Lifelong Learning in Finland An expats view
my
the world is changing fast
before the year 2010 in big cities
globally
most of the older generation they were
probably still using mobile gsm
phone fast forward
nowadays especially in this pandemic
situation
most of them even in the small cities
are communicating with their children
and possibly
grandchildren via video call
on whatsapp maybe and who could have
thought that
besides communication for mobility
just imagine in 2008 if we were
traveling from point a to point b
in big cities as a tourist it will be
very hard to travel without a car
or maybe renting an expensive hotel
so but now first of all fast forward
again
we have uber and airbnb
they even have the word uberization to
depict the rapid growth
and whether we realize it or not we are
in the future
the fourth industrial revolution has
been widely discussed in recent years
it listed a lot of elements that have
the word future written all over the
place
autonomous vehicle robots virtual
reality
everything is automated and everything
is changing
according to a 2016 report by the world
economic forum
65 of the jobs that will be available
in the future have not existed yet
is it scary maybe
with all of the ever-changing world
elements the question
is are we ready
yes maybe if we are coming from the
privileged part of the world
we can firmly say that we are ready
but let me paraphrase again
is the world ready how can we make sure
that there will be no
child left behind in this new uncertain
future red race
i’ve been lucky enough to spend most of
the last decades
working in the cutting cutting-edge
technology of the fourth industrial
revolution
and i’ve also been fortunate enough to
know a lot of experts
in this white arena however
working at the forefront of technology
i’ve realized that
my core expertise alone is not enough
autonomous vehicle products software
development
that is my professional field and for me
to survive and thrive and basically
prosper in this field
professionally my fundamental expertise
alone
is never enough and never will be enough
i need to adequately possess the
knowledge
and understanding of all of the freshest
cross-disciplinary skills
that are available in the market
agile what is that
change management what is that
and even version control what is that
again my core expertise alone is never
enough
the fourth industrial revolution not
only has changed
the landscape of the technology in fact
it also has disrupted mostly the carrier
landscape
associated with the related technology
and to survive in this topic we need to
constantly challenge
ourselves with the required skills
but again how
and coming back to the question and the
topics that
to prepare the future generation
are we ready do we have good plans for
them to face the un uncertain
uncertain ambiguous and basically
ever-changing
landscape and the key and answer here i
believe
strongly lie in the word education
but what kind of education
so as we are developing future
technology we also need to educate
nurture and train the future generation
in other words education needs a
changing too
and unsurprisingly finland
has a solution that i believe is worth
being told
when we are talking about modernization
and develop society
what do we understand and think about
skyscrapers tall towers
mega highways megamalls
i’ve been traveling to more than 25
countries
and i’ve lived in four different
countries
as an adult and i disagree with the
previously mentioned suggestions
believe me for me
it has to be something with education
about the people
about the human values because mega most
alone
could not promise happiness
and having skyscrapers in one city
does not ensure people’s security
and it was around end of 2017 or early
2018
when i decided to look for new journey
of my life professionally
maybe spiritually
i was personally not sure where to go
but in the book of my head during that
time
my main notion was to seek for
continuous
education and growth opportunity
a couple of offers were received
from different companies and different
countries
but i decided not to not to proceed and
continued my search
until at one point i got an opportunity
to work in a finnish-based company
and the first thing that popped up in my
mind when discussing about this
northernmost nation
is the good quality of education
finland keeps appearing in the global
top education chart
but what does that mean
i was not sure about that myself during
that time of course
after almost three years living in
finland
as a professional expedite i believe and
i think
i have enough credibility to answer the
question and
provide examples why finland is
considered to have one of the best
education system in the world
the point that i want to stress now is
on the life-long learning
the hidden gem of finnish education
system
in this speaking slot i will like i
would like to briefly share about
finnish education
from the perspective of working
expatriate
where one of the important features is
lifelong learning
and as you can see as a consequence of
having such
quality of education from the outsiders
perspective
which is me in this case i witness an
honest
and highly trusting society as well as a
good grasp
of knowledge throughout its citizens
while still maintaining the local
finnish identity
a lifelong learning and lifelong
learning
is one of the keys to this achievement
by enabling a continuous learning
opportunity for the public
with low or no cost regardless of the
backgrounds or origins or gender
or maybe class are the best way to
educate the masses
the education is also free for finnish
residents
for example the existence of a
finnish open university of applied
sciences
concepts allows one to have a continuous
education
with the intention to improve one’s
career
without participating to a degree
program
i’ve gone through several portals online
which discussed about this
opportunity and i found that there are a
lot of courses which are affordable or
even free
available for cross-disciplinary experts
to learn
in my example since i found this
opportunity
i’ve been able to participate in a lot
of courses that
enable me to understand in more
extensive way the software development
life cycle
such as version control quality
assurance
agile development and this might seem
simple
but trust me to be able to connect the
missing dots
at the back of your foot inside your
head and straight away to be able
to use and implement it in your
professional life
it’s really a big thing if one asks me
and it is not just about technology
technological knowledge
but some browsing of finnish lifelong
learning open courses will reveal
that one can also learn about really
interesting but usually
not really accessible topics such as
diabetes education
and counseling
yes finland managed to create
an easily accessible lifelong learning
system environment
that allows varied topics to be studied
by people from different background
and the great thing here when i said
great it’s really great
it’s it does not stress on the grading
part
instead it is just for hunger to
continuously learn
and this might not be a surprise for
people who is inside the
auditorium here but for people abroad
by saying easily accessible
what i mean here is that
it is for everyone and it can be
participated even for the people with
hectic scheduling time
while maintaining the quality and it’s
free of course
especially in the ever-changing world
today i believe this kind of
opportunities and mindsets are the one
that it will eventually help a country
to build and sustain the talents
subsequently by having educated members
of society
developed nation is formed and
unknowingly finland is actually
building a really future proof and
robust economic model
for its future with this lifelong
learning education
and as far as i can foresee these are
the solutions
to the ambiguity and dilemma towards the
fourth industrial revolution
that i was telling in the earlier part
of this presentation
summarizing the finland education system
is one of the best in the world
not due to the uni not due to the
university rankings
not due to the university prestige and
so on
but it is due to the ease of access
and earthly notion lifelong learning
here in this context is the
manifestation of the
epitome and if we care about our
next generation and their future we need
to support the effort for
further investment in education we need
to invest
in creating easily accessible education
and we need to invest in establishing a
society
that is eager to always grow via the
lifelong learning effort
finland showed a great example with his
education system to the world
and i believe this success story should
be shared throughout the world
to inspire and aspire
thus subsequently contributing in
building
a bulletproof future for all generations
regardless of their background and
that’s why i am here today
thank you peace be upon you