YSAO (Ylä-Savo Vocational College) is part of Ylä-Savo Municipal Federation of Education. The Federation, composed of 9 municipalities, is the main provider of vocational upper secondary education and vocational adult education, and the sole provider of vocational apprenticeship in the region.
YSAO has over 140 years of history in vocational education. Our educational institution is an active player in selected fields, and its’ main task is to train competent professionals for the needs of working life. The total number of students in vocational upper secondary education, adult education, and vocational apprenticeship is over 4000 per year (equals to 1550 full-time students). We have over 220 professionals in education, development, and service delivery.
Ylä-Savo Municipal Federation of Education plays an active role as the developer of Ylä-Savo region. It takes an active part in regional ventures of both the education sector and industrial life. This supports the development of local industries as well as the development of staff and education provided by YSAO, and strengthens co-operation between businesses and the education sector.
The foresight of future skills and continuous learning paths
Rapid changes in working life challenge vocational training. Forecasting these changes is one of the key tasks that providers of vocational and educational training (VET) across Europe should perform. To train professionals in different fields, we need to understand the direction in which society and working life are heading. We need foresighted information to develop education and its implementation models.
VET 4.0 scenario work by EfVET
YSAO is an active member of EfVET and the leader of the VET 4.0 Thematic Team. Team’s task was to foresight the change in the operating environment of vocational education. What will the future world be like (2030), and what will vocational education systems and vocational colleges look like at that time?
During the work of the thematic team scenario work, we became acquainted with various megatrends, weak signals and wild cards, which will have an impacting role in the future of VET.
TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS
- LEARNING (TECHNOLOGIES)
- SCALABLE LEARNING
- BLENDED LEARNING
SOCIETAL TRENDS
- DIGITAL INEQUALITY
- NEW ECONOMY
- WELLBEING
ORGANISATIONAL TRENDS
- PUBLIC FUNDING
- RESILIENCY
- COMPLEXITY
GLOBAL TRENDS
- ONLINE GLOBE
- INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY
- CLIMATE ANXIETY
INDUSTRY – WORK TRENDS
- CHANGE OF EDUCATION INDUSTRY – (AI, VR, AR)
- INDUSTRY 4.0 – 5.0
- AI ROBOTICS
Why forecasting is important in VET organisations?
Without systematic foresight and careful reflection on our activities, and the evolving needs of learners, we will not be able to develop our operations and training content to meet society’s changing requirements. The pace of change is not the same in different industries, and the need for content development varies.
The more flexible the training solutions we can develop, and the more systematically we anticipate the future of work at different levels, the better we can respond to the ever-changing skills and competence needs in the world of work. To do this, we should collaborate with organisations and stakeholders at regional, national, and international levels.
Today, in a volative, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, future knowledge plays a big part of strategic decision making. Strategy making is a future-oriented process, and we can assume that the strategy contains an idea of what the future might be like.
Links:
Ylä-Savo Municipal Federation of Education (YSAO)
EfVET – European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Author: Sulevi Komulainen, project manager, YSAO
The article is written by SLP Growth Community Strategic Partner – YSAO