Volume 37, numéro 1 | <<< Page précédente | Table des matières | Page suivante >>> |
By Hely Westerholm
One year ago I had the opportunity, during two months, to become familiar with the Canadian colleges and universities. I found out that the cooperation between the vocational education and the business world was well developed and functioning smoothly. Especially, competence-based training and DACUM-analysis was used in a concrete way and I believe that the adaptation of DACUM model into the Finnish vocational education would also be of great benefit.
Even if the threat of war in Iraq and the SARS-epidemic threw a shadow over my trip, it turned to be the most exciting one. The friendly reception and welcoming by the Canadian people was one of the best experiences. The assistance of the Canadian Vocational Association was of greatest help in finding the right partners for negotiations both in the vocational institutes and in the companies.
My main purpose was to explore the possibilities of reciprocal exchanges of students and teachers between Canadian and Finnish colleges and high schools and to find suitable enterprises willing to take Finnish students for their work placement. The trip was successful, and at the moment my own college, Helsinki Business College, is working on the several contacts that I made during my journey.
I also got many ideas to develop educational planning of different operations in Helsinki Business College, and in general, for developing the Finnish vocational education system.
Materials for the development of the open learning environment
Bishop Carroll High School in Calgary and its vice president Mr. Ralph Grossi opened my eyes to recognize how far an open-learning environment can be developed at it's best. At Bishop Carroll High School every student learns to take a conscious and active role in her/his own learning process at the same time as s/he is fully supported by the tutor teacher. If you have an independent mind in your studies, it will be easy to continue them at the university.
In Helsinki Business College our purpose is to reach individual and self-directed learning attitude that does not, however, mean to study alone. We support our students with a many-sided tuition to help them to make individual plans for reaching their own targets. We offer support and guidance whenever students have problems in studying or in carrying out their plans.
However, our students are still far away from the real, sincere state of will and motivation to learn and develop themselves at the school they have chosen which can be seen among the students of Bishop Carroll High School. I am convinced that the advanced learning environment of Bishop Carroll High School will inspire us when renewing our own education system. We have an intention to visit this school in the near future. So, some of our teachers can better become acquainted with the open learning environment.
Hints for the cooperation with the Business World
The most impressive feature I found in the cooperation between colleges and working life in Canada was the interest that the companies have shown for the students graduating from vocational colleges or institutes. The cooperation between the business world and the vocational education is very concrete and seamless. This real cooperation is one good example which I would like to copy to the Finnish business life and especially to the Helsinki Business College.
The needs of the working life should be the starting point for all the development of curriculum work and we have already taken some steps. Our brandnew Advisory Board has already been founded. The possibilities to form an Advisory Board for our college were good because we are a private educational enterprise. Our owner is the Helsinki Chamber of Commerce and also the members of our Board of Directors come directly from the key-positions in the business world.
DACUM analysis as the basis for the curriculum
One of the highlights of my trip was to become familiar with the DACUM-analysis in numerous colleges and institutes among other things in Calgary, at SAIT, South Alberta Institute of Technology guided by Dr. Bryan R. Green. That meeting was arranged by Mr. Malcolm Sharp, the former Dean of SAIT and the former Managing Director of CVA. He also helped me to meet Ms. Anna Kae Todd in Bow Valley College in Calgary. In Winnipeg Mr. Mike Stuhldreier and Mr. Gene Semchyck presented Red River College and in Montreal Mr. Pierre Morin, the current President of CVA had arranged my meeting with Ms. Nicole Mercier in Coll�ge �douard-Montpetit. In Charlottetown Dr. Alex MacDonald presented Holland College. I also had the honour to meet Dr. Don Glendenning and to become familiar with the first historical steps of DACUM in Holland College. That meeting was arranged by Mr. Larry Coffin who had been my course leader in Calgary where I had the great opportunity to join the course for DACUM-facilitators organized by CVA.
In all colleges and institutes which I visited the curriculum was based on DACUM-analysis and most of the training programs are developed according to these analysis. The mind-map version that resulted from the curriculum for aboriginals in Red River College is an interesting and modern example of the fact that the adapting of one method to the special features of a target group gives quite new results.
On the other hand, I wondered, whether it has any sense that every college works out their own DACUM-charts. Would not bench marking be sensible? As in Red River College I got an answer also elsewhere that this way every college has the opportunity to seal its own profile and to get the business life better committed to the cooperation.
In my opinion, the interesting and fruitful feature of both, the competence-based training and the DACUM-analysis is the emphasis on the adaptation of knowledge, especially when thinking the needs of students and enterprises during the work placement. DACUM-analysis makes it possible to specify exactly the knowledge, skills and attitudes required in different occupations, also the knowledge and skills of the students can be used efficiently during the work placement. In many cases the skills of students would be adequate for more challenging tasks, if only the enterprises would trust them and give them the opportunity to try their skills.
Discussion about the content of vocational competence needed in Finland
I am sure that, the DACUM analysis could in the Finnish educational system be suitable for bringing the vocational education closer to the requirements of business life. The demands for education that meets the needs of business life is increasing all the time, on the other hand it is important to gather the representatives of business life to discuss the scale of skills required from the workers in the future. On the one hand many jobs demand new skills and knowledge, on the other hand tacit knowledge is in danger to disappear with the retiring workers. In Finland many SM-enterprises reflect the stage of generation exchange without knowing who would continue the business. DACUM-analysis could offer means to do research and find out the skills really needed in SM-enterprises at the moment and to respond to those with right education.
The DACUM-analyses method is still something new in Finland. In Helsinki Business College Dr. Helena Allahwerdi, the manager for international affairs, has passed the DACUM-facilitator course a year ago. A big step in promotion of the DACUM-knowledge was the DACUM-seminar organized by Helsinki Business College last autumn 2003. We had the pleasure to have Mr. Pierre Morin and Mr. Larry Coffin to lecture and facilitate this seminar. My personal interest in DACUM-analysis has increased so much that I have started to write my doctoral thesis about its content and usefulness in job analyses in Finland.
Ms. Hely Westerholm works as Director of Helsinki Business College, HBC, that is one of the oldest and leading vocational business colleges in Finland. HBC is part of a wider vocational institution, the Haaga Institute Polytechnics that offers basic and adult education in hotel and restaurant management, in tourism management, in sports and leisure management, in business administration and economics and in information management. www.hbc.fi, www.haaga.fi)
Snapshots:
My personal interest in DACUM-analysis has increased so much
that I have started to write my doctoral thesis about its content and
usefulness in job analyses in
