Secondary Vocational Education in Finland

Abstract

Finland continues to lead the world in the global Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2016). Much has been written about Finland’s common basic curriculum for all (grades one to nine), however little has been shared regarding Finland’s secondary vocational education programs. Finland has a dual system of secondary education: academic and vocational. In Finland, education is a civic right for all children (and adults). Finland invest in their children from birth. All children receive tuition free preschool/daycare starting at age one, and a common comprehensive public-school education (grades one to nine) starting at age 7 (Sahlberg, 2015). At the age of 16, half of all students select vocational education as their secondary education curriculum. This article describes how Finland’s secondary vocational education programs recent growth and change as well as early outcomes of this growth.