Where the local and global meet
Being innovative means taking risks, but for participants in one career-related education pilot, that’s a winning strategy.
“Individual young people should not be categorized as either academic or practical.
They have both intellectual and vocational interests, and their education should reflect this.”
This belief lies at the heart of Teuvo Laurinolli’s involvement in the Business and Administration International Programme in Oulu, Finland. Laurinolli is principal at Oulun Lyseo, and in 2002 he joined forces with Oulu Business College and the IB to develop a three-year programme for 16-year-olds which would combine vocational qualifications with elements of the IB Diploma Programme. The programme would enable students either to go on to higher education or to apply for jobs in their chosen field.
After two years of planning and staff training, the first 20 students were enrolled in 2004, to be joined by another 20 in 2005. They are based at the Business College, where teachers from Oulun Lyceo come to deliver the IB elements of the course. These include IB business and management, English and economics. Students also take courses in critical thinking in the world of work and intercultural communication, as well as participating in community service and work experience. Over half the classes are taught in English.
When asked why this initiative began in Oulu, Laurinolli modestly underplays his own role. “We happened to have people here with the interest and experience,” he replies. “In Finland we know that we have to prepare our young people for globalization.”
Laurinolli agrees that the IB learner profile, with its balance of the intellectual, the personal and the intercultural, is ideally suited to the demands of the global workplace. “Becoming global in some sense depends on being able to take risks,” he believes, “and the IB learner is a risk-taker and an innovator, as well as a thinker.”
However, he warns against moving too fast. “Career-based education is a huge and complex area,” he cautions. “The IB is right to take time in pursuing this strategy. We have to make sure that we pay attention to the local context. Working cultures vary so much around the world, which is why the intercultural dimension is so important.”
Elina Kast is project coordinator for the business and administration international programme at Oulu Business College. She is very pleased with the way things have gone so far. Nearly half the College staff were involved in the planning process, and Kast believes that what they have learned is spilling over into other areas of the College curriculum. Like Teuvo Laurinolli, she highlights the intercultural aspects of the pilot programme.
“Oulu is still basically a monocultural city,” she explains, “although people from other cultures are increasingly migrating to Finland. Oulun Lyseo has teachers of several different nationalities, and this has helped to create an international learning environment for our students. We’re hoping that as the programme continues, it will attract more students from different cultural backgrounds.”
Kast is proud that a number of the students are planning to go abroad for their work experience in May 2006.
“One is going to Spain, another to Brazil. It’s good to see that they have the courage and confidence to discover for themselves how people live and work in different cultures.
“It’s also been a new experience for the IB teachers,” she says. “Our students enjoy working in different ways. They respond to the challenge of academic work, but we find they also like practical approaches, projects and case studies. So teachers have adapted their methods. It has been a learning experience for everybody.”
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“Individual young people should not be categorized as either academic or practical. They have both intellectual and vocational interests, and their education should reflect this."
Teuvo Laurinolli
