Teacher’s pain : how to manage cooperation with local companies: practical cases in vocational and higher education

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>In this workshop cooperation between educational organizations and local companies will be described with two practical cases: one case from vocational education and another from higher education. From the theoretical point of view this is a qualitative case study based on authentic learning. The background of this study rises from a regional entrepreneurship education strategy, which was done by using participatory method of strategy building.</p><p>Entrepreneurship education in schools is seen to be significant in developing welfare in Europe. In Finland entrepreneurship education has been systematically developed. In Northern Ostrobothnia entrepreneurship education has been put into practise in various different ways. In the beginning of 2016 the common strategy for entrepreneurship education for the whole region was published (www.minunpolkuni.fi).</p><p>Goal of the common strategy is to unify and develop entrepreneurial competencies in all levels of education from kindergarten until university. To make sure that the strategy will be implemented to practise in teaching, the teachers were involved in this strategy process. Putting the strategy in practise means continuous development in education and curricula. One important element in entrepreneurship education in vocational and higher education is practical cooperation with local companies.</p><p>During the strategy building process some data has been collected also through web-based measurement tool for entrepreneurship education. Through the results of this survey we have got results of the level of entrepreneurship education practices in vocational and higher education. One element measured with this tool is cooperation with local businesses. It is remarkable that most of the companies in our area are SME’s. To deepen our knowledge concerning the cooperation some teachers were interviewed both in vocational education and higher education organisations.</p><p>During the workshop we describe two different cases of cooperation — one from vocational education and another from higher education. In this workshop we will focus on the question: How to manage cooperation with local companies? By presenting these practical cases of cooperation we share our experiences and the audience will be inspired. They will also get ideas to be used when developing entrepreneurship education in different levels of education.</p></div>