Higher Education and Employment: The Changing Relationship. Recent Developments in Continuing Professional Education. Country Study: Finland.

Overview & Synopsis

This report, one of a series of country studies on higher education and employment particularly in continuing professional education, looks at recent developments in Finland. An opening section reviews the structure of continuing education in Finland where most continuing education is arranged by private employers with universities. The paper describes how continuing education has led to several schools of thought on how these services should be provided: neo-traditionalists, cultural revolutionists of science, and utilitarians. A following section describes and analyzes the role of open universities, Finnish universities open to all and designed to serve adults over age 23. This section looks at how individuals pursue study at these institutions in order to gain the required credentials for various types of employment, a process which may devalue the basic academic degree. A discussion of the growing volume of continuing education and projected need for these services shows that continuing professional education recently grew by 86 percent over 3 years. A comparison to other European countries identifies nine important differences. A final section describes how a university-level continuing education course may come about when an enterprise, municipality, ministry or professional organization proposes it. (Includes 13 notes.) (JB) (JB)