Finland has earned international attention and respect in the last few years as a result of their outstanding results on international comparisons of education systems. Their students consistently score at or close to the top on assessments of reading, writing and mathematics and, perhaps more impressive, the gap between the highest and lowest achievers is quite small in comparison to other countries. When I set out to study education in Finland I wanted to know more about students after they take the PISA for the last time at age 15. I knew that Finland offers students two paths after their nine years of basic education: general upper secondary education at a lukio or vocational education. With my American lenses on I assumed that I would find all the special education students tracked into vocational education, a feeling that vocational students were not as “good” as lukio students, and a sense that parental pressure would push most students to strive for acceptance to a lukio. My assumptions have been challenged in my time here and my task over the last three months has been to figure out why. Why is Finland’s vocational system thriving and growing in enrollment while it is declining and often less respected in almost every other country in the world?
The United States virtually eliminated vocational education a few decades ago for the very reasons I listed above. Students with special needs, from low income families and in minority groups were pushed into the dead end vocational track while middle and upper class white students were offered a well-rounded high school education in preparation for higher education and more lucrative and respected careers. Today there are a few rare exceptions of thriving vocational schools but in the United States vocational education is mostly non-existent in many districts or is not a respected option for students.
In Finland, there is an almost equal split between students that choose to go to vocational school and lukio. And choice is a key word in that sentence; it is one of the most important reasons Finnish vocational education succeeds in Finland in ways it doesn’t in other countries. During the winter and spring of ninth grade, students apply to their top five upper secondary school choices. I have heard over and over, from parents, teachers and students, that where they go for high school is truly the students’ choice. Most students feel no pressure from their parents to go on to one path or the other. Parents emphasize that they want their children to be happy and successful in whatever path they choose so they encourage their children to make the choice they feel fits them best. Students have given me a variety of reasons why they chose one school or another but they continue to emphasize it was their personal choice. Some say they chose a lukio because they have hopes of attending a university and studying for a certain career that will require higher education like being a doctor or teacher. Others chose a lukio because they weren’t sure of what they want to do yet and lukio gives them three more years to figure that out. Students that chose a vocational path knew what they wanted to do and were eager to learn skills for that career. Some were happy to know that they could start working and earn money after only three years of school and didn’t have to go to university. Some were looking for a practical and well defined future in a specific field. Vocational school is respected and seen as the more practical, well defined and more secure path for many students. Many of the students are well aware that some careers coming out of vocational school are more financially lucrative than those that require a university degree and joke about the people that spend more time in school doing more work and ultimately end up earning less! While students don't all get into their first choice for school I have been told that if a student truly wants to go to a lukio they will find a place to go. This emphasizes that this is truly a choice and all students can go to either track, unlike systems where students are tested and only allowed to follow one path. If they don't get into the school they want they can also take an additional year to study to raise their grades to get into their top choice if that is truly important to them.
