Interview- Interaction with the working community

VOC2- Interaction with working community


Here is the Interview that Timo Partanen and I did on the topic of Working-life Orientation blog, Section 4, Competences Development. 

We had to read an article Future or Fiction ? based on the ideas of future learning strategies and changes in relation to work and vocational education. 

This is part of our VOC2 course.

A. What are the challenges of the future working-life from educational point of view?

Timo:

I would take few trends that I see particularly challenging.

We are quickly moving away from a society where you studied a profession at age of 20, joined a big corporation and spent next 40 years in that same firm progressing very slowly in your career. I would argue that future work careers will be much more fragmented and individualistic than today.

Especially three things are changing:

- New jobs are not anymore created to big firms but smaller firms. Big firms will still exists but they are not recruiting new employees in same extent. In the past e.g. some Finnish paper mills had their own vocational schools training students exactly to the jobs in that factory. In the future there is not one big firm where you can call to ask what skills are needed. 

- The new skills needed are either very specialized or combinations of skills. This means that general training programs where everyone studied same courses shall be the past. In the future students need to tailor (and in that they will need help!) their training program much more individually. 

- People need to renew their skill base frequently. Either people study continuously alongside of work or they take breaks to learn profession. 

As a summary of these three points I see future education system be more driven by the demand from students. It takes place rather on course than degree level and many of these courses are highly specialized. As such this is something similar to Coursera. 

The main challenge for the vocational education will not be training the skills, but social aspect of creating a group, guiding the student etc. Maybe the future Finnish vocational school provides best-in-the-world virtual training in wood processing and mobile game design, student counseling how to find best courses globally for his needs, and lot of students parties to create social cohesion.

Aleksandra:

I agree with Timo that training in vocational education in the near future will be more specialized and that skills will have to be renewed frequently. In that sense I think that there will be an increased need for the level of competence at work which I think will lead to more close cooperation between workplaces and universities and vocational institutes.

Apart from specialised skills, creativity, motivation and ability to adapt and learn, innovation, multidisciplinary approach will all be highly necessary and valued as well.

This has been also quite evident in the fast expanding gaming industry in Finland. There was a great combination of high IT skills, creativity and innovation. Also the smaller companies have benefited from  Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes.

Although it appears that Universities have not kept the pace with the  gaming industry,  so more places for research in gaming studies are needed.

B. Why do you think that the prediction of the article Future or Fiction was or wasn't realistic?

Timo:

I disagree with the article. 

I assumes very fast change in training: This is only 5-10 years ahead, look how little has changed in last 5-10 years. 

But at the same time it assumes that the firm population remain more or less similar than today. It assumes that there will be big firms who contract targeted education for their employees. I would argue that lot of new jobs will instead be created to micro or small companies employing less than ten people. This kind of firms would rarely have capabilities to taylor vocational education programs for them.

Aleksandra:

I agree with the article that there will be more online training and knowledge based training in the future that suits the needs of individual students. I think that the government should compensate smaller companies to train their staff and in that way, enable smaller companies to develop. I look forward to see the idea of simulated learning environment, I think that this will bring together many different learning styles and enable students to learn in a multidisciplinary environment.

C. Think about your educational history and describe what are those learned skills that have carried you further in your working-life?

Timo:

Skills to learn more. 

Basic theoretical understanding, skills to find information and to use that to solve problems. 

Aleksandra:

I think creative approach to projects that was encouraged through my art and design study. I used that a lot in my work generally and have also benefited sometimes from taking some risks and challenges as well.

D. How do you make sure that your knowledge about the future working life is up to date?

Timo:

I do not aim for pure teacher career but a combination of professional and teacher career.

Aleksandra:

I would also like to combine work in a commercial environment with educational work. I think that this may not be an easy option in many ways as I feel that my study of design was too broad for me to work in any specialized way for a company, for example as an interaction designer. I would need more training for that.

Here is also the link to the Working -life Orientation site :

http://workinglifeorientation.blogspot.fi/