I have realized that whatever we do together with the residents is worthwhile. The strongest asset that Espoo has is its active people, enterprises, associations and communities. The goal is to build a sustainable future for well-being in everyday life. This is what being a renewable and learning city is all about.
Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo
Learning city initiatives are playing an important role in the City of Espoo’s efforts to ensure the well-being and inclusion of its citizens. While Finland’s school system has long been admired internationally, Espoo nonethless faces some significant challenges in ensuring that all of its citizens avail themselves of lifelong learning opportunities. These challenges include a tight budget, a lack of suitable learning spaces and dramatic demographic and technological changes. The city has established numerous programmes that are addressing these challenges. The ultimate aim of these programmes is to foster competent and creative residents with a learning spirit who can function in an uncertain future.
Espoo aims to equip learners with twentyfirst century skills
Introduction
General overview
The entire municipal structure is currently being reorganized in Finland. Largely due to economic factors, many municipalities are merging into larger units. This has stimulated debate on the future shape and size of Espoo, a city that is growing by around 4,000 inhabitants a year. Espoo has a relatively good framework for providing services to citizens, even though economic conditions are becoming more difficult there, as they are elsewhere in Finland. The national education system is wellestablished but is constantly undergoing reform.
Main issues to be tackled
Espoo’s main aim is to enable all its citizens to fulfil their potential by providing them with opportunities to follow consistent learning paths. At the same time, however, Espoo is struggling with finances, and so it needs to do more with less money. This involves becoming more creative in finding cost-effective ways to provide quality education that will meet future needs.
Espoo wants to promote the well-being of its young people and ensure that they prosper in the city’s schools. Learning results in the city have been consistently good. Schools in Espoo rank among the best in Finland, according to PISA and other performance studies. However, Finnish children say that they do not enjoy school. One current problem in Espoo is school buildings, some of which are a health risk. More than 3,000 students and staff have been relocated from unsafe schools this year. Safe buildings are essential for creating environments in which students can experience the joy of learning. In addition, the real-life relevance of education needs to be improved. Making sure that no young person drops out of the education system is also extremely important.
Another priority is Espoo’s growing number of older people. The city aims to keep these citizens mentally and physically active and healthy for as long as possible, to enable them to live in their own homes and to encourage them to play an active role in society. Several programmes are in place to make life more meaningful and enjoyable for older people. A growing sense of loneliness among older people in Finland is another problem that needs to be addressed.
Digitalization brings new challenges for all age groups. Older people, in particular, need to develop the skills that are essential for living in the digital world. Small-scale workshops in which young students teach older people how to use ICT tools have been organized in city libraries.
Our society is becoming more multicultural and diverse. This is a rather new phenomenon in Finland, and its impact tends to be most immediately apparent in metropolitan areas. Multiculturalism has influenced the city’s services, which have become more flexible and accessible to immigrants. Espoo’s lifelong educational services have a special role to play in helping newcomers settle into this society while maintaining their own cultural identity.
Motives for becoming a learning city
According to The Espoo Story, a document that sets out the city’s strategy in a narrative form, Espoo’s goal is to be a good place to live, learn, work and do business in, and to be a place where residents can have their say. Ensuring the well-being and inclusion of all its citizens is therefore a key objective. Providing every citizen with opportunities for lifelong learning plays an important role in achieving this objective.
Espoo’s lifelong educational services have a special role to play in helping newcomers settle into this society while maintaining their own cultural identity.
Learning city policies and strategies
It is important that residents can participate in developing the city’s education and learning services, and that these services are flexible and adjustable.
Definition of a learning city
Espoo does not have an explicit definition of a learning city. However, the city places great emphasis on encouraging an active life for all citizens no matter what their age. Lifelong learning can play a major role in this regard. Lifelong learning in the City of Espoo is understood to mean all learning that takes place over the course of an entire lifetime. The purpose of learning is to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies that an individual needs across all facets of life. The city aims to ensure that everyone feels secure enough to try new things without being afraid of failure. It is important that residents can participate in developing the city’s education and learning services, and that these services are flexible and adjustable.
Vision and objectives
The Espoo Local Development Plan for Education 2020 states that Espoo aims to be a competent municipality known for its fairness, its commitment to residents and clients, and its pioneering yet responsible approach. However, these goals can only be achieved together with Espoo residents who are fulfiling their own personal goals.
