Workplaces are centres of workplace learning. Employers’ responsibility for maintaining and developing the skills of their employees is huge. Image: ThisIsEngineering/Pexels

Most of the learning of the working-age population takes place at workplaces. Learning pathways remain open as long as we take care of learning difficulties, even distribution of education, and identification and recognition of prior learning.

Europe is ageing. The diminishing working-age population is responsible for taking through the digital and green transitions. At the same time, three out of four businesses in the EU struggle to find employees with skills suitable for their specific needs.

The solutions to issues related to working life skills and the learning of the working population can often be found in working life itself. This is what Project Manager Milma Arola and Senior Specialist Teea Oja believe. For the second part of the series of articles exploring the European Year of Skills, EPALE interviewed Arola, who works in the Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment (SECLE) and Oja, who works at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland. The article creates an overall picture of the state of working life skills in Finland and highlights the most interesting phenomena and development trends in workplace learning.

We are cleverer than we think

Finland has three priorities of its own for the EU’s European Year of Skills. The first priority is identification of prior learning and making it visible. The second one is continuous learning and the third the availability of competent workforce.

Highlighting the identification of prior learning as the most important priority is not a coincidence. Oja from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is of the view that workplaces in Finland are a huge resource of skills and knowledge.

“For once, shouldn’t we celebrate what we have, rather than regret what we don't have,” Teea Oja asks.

Milma Arola largely agrees with her. Arola refers to a study (in Finnish), according to which about 80% of workplace learning takes place during daily work.

It is therefore obvious that workplaces play a key role when we talk about workplace learning. Oja would like to see employers taking more responsibility for ensuring the skill level of the working population: 

“It sometimes feels that employers would prefer to recruit people who are already experienced talents. But who would have better capabilities to develop the workplace-specific competence than the workplaces themselves?”

Future work skills arise from megatrends

SECLE's core task is to collect, analyse and interpret labour market and competence needs especially from the perspective of continuous learning, and to fund education and training according to these needs. SECLE's funding calls are therefore an excellent window to what future working life skills will be concretely.

 According to Milma Arola, it is difficult to draw up a list of the so-called working life skills of the future because the skills requirements are field-specific. Of course, megatrends such as the twin digital and green transition will play a key role in the background.

 “With regard to the green transition and the transformation of the energy sector, we have funding calls related to education and training in the battery and the hydrogen industries. In the trade sector, we finance education and training that supports the transition to digital trade,” Arola says.

Underpinning the field-specific skills are the meta skills of the future: critical and creative thinking, teamwork ability, and the attitudes and skills of continuous learning. These meta skills will also protect the employee in the labour market that may soon be transformed by artificial intelligence.

From talking about concerns to an informed overall picture

Oja and Arola see the overall situation of working life skills in Finland as positive. According to a new survey (in Finnish) carried out by SECLE, people in Finland continue to have a fairly positive attitude to learning: eight out of ten working-age people report that learning new things is important for them. Education and the willingness to learn accumulate to people who already have a higher level of education. However, of those with a low level of education, three or even five in ten people would also have liked to educate themselves further. Often, matters such as difficulties in reconciling studies and other parts of life, income, time, unsuitability of the education and training options, and lack of knowledge of the options become an obstacle.

Both Arola and Oja think that the concern about the polarisation of education may be excessive.

“Let’s remember that most of the learning of working-age people takes place at the workplace. For many, this is sufficient to maintain the skills related to their work. Concern about those with a low level of education may in itself polarise our image of society.”

However, with education accumulating, there is reason to ask whether the meta skills required in future working life are the same for everyone? Do we first have to ensure the basic skills before we can take care of the above-mentioned capacities for creative and critical thinking, for example?

In Milma Arola’s opinion, the future meta skills concern everyone regardless of their educational background and position.

“In Finland, digitalisation has for a long time been reducing the need for manual labour, so almost all tasks involve problem-solving, which is linked with creativity. Social skills are needed by information workers and service professionals alike, while critical thinking is needed by everyone just for coping in society in these times of disinformation.”

Are learning difficulties more common than we think?

Arola highlights a startling result from the survey. Approximately one in ten working-age people have been diagnosed with a learning difficulty. In addition, more than ten per cent experience challenges in learning although they do not have a diagnosis related to it. This means that the number of people with learning difficulties in the working-age population may be higher that we think.

“People often think that, for example, those who work in expert organisations do not as a rule have learning difficulties, but of course this is not true. We now know that this hidden challenge is more common than it has been thought. Further research on the topic is needed!”

A qualification-centred approach dominates the discussion on validation

In the EU, Finland is often considered to have top expertise in the identification and recognition of prior learning. Recognition of prior learning is often done in relation to qualifications and degrees in education: a skill is converted into credits and accredited when the person begins the studies. This lowers the threshold for studying. However, Teea Oja is of the opinion that an excessively qualification-centred approach in the identification of competence steals attention from another very important and obvious measure: working life. According to her, when the focus is on qualifications, we may fail to notice that identification and recognition of prior learning also takes place outside education. The credibility of the recognised competence is the key. This is best visible in a recruitment situation.

“The applicant identifies their competence and makes it visible in the job application. The employer recognises, or validates, the skills by employing the applicant. The identification of the prior learning of working-age people should be done by comparing their competence to the needs of working life, which are often the most meaningful framework also from the individual's point of view.”

Working life relevance could also refresh the solutions related to validation. Oja brings up Iceland as an example, as the country’s centres for continuous learning provide personal career guidance and validation of competence in the same place. The Icelandic model is therefore one possible way to provide lifelong guidance to support continuous learning. In Finland, among the parties responsible for the development of guidance are the centres for economic development, transport and the Environment (ELY), which develop guidance regionally in extensive cooperation networks (in Finnish).

Guidance includes innovation and outreach activities

Guidance is a theme that inspires Arola and Oja: there is something new happening in the field. Oja mentions the development of the digital service package for continuous learning (JOD) (in Finnish), which is aimed at providing digital support for the planning of their education and career path to large numbers of people.

Can we therefore expect to see services for masses instead of individual guidance? “Quite the opposite,” Oja assures. According to her, the service due to be completed in 2025 aims to provide support for individual career planning through the digital service, while freeing resources for other guidance activities.

“Individual guidance services also have an important role in motivating those who participate in education less,” Oja continues.

According to her, guidance does not mean only marketing of education and training, it also generates motivation and interest in the development of competence from the individual's own starting points.

“Therefore, we also need outreach activities! SECLE has just launched a pilot (in Finnish) of outreach activities in which its workers go to workplaces,” Arola adds. 

Among other things, the pilot determines the skills needs of individual workplaces and guides the employees in finding suitable education and training contents.

In October, SECLE will organise the Reveal Your Skills campaign week intended to encourage people and communities to identify their diverse knowledge and skills and make them visible and to bring the topic up in the public debate. The campaign week is part of the national celebrations of the European Year of Skills. In October, those interested in the topic can also participate in competence-themed events and organise their own events related to the theme. The national coordinators of the theme year are the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Employment and Economic Affairs of Finland.

Project Manager Milma Arola and Senior Specialist Teea Oja

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