSFormer USSR 43 805Sweden 30 203Estonia 16 728Russia 5 872Somalia 5 802Form. Yugoslavia 5 470Germany 5 289China 5 269Iraq 4 794Thailand 4 761

Working age population: 66 % of Finnish population(between 15-64 years) 79 % of foreign population (~ 105 000)

Foreigners in Finland 1990-2008

Source: Population register

Source: Ministry of the Interior publications 2/2009

YEAR POPULATIONWORKING AGE POPULATION

LABOUR FORCE

UNEMPLOYEDUNEMPLOYMENT

RATE %

1994 62 012 45 504 24 350 11 974 49,2

1995 68 566 50 189 26 918 12 438 46,2

1996 73 754 53 782 29 700 13 554 45,6

1997 80 600 58 803 32 981 13 889 42,1

1998 85 060 62 452 36 006 13 782 38,3

1999 87 680 65 248 38 057 13 976 36,7

2000 91 074 68 115 41 353 13 152 31,8

2001 98 577 74 239 45 404 14 149 31,2

2002 103 682 78 581 47 082 13 370 28,4

2003 107 003 81 808 49 070 14 150 23,8

2004 108 346 83 498 51 440 15 051 29,3

2005 113 925 88 745 54 811 12 054 27,5

2006 121 739 95 851 59 428 14 460 24,3

2007 131 861 104 170 64 586 13 970 21,6

Foreigners in Finland 1994 – 2007

30TH SEPT. 2008 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF FOREIGNERS WAS 17,7 %

Source: Statistics Finland

Foreign Degree Students in Finnish HEIs 2000 - 2008

Source: Statistics Finland

Foreign Degree Students in Finnish HEIs 2004 - 2008

VOIMAA project “Resources from

Immigrants”

VOIMAA in a Nutshell

VOIMAA enlarge the career development of immigrants to the tasks of expertise.

To achieve this we build paths build paths to higher education and develop new models for in-service training together with employers.

Goals of VOIMAA

• Solutions for immigrants applying to HEIs

• Tools and models for career development for immigrant employees

• Research study on employers views of immigrants career development

Social media as a tool of development workas well as project planning and coordination

Working Methods in HEIs

Development of multiple models of preparatory education

Development work in practice:

• Field specific teams of teachers developing preparatory education

• Course of multicultural competences to UAS teacher students

• Pilots of few preparatory education implementations (year 2010)

Methods in Working Life

• Co-operation with 4-6 different working communities 2008 – 2011 (in cycles)o Using training for career developmento Staff members participate in training pilot

groupso Projects developed according to organisations'

needs

CURRENT PARTNERS:Itella - large organisation, operating in homeland + Europe, logisticsHOK Elanto - large, homeland based company, retail services Muxlim Inc. – small, global business, social media

Background - HEIs

• Reform of legislation effective 1.1.2010> Preparatory courses for higher education> No student fees

• 46 % of immigrants live in area of operation of Metropolia and HAMK UAS

• Need for educated labour force

Social Media METHODS IN VOIMAA

Social Media

• Media designed to be o disseminated through social interactiono created using highly accessible and scalable

publishing techniques • Supports

o human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many)

o democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Source: Wikipedia

Social Media• Reach

Technologies enable anyone to reach a global audience

• Accessibility Tools are available to anyone at little or no cost

• Usability Anyone can operate the means of production with little or no training

• Recency Only the participants determine any delay in response

• Permanence Can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing (former versions can be saved though)

Source: Wikipedia

Social Media in VOIMAA

• Wiki - Development work and project coordination

• Blogs – Experiences of using social media• Twitter, Facebook – Information and

networking people relating to VOIMAA• RSS feeds – Current news on VOIMAA• Newsletter – Collected news once a month

http://voimaa.metropolia.fi

Pros and Cons

• Explicitness• No outdated

documents• Enables

participation• Enables networking• Easy to correct

mistakes• Documentation and

visibility of process

• Change in personal working methods takes time

• ICT experience• Enduring

incompleteness • Challenges in

structuring information

What is a social learning environment?

-Place where students or individuals can work and learn together in tandem(formally and informally) with others - in study groups, study groups or in project and team spaces-These new co-operation and collaborative environments are challenging us to learn more about how to use social media and it tools in our education purposes.

Thank you for your attention