The goals of the Espoo Local Development Plan for Education 2020 are to promote:
• competent and creative residents with a learning spirit who can function in an uncertain future;
• consistent learning paths for all learners to follow throughout their various life stages in harmony with the environment; and
• responsible leadership involving individual and shared responsibility for the realization of common goals.
Legislative framework
Lifelong learning is very much embedded in most Finnish educational legislation, beginning with the Basic Education Act. In many parts of Finland, lifelong learning is thought to refer to learning after formal education. However, more and more bodies are using the term to refer to the whole life course. Finnish legislation reflects this interpretation. It also encourages cities to take an active role in implementing lifelong learning. Finnish cities have broad responsibility for the provision of basic services such as education for their residents. Cities are quite independent and establish their educational policies themselves. Some cities have drawn up a specific policy document on lifelong learning.
Youth Guarantee is a national scheme ensuring that all people under the age of 30 are offered a high-quality job, further education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving formal education or becoming unemployed. Youth Guarantee is an outcome-focused approach that aims to enhance the employability of young people with a view to long-term labour market integration.
The Espoo Story portrays the past, present and future of Espoo. It also identifies the city’s greatest challenges. These challenges are being tackled through the following cross-functional development programmes:
• Vitality for Older People;
• Sustainable Development;
• Competitiveness, Innovation and Entrepreneurship;
• Youth Vitality; and
• A Participatory Espoo.
The City of Espoo has shown its commitment to lifelong learning in the Espoo Local Development Plan for Education, which is an implementation of The Espoo Story on education. It was devised in 2013 by a large number of stakeholders, and was part of the Espoo City Council 2014 strategy process. This development plan guides all educational activities in Espoo.
Espoo has recently made a decision to concentrate central education services for adults in an Adult Learning Services Centre. This centre unites Espoo Community College, Espoo General Upper Secondary School for Adults, Omnia Apprenticeship Training Centre and Omnia Vocational Adult Education Centre. The idea is to provide all services under one roof in order to help learners follow a personal lifelong learning path combining professional and leisure goals.
Governance and partnership
The bodies responsible for lifelong learning policies in Finland at the national level are the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Board of Education and the National Evaluation Centre. The Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment promote lifelong learning regionally. The Ministry of Education and Culture has nominated the Council for Lifelong Learning to deal with the relationship between education and working life as well as the prerequisites for lifelong learning and adult education policy. All these bodies can give recommendations for promoting lifelong learning at a local level.
The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities comprises the cities and other municipalities in Finland. The association’s goal is to promote opportunities for local authorities to operate and cooperate, and to enhance their vitality and viability for the benefit of residents. The task of cultural and educational services in municipalities is to promote citizens’ skills and competence in accordance with the principle of lifelong learning. Local authorities finance and provide education through a network of educational institutions from preschools to universities of applied sciences. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities supports the cities in this regard.
Finland has a long tradition of NGOs that, due to government resources being tied up in the provision of formal education for the nation state, have adopted lifelong learning as part of their agenda. Today they work together with cities in their endeavours.
The Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation offers expertise and services to support learning and build a society of learners. The foundation, which was established in 1874, cooperates with a wide variety of adult education stakeholders in Finland and internationally. It seeks to influence education policies in order to improve nonformal adult education in Finnish society. The foundation is known for its online journal Lifelong Learning in Europe (LLinE).
The Finnish Association of Adult Education Centres is an umbrella organization for adult education centres in Finland. It was founded in 1919 as an NGO and its main task is to improve and promote adult education and learning in Finland. The Finnish Association of Adult Education Centres carries out further training programmes and development projects for the staff of adult education centres and sends out newsletters to its members. It is represented in many committees, working groups and networks of adult education. One of the association’s major objectives is to promote international relationships and to operate as a partner for international contacts.
The Finnish Adult Education Association (FAEA) is an umbrella organization for national non-formal adult education associations in Finland. It is a nongovernmental organization that was founded in 1969. The FAEA’s main responsibilities are promoting non-formal adult education and learning, conducting research on non-formal adult education and encouraging international cooperation.
