LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Sixth International LLinE Conference» Valuing Learning - Learning Valuing

25 - 27 September 2003

What is learning and what is valuable in learning? Is learning a value in itself or is it mainly a tool, a medium to achieve something else, a better pay or a wider horizon for the learner? Learning fulfils different needs for different groups and at different points in the lifecourse in society today. Depending on the reasons for valuing learning, we need to consider it from several points of view.

The financing party, often the state, asks for accountability and transparency to evaluate the impact of the investment in education and learning. By demanding and defining standards and indicators, it classifies and packages learning. Accreditation has become one of the issues today.

Learning serves as a tool for e.g. national economic planning, and the decisions are coloured by the needs of the national economic competence. The providers bow to control. So, what is the value of learning?
What are the ethics of education? Where and how do we learn valuing? Values, or the lack of them is one of the major issues in discussion today, and education one of the most value-ridden activities.

Keynote Speakers

Yrjö Engeström, Professor of Adult Education, University of Helsinki and Professor of Communication, University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Teija Enoranta, Vice principal and project coordinator at Viittakivi International Centre, International Folk High School, Finland. A life-long learner in liberal adult education, exploring new ways of learning life

Frans L. Leeuw, Chief Review Officer with the Netherlands´ Inspectorate for Education, Utrecht; Professor, Evaluation Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University. Director of Research, Statistics and Documentation Center, Ministry of Justice. President of the Dutch Evaluation Society

Petri Lempinen, PhD, Education Advisor the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees STTK, Finland. In charge of STTK’s watch interest on education politics with main focus on vocational education and training, member of European Commission Advisory Council on Vocational Education and Training

Hannele Niemi, Professor of Education, The 1st Vice-rector at the University of Helsinki, Scientific director of the national research program “Life as Learning”, Academy of Finland. She has been Dean of the Faculty of Education until 2003
Mikko Nupponen, Director, Finnish Leonardo Centre, National Board of Education. Over 10 years of experience with EU Education and Training programmes both in Finland and as deputy director of Socrates, Leonardo and Youth Technical Assistance Office in Brussels

Attilio Oliva, Executive President, Associazione TreeLLLe – Per una società dell’apprendimento continuo” (lifelong learning society), Italy. Entrepreneur, president of the Regional Federation of Employers and member of the Steering Committee of Confindustria (Rome), representative of the Government in the Board of Governors of Genoa University

Dominique Simone Rychen, Senior Program Officer at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the Program Manager of the OECD Project, Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations, Switzerland


Program

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

11.30 Transportation from KIASMA
12.00 Registration and lunch

What learning is valuable

Chair: Professor Kauko Hämäläinen, University of Helsinki, LLinE Editor-in-Chief

13.00 Opening of the conference
Eeva-Inkeri Sirelius, Director, Finnish Association of Adult Education Centres KTOL

13.15 Keynote
Learning towards empowerment in the Future Europe
Hannele Niemi, Professor, The First Vice-rector, University of Helsinki
published in LLinE 1/2004

14.15 COFFEE

14.30 Keynote
Use Value, Exchange Value, Surplus Value: Coping with Contradictions in Workplace Learning
Professor Yrjö Engeström, University of Helsinki and University of California, San Diego

15.30 Papers presented by participants

16.30 – 18.00 Workshops

18 – 20 Sauna

20.00 Dinner and program

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

The practice of valuing learning

Chair: Arne Carlsen, Vice-rector of Danish University of Education, Member of LLinE editorial board

8.30 – 12.30 Study visits
1. Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council FINHEEC / ENQA European Network for Quality Assurance
2. Finnish Parliament – the Committee for the Future
3. EDUPOLI Vocational Adult Education Centre
4. Adult Education Centre ARBIS
5. CITY Folk High School
6. Central Organisation for Finnish Trade Unions SAK

12.30 LUNCH at Kallvik

13.30 Workshops

15.00 COFFEE

15.30 Debate
What learning is valued in EU education and culture programs and how do the project selection indicators reflect that?
Mikko Nupponen, Finnish Leonardo Centre, National Board of Education
vs.
Representative of Practice
Teija Enoranta, co-ordinator of several EU projects, Viittakivi International Center, Finland

16.30 Poster session

20.00 Conference Dinner – program

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

Work and Learning

Chair: Professor Peter Jarvis, University of Surrey, Member of LLinE editorial board

8.30 Keynote
Challenges for National Quality Assurance Agencies – A View from the Evaluation World
Frans L. Leeuw, Chief Review Officer, Open University and Utrecht University, Netherlands
published in LLinE 2/2004

Discussion

9.30 BREAK

10.00 Keynote
Learning what and for what? Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society
Dominique Simone Rychen, DeSeCo (definition and selection of competences) programme of OECD, Switzerland
published in LLinE 1/2004

Keynote
What kind of knowledge and competences? Perspective and commitment of employers
Attilio Oliva, Executive President, Associazione Treelle Italy
published in LLinE 1/2004

