Working-life Orientation is one of the VOC2 5 theme groups,
which student teachers have created a learning environment for other group of
students to learn about working-life at Finnish Vocational Education and Training
institutions.
Here is the interview that Minna and I did in order to accomplish
the task described in the part 4 Competences Development. This task has been guided to use oral interview method, however, we did the interview via
email due to challenges in time arrangement.
Read the article 'Future or Fiction?' and
reflect it during the interview.
Minna:
A. What are the challenges of the
future working-life from educational point of view?
In my opinion the challenges from the educational point of view are the facts that the students spend less time in the classroom learning "the traditional" way. In this the teacher (tutor) has to plan (and tie) the teaching material directly to one student and the working place. Since most of the learning takes place at a working place this can also be challenging from the educational point of view. The teacher has to make sure the students are familiar with the theory of the subject they're learning. The teacher needs to work closely with the working places and students. This means that the (teaching) material is different depending on the place where the student is learning.
B. Why do you think that the prediction of the article Future or Fiction was or wasn't realistic?
I think there was some truth to
the article. I don't think that this will happen in five to ten years, more
like fifteen to twenty years. This requires changes in several areas, laws,
curriculum, attitudes etc. I do think that the vocational studies will be even
more practical in the future. I think that the lenght of the vocational
education might shorten and a lot of the teaching and learning will move to the
working places. This will require the teachers to create new methods of
teaching the theories before the students take them to practice.
C. Think about your educational history and describe what are those learned skills that have carried you further in your working-life?
I think that in my educational
history the fact that I have studied abroad has widen the way I think about
people and the world. I have learned to become active and open to new things. I
think this has carried me where I am today. Also my education and working
experience in different parts of Finland and Europe and growing up in a
bilingual city has probably made me a more open person to new things than maybe
the average "typical Finn" might be.
D. How do you make sure that your knowledge about the future working life is up to date?
I have to keep up the good
relationships to the working life and create new ones. Also being open to new
possible working places is also crucial. I have to reguarly step into the role
of the student and be willing to learn myself and from the students. I also
need to be willing to recieve feedback from students and act upon it. In my
field of work I do hope that in the future there will not be simulator teaching
and computer programs that teach basic nurses. In my opinion I think that when
working with people (and for people) this is impossible to carry out and learn
how to become an expert in the social field.
Mikyong:
A. What are the challenges of the
future working-life from educational point of view?
Some of challenges in educational
level are already started as a form of online teaching, and it will lead the
future trends of education to be changed more rapidly. Driven by new
telecommunication technologies, and more easily accessible divides and applications
will be the force of changing educational systems. Nowadays, Mass Open Online
courses (MOOCs) are available for higher-level students for free of charge. It
will be big concerns for the schools which are not able to change their
inefficient education systems.
Furthermore, I think that not
only educational systems but also business will be moved to the direction of
mobilizing the way of working and collaborating employees and customers based
on online business platforms. In the future, I think we may have very different
working-life styles than current working-life concepts. Probably the future
vocational teachers may not need to develop their subject-related competences
in depth, but tailored coaching and consulting skills to develop as more required
working-life competences.
B. Why do you think that the
prediction of the article Future or Fiction was or wasn't realistic?
I think that the article is quite
realistic based on the current changes in the education system driven by MOOCs
and Finland has aims to achieve the best educational system in the world.
But I would like to mention
couple of points which may not correct foresights. If we think more logically
about the future changes comes from many dimensions. First of all, the article
says that the teacher will teach only the basics of the field and the teaching
is integrated to the actual working places. But I am not quite sure about how
the working place can be arranged if there are new types of working-life in the
future. For example, if mobilized business requires employees to work in their
home-office as a virtual working environment, working-life oriented learning
should be moved also into the virtual world not into working places.
And other point is, in the
future, teaching materials would be ready by some other teachers in locally or
internationally, and the materials will be stored in the educational database
system which is available for all the parties connected to the school system.
So the future teachers may not need to use more time to plan and complement the
teaching materials but use less time to make tailored materials for students’
need. If this tailored material can be produced by the future machines, there
will not be so much work to do by teachers.
C. Think about your educational
history and describe what are those learned skills that have carried you
further in your working-life?
If I think about the new future
technology which will do quite much of teachers’ work e.g. transferring
knowledge and competences to students, thus teacher’s roles will be changed as
technology advanced. As the foresight 2030 report says that skills needed for
students in the future will be media reading skills, self-management and
expression, and practical life management and working-life skills. I think what
I am learning and going to learn from the iVET program is quite much related to
the skills needed in the future.
Applying the future trends of
global and multicultural working environment to my situation, my skills learned
from the previous work e.g. communication, intercultural and international
collaboration skills may play the roles alongside with the above mentioned
skills.
D. How do you make sure that your
knowledge about the future working life is up to date?
We live in the life-long learning
era, and I imagine the future learning will be more fun, enjoyable and
accessible via internet for all the people who want to continuously update
their competences. So considering the future trend and Finnish excellent
educational system, I will easily update ICT field of working life competences
by utilizing MOOCs, other methods of leaning media or learnings provided by
open universities as examples. I will try to keep in mind, mental flexibility,
open and positive mind as for adapting the future changes.
Source:
·
Foresight 2030: http://tulevaisuus.2030.fi/en/working-life-in-the-future/the-best-educational-system-in-the-world/
·
Park, Y. Glenn, J. Gorden, T. and Florescu, E.
2013. State of the Future. Kyobo
Written by SMKD
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