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