Keynote
Learning for employment
Petri Lempinen, PhD, Finland
Education Advisor in the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees STTK
published in LLinE 1/2004
Discussion

12.30 Concluding Words
Paul Ilsley, Professor of Adult Education and educational research, Northern Illinois University, Docent in Adult Education, Helsinki University

13.00 LUNCH AND COFFEE
Departure


STUDY VISITS

Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council FINHEEC

The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) is an independent expert body assisting universities, polytechnics and the Ministry of Education in matters relating to evaluation. The Council organizes evaluations of quality work and institutional, program and thematic evaluations. Furthermore, it provides advisory and consultancy services in the implementation of the evaluations, develops evaluation methodology and disseminates good Finnish and international practices to higher education institutions and the Ministry of Education.

The Aim of FINHEEC is the long-term development of higher education through evaluation. The main duty of the Council is the development of evaluation procedures in the institutions of higher education nationwide. Consequently, the Council strongly emphasizes the role of the higher education institutions in evaluation, and the communicative evaluation approach in its evaluation projects.
http://www.kka.fi

Finnish Parliament –Committee for the Future

In 1992, the majority of the Members of Parliament approved a legislative motion suggesting that the Government should submit Parliament to a report concerning national long-term development trends and related options. Based on the Committee's work, Parliament decided that the Government should present a Futures Report to Parliament at least once during each electoral period. This resolution has generated a unique political dialogue between the

Government and Parliament regarding the nation's central future-related issues

The Committee for the Future shall prepare submitted parliamentary issues; make statements to other Parliamentary Committees on request, concerning future-related issues; process issues relating to future development factors and development models; undertake analyses pertaining to future-related research and its methodology; function as a parliamentary organ assessing technological development and its societal consequences.
http://www.parliament.fi


EDUPOLI

Edupoli is a learning centre for adults operating in Helsinki and East Uusimaa regions. In Edupoli we continuously assess the effectiveness of our training and actively seek to improve the quality of our operations. Edupoli has a certified ISO 9001 Quality system and a certified 14001 environmental Management System, which provide quality indicators for our services. Annually there are over 5000 students participating in our training courses, most of them targeting to competence-based examinations (basic, vocational and specialist qualifications). Moreover, companies receive tailor-made as well as customer specific personnel courses. The impact of our training, e Learning and blended learning are just some of areas of development. We are also actively cooperative on an international level, e.g. through EFVET and IVETA networks.
http://www.edupoli.fi


ARBIS – ADULT EDUCATION CENTRE

Arbis in Helsinki is one of the largest municipally owned adult education centres in Finland, of which there are 258 altogether all over Finland. Each year it organizes over 600 courses – ranging from arts, handicraft, physical education, IT, and cooking to Open University courses – attended by approximately 12 000 students. Among the 18 languages taught, Arbis also offers Swedish and Finnish language courses specially aimed at foreigners.
http://www.hel.fi/arbis/


City Folk High School/Swedish Folk High School/Swedish Study Centre

The concept of folk high schools evolved in Denmark, where the aim was to defend the Danish national character against germanisation. The folk high school idea spread to the rest of the Nordic countries, where it found unexpectedly good soil in the Finnish attempts against the Russification processes at the end of the 19th century. The first folk high schools were established with Swedish as the instruction language.

City Folk High School in the centre of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, uses the city as a classroom. The students work in workshops, in videoconferences, in the various Helsinki environments and in class. The education profile is the adult education ideal and principle of the Nordic folk high schools: learning by doing, problem based learning, learning for life, not for school and life long learning. City Folk High School also offers multiform courses - high school courses in cooperation with local schools and academic courses in cooperation with Helsinki University and Åbo Akademi, Turku.
http://www.svefol.net/city/

Swedish Folk High School
http://www.svefol.net

Swedish Study Centre works to support and promote active citizenship through the member NGOs in their local and regional activities, such as youth, handicap and cultural organizations, adult education and rural development. A new area since the late 1990s is to combat social exclusion among young persons and adults through rehabilitation, consultation and productive learning. SSC has a lot of experience of European Union -related project activities.
http://www.ssc.fi


Central Organisation for Finnish Trade Unions SAK

SAK is the biggest labour market organization in Finland. The Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions SAK (f. 1907) protects interests of over a million wage-earners. 24 trade unions, the members of SAK represent workers in a balanced range of sectors including industry, private services, local government, the state and transport. 46 per cent of the members are women. One quarter of the total membership is under thirty years of age.

SAK negotiates framework agreements with the central employers confederations concerning wages, hours of work, the status of shop stewards and other matters broadly pertaining to working life. SAK influences political decision-making both at national and regional level.

As a member of the international trade union movement SAK influences also internationally. The aim of SAK is to ensure that the point of view of wage-earners is accommodated as effectively as possible in legislation and in other social decision-making.
http://www.sak.fi »