Implementation
Espoo has a diverse range of educational opportunities aimed at creating a consistent learning path throughout life.
Provision of lifelong learning
Espoo has a diverse range of educational opportunities aimed at creating a consistent learning path throughout life. The following paragraphs describe just a few examples.
Espoo is one of the United Nations University’s Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE). Espoo became the first Finnish member of the network in 2011. Members of the RCE network around the world distribute research data, experiences and good practice and promote dialogue and cooperation in order to build a sustainable future. RCE Espoo focuses on the ecological, social and financial aspects of sustainable development.
The innovation education network Innokas, which is coordinated by the City of Espoo along with the Finnish Department of Teacher Education, the University of Helsinki and six other regional coordinators in Finland, guides and encourages students, teachers, school administrators and other stakeholders to be creative and innovative using available technology. Information and communications technology, coding, robotics and other technology play an important role in lifelong learning for all people, no matter what their age. Innokas therefore encourages kids and adults to come up together with new ways to make use of technology in everyday school life.
The Culture Clinics initiative is currently being run in three maternity clinics in Espoo. It helps families with young children support their child’s cognitive, emotional and physical development through creative activities at home and in local art centres. Culture Clinics was launched in 2012.
The KULPS! programme aims to offer all children in Espoo equal access to local arts and sports activities. It provides learning opportunities for comprehensive school students at local cultural organizations and sports venues. The content of the KULPS! programme is designed to support the Finnish national curriculum. Visits to cultural and sports venues take place during the school day and students are accompanied by their teachers. KULPS! was launched in 2008.
The Cultural Buddy programme pairs trained volunteers with local residents who, due to their financial situation, mobility problems or feelings of loneliness, may otherwise find it difficult to participate in cultural activities. The Cultural Buddy programme makes participation easier by providing company and support during cultural activities. Cultural Buddy activities, which are free of charge, are aimed chiefly at older people. The programme began in 2014.
In the Cultural Chain programme, local artists and art associations based in Espoo provide a variety of activities for older people living in care homes and hospitals. Activities range from live performances and art workshops to book readings. The aim is to promote the health and wellbeing of older people. The programme was created in Espoo between 2007 and 2008.
Many Espoo libraries are located in major shopping centres. In addition to their usual functions, these libraries serve as meeting places. Jukebox is an example of a meeting place in one of Espoo’s libraries. Jukebox is a space for young people to relax, watch performances and create their own programme for the Jukebox Open Stage. The space is well-equipped and can be booked through library staff, who also organize dance evenings and music sessions for young people. Jukebox has about 5,000 visitors a month, some of whom are immigrant and underprivileged children.
Other cultural programmes in libraries in Espoo provide residents with a variety of free workshops to help them tackle everyday issues and learn new skills such as languages or IT skills.
Espoo Community College offers a wide selection of courses for adults for affordable fees. Courses in languages and music are very popular.
Vindängen offers a wide range of services in Swedish for people of all ages, from toddlers to older people. It also serves as a meeting place for different generations of Espoo’s Swedish-speaking minority. Joint storytelling workshops are organized for primary schoolchildren and older people. The older people choose stories from their lives, in particular stories about their own childhoods, that they want to share with the children. The children work on the stories and create short plays that they then perform for the older people. The collaboration has been well-received, and Vindängen wishes to continue these workshops.
Example of innovation or good practice
It is important to provide learning facilities that enable the same location to be used for many different kinds of learning purposes.
Flexible places for learning: temporary learning environments enabling renewable learning
Objectives
Many schools in Espoo are currently operating in temporary locations, as they have had to leave their former buildings for renovation, health or other reasons. Some schools have turned their relocation to temporary premises into an opportunity to change their teaching and operating habits. One secondary school has relocated to an old printing house. The school has grown, and as a result it now has to use the building’s attic space. This attic, which is not divided into classrooms, serves as a multifuctional space. It has been equipped with Wi-Fi and digital tools. The school is currently using the space to pilot e-examinations, which will replace traditional secondary school final examinations throughout Finland in 2016. In addition, the space operates as an open learning space.
