The School of Vocational Teacher Education
During this exceptional year, we successfully implemented digital tools and teaching methods. Our expertise was also used in other universities of applied sciences around Finland.
Due to the pandemic, studies in the Vocational Teacher Education programme were mainly done remotely. Nationwide remote studies somewhat impacted the students’ ability to find work placements. The graduation rate was, however, good, with a total of 303 graduates.
After all of our studies moved to the web in the spring of 2020, we started, within a short timeframe, the fee-based Matkalla Digitaituriksi (Becoming a Digital Expert) online programme, which is now extremely popular. We also started a digihelp service for all universities of applied sciences and offered them pedagogical support through the pedahelp service. We investigated what the views of our degree students were on remote studies, and we were involved in developing the digipedagogical skills of our teachers. We also produced a variety of publications pertaining to remote studies and continued updating our curriculum. The use of open badges in teacher education was broadened due to positive student feedback. The overall student feedback was, yet again, excellent.
The new themes of further education in the School of Vocational Teacher Education were equality and non-discrimination, school safety and language awareness, for example. Cooperation with Metropolia and Turku University of Applied Sciences continued with new agreements in the field of performing arts.
In our RDI operations, we developed and updated responsible pedagogy on the terms of working life. We also studied and improved the implementation of equality, the model for future career counselling, responsibility in vocational education, interaction biometrically in our first-rate laboratory, the rights of learners, and counselling for those who are difficult to employ. We produced a total of 156 publications.
Global education services experienced difficulty due to the pandemic, but we continued, remotely in cooperation with the client, the implementations that had already been agreed upon.
The year 2020 was the 70th anniversary year of the Haaga-Helia School of Vocational Teacher Education. During the anniversary year, the operations of the School of Vocational Teacher Education were made even more visible by highlighting one theme pertaining to the operation of the school every month. The year of celebration culminated in the virtual anniversary seminar held in November. During this main event of the year, important birthdays were celebrated, new graduates were congratulated, history was remembered and the future of vocational teacher education was discussed. At the event, three honorary teacher trainers were named: Master Liisa Tenhunen-Ruotsalainen MA, Pentti Rauhala PhD, and Prof. Stanley Mukhola from the Tshwane University of Technology. Professor Mukhola attended the webinar via remote connection due to the pandemic.
During the VALAA project, interaction between student and counsellor was observed in a laboratory. The goal was to understand and develop the group guidance and communication skills of both councellors and students of the School of Vocational Teacher Education. The innovative research was conducted in the first European top-of-the-range laboratory focused on AI and biometrics on the Pasila campus. At the same time, new and unique biometric data was gathered about group interaction dynamics, the participants’ emotional reactions and the value of reflection in learning, for example. The results will be used in vocational teacher education as well as in other group interaction development projects.
Haaga-Helia’s global education services received a new direction when the first vocational teacher trainers got their degrees at Tshwane University of Technology in December. This was the first time the Training the Trainers programme implemented by the School of Vocational Teacher Education was part of global education services. The programme is unique, as there is no systematic training for vocational teacher education available in South-Africa. The new vocational teacher trainers who graduated from the programme will work as pedagogical developers and will, in the future, train teachers at TUT and other universities in South-Africa. Haaga-Helia has been training vocational teachers in the 60 study-point training programme in Pretoria, South-Africa, since 2015.
Vocational teacher, gradutes 2020
