Educational expertise from the Jyväskylä Region is in demand all over the world. Cooperation with Poland began in December 2008 and plans involving India are rapidly taking shape. Models that have proved successful in the Finnish educational system are of greatest interest for partner countries.
Central Finland and the Swietokrzyski voivodeship located in southeast Poland are to engage in an extensive programme of regional development.
"The Poles will purchase expertise from us with EU support. Their objective is to develop the educational systems in the Swietokrzyski voivodeship, as well as energy and environmental technology, and forge a new kind of innovation strategy for their region", reveals Rauli Sorvari, Director of Educluster Finland and Programme Manager (Education and Learning). The export of expertise to the world is organised by the EduCluster network, which is made up of educational organisations, companies operating in the education branch, and public agencies associated with them.
The Swietokrzyski or 'Holy Cross' voivodeship has approximately 1.2 million inhabitants. The capital city, Kielce, has a population of 200 000. The city's most important source of livelihood used to be limestone mining, but nowadays it is a centre for trade and commerce. "Kielce is Poland's second most popular city for fairs and congresses, just like Jyväskylä in Finland", Sorvari explains.
The Swietokrzyski voivodeship possesses numerous higher education institutions in different fields. Among other things the region has wood and metal industry and is still strongly influenced by an agrarian society.
"In issues such as energy and the environment there is great room for development. In particular our focus will be on ensuring that research findings generated by the various institutions of higher education end up at the disposal of the business sphere."
According to Sorvari development in the tourism area is now realistic, since the infrastructure has been significantly improved with EU support.
The 8-9 per cent annual growth in India's gross national product is a major challenge particularly for the country's higher education system. The government's aim is to boost the quality of higher education, reform content and increase the number of teaching staff. India currently has 18 000 institutions of higher education, of which 380 are universities. The total number of students is around 11 million.
During the autumn a Finnish-Indian delegation led by Rauli Sorvari met Bhupinder Singh Hoodan, Prime Minister of the Indian state of Haryana.
"The Indians would like Finnish expertise for the planning and implementation of education at a university to be founded close to Delhi, a city with 14 million inhabitants. The private, foundation-run university will be set up in the Indian state of Haryana on the Rajeev Gandhi Education City campus, which comprises numerous educational institutions", Sorvari explains. "We are at the gateway to a vast education-branch market, because in the next few years India needs 2.5 million new student places and 300 000 new teachers."
EduCluster Finland will draw up a preliminary scheme of partnership opportunities in education and innovation activities for its Indian partners and negotiations will continue in spring 2009.
--------
EDUCLUSTER FINLAND
- Based on the Finnish education and innovation systems, EduCluster Finland is a unique learning and innovation business network situated in a region where human capital, technology and businesses permanently interact. For this reason EduCluster Finland is familiar with organizations' needs for know-how and possesses the ability to deliver innovative training solutions.
- EduCluster Finland offers educational services in extensive domains of activity. EduCluster's services are targeted towards private companies and public institutions. The main consulting areas of EduCluster Finland are learning region design, education system design and human resources development. EduCluster also arrange different kinds of learning events as a supporting service.
- On 13.-15.10.2009 Jyväskylä will host an international conference entitled 'Learning Clusters - sustainable competitiveness for businesses'.
Words by Timo Sillanpää Photo by Petteri Kivimäki Map by Martti Hänninen