Examples such as this have made the city authorities think about how spaces can be used differently to make learning happen. They have also triggered debate on the future of learning. Here is an opportunity to see school as a service rather than a building. How can physical, virtual and flexible environments best support renewable learning (i.e. learning that makes students rethink what they have learned before and perhaps change their understanding of it)? What new teaching and learning methods and what kind of learning environments can support learning while ensuring that students enjoy being at school? From a technological perspective it is important to find ways to make use of the skills and knowledge people have acquired in non-formal arenas. The primary objective of this project is thus to create and model cost-effective yet flexible conditions that support renewable learning and well-being in schools.
Main target groups
The main target group in the first stage of the development project is a school community operating in a temporary location (in the pilot study it will be Tapiola School). The school community comprises students, teachers and other staff, parents, and other stakeholders. The project also involves furnishing companies, designers and builders.
The lessons learned will be used for the whole Espoo learning city community in order to change the working cultures and environments little by little in all the places where learning is meant to happen. School buildings and other places dedicated to learning need to open up to the surrounding communities and embrace lifelong learning opportunities. It is important to provide learning facilities that enable the same location to be used for many different kinds of learning purposes.
Educational administration needs to work together with the technical sector in the city in planning future school sites and renovating old ones so that they better serve the learning needs of the future. The project aims to deliver results with both national and international impact for future school users, designers and decision-makers.
Main activities
The aim is to conduct an effective collaborative process whereby diverse stakeholders conceptualize the school of the future and learn from each other. New concepts are currently being prototyped, tested and evaluated. Aalto University and University of Helsinki researchers are collecting intervention data in order to develop evidence-based designs and usable solutions.
The project has three phases:
1. co-creating new flexible physical and digital learning environments with diverse stakeholders;
2. conducting intervention studies and collecting data before and after new solutions are invented, with an emphasis on inspiring learning and ensuring the usability of learning environments; and
3. conceptualizing a model based on the experiments and creating a design and user manual for the school of the future.
The outcomes of the project are:
• evidence on the efficacy of new models of future schools from the perspectives of learning, working and the usability of facilities;
• a design and user manual for the school of the future; and
• a collaborative experience for city authorities, users of the school (students, teachers, staff, parents, service providers) and the local community.
This is the first of a three-phase development project that ultimately aims to create a prototype of a learning environment that supports renewable learning. The future phases of this groundbreaking project will then scale up the prototype for wider use. The project, which is in its early stages, has just received generous funding from the Finnish National Board of Education.
Students at an adult education centre
© Kari Sarkkinen
Mobilization and utilization of resources
A willingness to collaborate has been more important than additional financing in Espoo. The city aspires to work in networks and share resources.
Espoo has received some funding from the National Board of Education, which acts in Finland as the national development office for education. For example, the Flexible Places for Learning project received funding from this source. Various EU funds and other international opportunities that are announced through Finnish development bodies are also being used.
The City Council of Espoo has reserved some seed money for implementing its cross-sectional programmes in order to break down the silos in the city administration. One such programme is Youth Vitality, which funds activities related to Youth Guarantee.
Residents, communities and companies are Espoo’s best resources. The active involvement of residents in the development of services and cooperation with partners ensure successful services that meet the needs of residents.
A willingness to collaborate has been more important than additional financing in Espoo. The city aspires to work in networks and share resources. Espoo has made a strategic decision to collaborate with its partners in many ways. As a city, Espoo does not run all its services itself, but rather invites third-sector organizations to manage some activities. The city pays those organizations for their services, thereby supporting their work. For example, many sports clubs manage city sports activities, music schools teach students to play musical instruments and run choirs and orchestras, and some churches organize after-school activities for younger students. This is also the city’s way of helping civil society organizations to survive and reach out to city residents.
Another example of Espoo’s pioneering approach is the network that has been created between the city and other educational organizations that operate in the city. This cross-functional and crossinstitutional collaboration has proven to be fruitful. In the InnoEspoo model, collaboration between the city and educational institutions happens on the levels of strategic leadership and shared communication platforms as well as on the practical project and education level. For example, the Espoo Local Development Plan was prepared within these networks, which is why the participating organizations are genuinely committed to it. In addition, the city is working on involving private businesses and NGOs in these collaborative processes.