Vocational schools in other countries offers similar training for students. They learn a skill or trade and then are able to start working at a young age in a respectable career. So why doesn’t it earn the same respect as a general upper secondary education in most places? It’s simple really: vocational education is seen as less rigorous and a dead end in many places. People assume that students are only being trained in a skill and all the other “real” academic subjects are ignored. In many cases this was or is true. In traditional vocational education, students learned a skill, perhaps had some on the job training, and then were sent out into the world to work. There was no chance for future education at a university and a vocational school degree was not particularly valuable - the skills in the vocation were more important so some people could do the same job by learning the skills in the backyard with their dads and didn’t need a vocational certificate to get a job. In Finland there are over 50 different vocational fields leading to careers in such diverse fields as tourism, business and entrepreneurship, health services, natural resources, technology, social services, beauty services, construction, engineering, catering and many more. To get a job in your chosen field you need the vocational certificate to do it. There is a societal respect for the vocational degree and students need and want the degree to work in their preferred field. Vocational students enjoy their work and are treated like professionals, not like children. This a huge benefit to Finnish society. Students are already well trained and prepared for their jobs when they graduate. Employers don’t need to spend months teaching new employees how to do a job and don’t worry that their employees will use their first job as a way to gain skills to move on to a “better” job after a short time. The jobs that are considered low skill or no skill in the United States and are learned while already employed and are low paying are some of the very same jobs that are well paid and respected in Finland - welders, industrial and hotel cleaners, truck drivers and house painters all have vocational qualifications in Finland. While the majority of time in Finnish vocational schools is spent learning the job and participating in on-the-job learning internships, Finnish vocational schools still require students to take core studies. This week I observed classes in Finnish, English, Swedish, mathematics, chemistry, physics and social studies for students studying to be truck drivers, plumbers, painters and welders. Because the students have to complete core academics, students from all vocations are still eligible to go on to further education. Many choose to continue their studies at universities of applied sciences or polytechnic universities where they can get further qualifications in their particular field. The more traditional university is also still an option for driven students that want to continue their studies from vocational school. Finns continue to remind me that there is no path that leads to a dead end in education. Once a student is done at a vocational school they have many choices (again, emphasis on the choice): go to work, go on to further studies in another vocational field, go to a university, or go to a polytechnic university. And students really do choose all of these paths! I’ve met many students over the past three months and have heard students talk about all these different paths and they each have their own ideas about “what comes next” after vocational school. The same is true for lukio students. After they complete lukio they can choose to learn a vocation, go to a university, go to a polytechnic university or go to work. Since many students choose a lukio because they don’t know what they want to do it is easy to find students doing all of these things. Recently I had my nails done by a vocational school student who had completed lukio and then decided to study at a vocational school. I’ve also met many students preparing to enter the university and polytechnics straight from lukio. All paths remain open for all students throughout their educational careers! And did I mention that all of these paths, all education for Finns, is free. From pre-primary through doctoral level studies at the university and everything in between education is free in Finland.
What about those students with learning disabilities I was so interested in when I first arrived in Finland? It’s certainly true that the majority of students with special education needs are in vocational schools. But the big difference is that they chose to be there. It is not difficult to find students with special education needs in a lukio, and those students have Individualized Education Plans and get some learning support but are very motivated to do well and very driven. Students with special education needs in vocational schools are also motivated and are happy with their path. Many feel relieved to be done with traditional school and are excited to work with their hands and learn a skill that they will use in real life. They find their academic core courses more connected to their future goals. For many, the special support they needed in compulsory education is no longer necessary as the demands have changed and they can use their strengths to compensate for their weaknesses. Suddenly when reading has a purpose beyond the classroom, like reading a recipe, directions for a project or a user’s manual, it is no longer as difficult to do the reading. Math starts to make a lot more sense after spending time in the wood shop measuring and cutting and understand chemistry is a lot more important when dealing with hazardous material disposal.
And finally, what if a student at age fifteen makes a choice and then feels like it wasn’t the right one? That is also not a problem and students can make a switch. It is not uncommon to find students that started at a lukio and then find it is not the right fit. Those students can move to a vocational school at the start of the next year and in the mean time work on their core studies. Some students choose to do a duel degree where they follow the lukio curriculum for their core academics and then also learn a vocation. The flexibility of this system is also different from many countries where the path is much more fixed and the choice is irreversible. I’ve met a lot of people since I’ve been in Finland and there seem to be as many paths as there are people!
In 2011 the Harvard Graduate School of Education released its report from the Pathways to Prosperity Project. This report called for more options for high school students, more focus on teaching students skills that can lead to high-paying jobs necessary for the future of the United States economy and less dependence on the “college for all” movement that swept America. I have seen how this works in Finland and would encourage policy makers, politicians, educators and others to look at this system of upper school education. A system where students make their own choices and are not under parental pressure to fit into one path. A system where any path leaves the door to further education wide open. And a system where all students feel valued, respected, and prepared for a career in which they are well paid and proud.
