Adult students have found courage and enthusiasm for international exchanges

By Joan Rask, Journalist

Globalisation is not going to slow down!    
These are the words from Hilla Helasaari, Head of International Affairs at Business College Helsinki. She has together with her colleague, project manager Tuula Pahkala, represented the college in two parallel Nordplus projects. 

-    International skills are needed in almost every job today, and you may need to speak English and be able to collaborate with people from different cultural backgrounds. That is why everyone needs to understand how to work internationally, says Hilla Helasaari.

Business College Helsinki is the coordinating institution for the two projects: “Become an International Skills Expert” and “Enhancing the International Skills of Educational Staff”, where seven vocational colleges across the Nordic and Baltic countries have worked together to engage adult students in international cross-border travel and project work. 

The two projects are distinctive because they run in parallel, with one aimed at adult students and the other at their teachers.

No opportunities for adults

Tuula Pahkala and Hilla Helasaari have long been frustrated that, while there were excellent international opportunities for young people, there were no such opportunities for adult students, and hardly any for their teachers.

Irma Šiaulyté, project coordinator at Kaunas Information Technology School also recognises this situation.

-    We see that adult learners often also need general competences and the project helped us understand these needs better and find effective solutions, says Irma Šiaulyté.

All three explain that many adult students generally feel insecure in international contexts.

-    That is why we wanted to create something that was easy to take part in. We simply wanted people to meet and talk to each other. That was the most important thing: that they felt encouraged and discovered competences that they did not know they had, says Tuula Pahkala.

A mix of cultures and ages

At the school in Kaunas, the students were almost all young adults from Lithuania. The groups from the Nordic countries were much more diverse.

-    At first, we were worried about whether our participants could collaborate across age differences and in that mix of cultures, says Irma Šiaulyté.
And she quickly adds:

-    But everyone learned incredibly quickly, and the atmosphere at the physical meetings was impressively good. As an institution, we are very proud to be a partner in the network, and proud that we succeeded in bringing all the participants together around the common goals.

They all highlight that the projects have had a decisively positive impact. And Tuula Pahkala is pleased with the outcome.

-    The whole experience has made me very humble. The amount of positivity in the participants’ feedback was really striking. People wrote that it had been fantastic, and that they had gained experience in teamwork, project management, product development and networking. Some said they had made new friends and others highlighted how much they had learned from working together and presenting their ideas. It just went on and on…, says Tuula Pahkala.

Facts

The two projects, “Enhancing the International Skills of Educational Staff” and “Become an International Skills Expert”, have the same group of partners. The network will continue after the two projects have been completed.
All schools, students and teachers came from different fields of study: business, ICT, logistics, healthcare and tourism.

The partnership has been awarded support from Nordplus Adult for the project types “Exchange of adult learners” (38.620 EUR) and “Exchange of teachers/adult education staff” (26.610 EUR).

Coordinating institution:
• Business College Helsinki, Finland

Partner institutions:
• Komvux Värnamo, Sweden
• Utbildning Nord, Sweden
• Køge Business College, Denmark
• Kaunas Information Technology School, Lithuania
• Tartu Vocational College, Estonia