Monitoring and evaluation
The City of Espoo uses a balanced scorecard four times a year to evaluate progress towards key objectives. The development and results of cross-sectoral development programmes are also reported to the city council four times a year. In addition, each development programme is required to have an evaluation system in place. Espoo systematically assesses customer satisfaction, service provider results, and student and staff well-being. Furthermore, it takes part in national and international performance surveys of learning outcomes (such as PISA and PIAAC). The city is constantly improving its methods of gathering feedback and conducting evaluations. Last year Espoo purchased a new tool to make electronic surveys and information-gathering easier.
A systematic self-assessment process takes place in each of Espoo’s schools every three years, whereby students, staff and parents give feedback on schools’ culture and management. The city also takes part in metropolitan area student surveys with one cohort per year. This reveals how children and young people are performing in Espoo compared with other cities.
Impacts and challenges
Impacts
The learning city actions help Espoo to inform its citizens that good learning and activity opportunities are available in Espoo and that these opportunities are easy to reach. Lifelong learning opportunities in Espoo give learners better motivation, a sense of life management and the skills to adapt to future demands.
Espoo strongly believes that culture can enhance well-being. It is therefore important to provide cultural activities from early on in life. Likewise, physical education and sports activities can help people to keep fit throughout life. It is important that everyone finds his or her own interests, and that everyone receives guidance in this respect.
It is important to increase the sense of community among Espoo residents. This can be a great source of strength for the city. Loneliness is a growing social problem across all age groups, and so it is important that no one is left alone. Moving from social care to inclusion makes society more effective but also more human. Preventative actions are ultimately a better investment for everyone.
On the city level, the strategy of taking the city’s services to places where people otherwise go in their daily lives has proven to be successful. The use of library services, for example, has increased since libraries were opened in shopping centres. Designing schools as multipurpose spaces provides meeting places for people and creates cost-effective spaces that perform diverse functions for the city.
The creation of the new Adult Learning Services Centre is improving opportunities for lifelong learning by bringing many of Espoo’s education services for adults together under one roof. This step has made these servies easier to find.
Challenges
Education has long been valued highly in Finland. The challenge is to ensure that this remains the case. What if people lose their belief that formal education offers added value? What role should informal learning play? How does the city motivate people to keep learning throughout life?
As already discussed, one of Espoo’s greatest challenges is its shortage of spaces that support renewable learning. The city is growing, often in areas where there are currently no schools. Another problem is that many existing school buildings are not in good condition and need to be renovated.
The rapid development of new digital technologies presents another challenge. To what extent and how should the city keep up with new technologies? How can it deploy digital technologies so as to make better use of the knowledge and skills learned in non-formal settings?
Lessons learned and recommendations
The learning city concept has helped the City of Espoo develop an approach to education that concentrates on giving individual learners opportunities to learn. This approach has led the city to organize its activities and administration in a more customer-orientated way. In addition, the city recognizes that it cannot achieve its goals alone. That is why it has established the InnoEspoo network, which enables education service providers in the area to collaborate on improving education services in Espoo.
Effective strategy tools and evaluation systems are in place in Espoo. The city now needs to decide how these systems can integrate systematic evaluation of progress towards both global learning city objectives and Espoo’s own Local Development Plan goals.
Contact
Name
Kristiina Erkkilä
Official title
Director of Development, Education and Cultural Services, City of Espoo
Website
www.espoo.fi
References
City of Espoo. 2013a. The Espoo Story. Available at: http://www.espoo.fi/download/noname/%7B6CC5DD75-8DBE-4363-8FC4-F47BA1D11DB6%7D/41960 [Accessed 21 January 2015].
City of Espoo. 2013b. City of Espoo Crossadministrative Development Programmes. Available at: http://www.espoo.fi/en-US/Espoodevelopment_programmes_enhancecoo(42117) [Accessed 28 January 2015].
City of Espoo. 2014. Espoo Local Development Plan for Education 2020. Available at: http://www.espoo.fi/download/noname/%7B8D00E41F43F9-4607-A5345C8523ED88B3%7D/55970 [Accessed 28 January 2015].
Ministry of Education and Culture. 2012. Education and Research 2011–2016: A Development Plan. Finland, Ministry of Education and Culture. Available at: http://www.minedu.fi/exportsites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2012liitteet/okm03.pdf [Accessed 21 January 2015].
