Freedom to Compete: Autonomy and Control in Finnish Vocational Education and Training Reform

Antti Juhani Seitamaa; Niklas Håkan Rosenblad

Freedom to Compete: Autonomy and Control in Finnish Vocational Education and Training Reform

Antti Juhani Seitamaa, Niklas Håkan Rosenblad

Forskningsoutput: Kapitel i bok/rapport/konferenshandling › Kapitel › Vetenskaplig › Peer review

Sammanfattning

Abstract

Finnish vocational education and training has been in under constant political and economic pressure since the beginning of the 2010s. The Finnish VET reform was sold as pedagogical, and as an enhancement of providers’ autonomy, but the results of this chapter indicate that, since the beginning, the incentives for reform have been economic in nature. Competence-based training was thought to provide a new and fresh beginning for a more personalized learning process that would smooth transitions to the labor market. Paradoxically, however, austerity combined with performance-based funding have tightened the structure and purpose of VET around output and comparability. By extension, students’ and providers’ autonomy only means the freedom to compete on the marketplace where skills are bought and sold.

Originalspråk	engelska
Titel på värdpublikation	Challenges of the Reform of Vocational Training from the German Dual Modality and the Spanish Today’s Educational System : Analysis of Cases and from a Comparative Perspective
Redaktörer	A. Pereyra, M. Torres
Förlag	Brill
Status	!!Accepted/In press - 5 nov. 2025
MoE-publikationstyp	A3 Del av bok eller annan forskningsbok

Citera det här

Seitamaa, A. J., & Rosenblad, N. H. (Accepterad/under tryckning). Freedom to Compete: Autonomy and Control in Finnish Vocational Education and Training Reform. I A. Pereyra, & M. Torres (Red.), Challenges of the Reform of Vocational Training from the German Dual Modality and the Spanish Today’s Educational System: Analysis of Cases and from a Comparative Perspective Brill.

Seitamaa, Antti Juhani ; Rosenblad, Niklas Håkan. / Freedom to Compete : Autonomy and Control in Finnish Vocational Education and Training Reform. Challenges of the Reform of Vocational Training from the German Dual Modality and the Spanish Today’s Educational System: Analysis of Cases and from a Comparative Perspective. redaktör / A. Pereyra ; M. Torres. Brill, 2025.

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Freedom to Compete: Autonomy and Control in Finnish Vocational Education and Training Reform. / Seitamaa, Antti Juhani ; Rosenblad, Niklas Håkan.
Challenges of the Reform of Vocational Training from the German Dual Modality and the Spanish Today’s Educational System: Analysis of Cases and from a Comparative Perspective. red. / A. Pereyra; M. Torres. Brill, 2025.

Forskningsoutput: Kapitel i bok/rapport/konferenshandling › Kapitel › Vetenskaplig › Peer review

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N2 - Abstract Finnish vocational education and training has been in under constant political and economic pressure since the beginning of the 2010s. The Finnish VET reform was sold as pedagogical, and as an enhancement of providers’ autonomy, but the results of this chapter indicate that, since the beginning, the incentives for reform have been economic in nature. Competence-based training was thought to provide a new and fresh beginning for a more personalized learning process that would smooth transitions to the labor market. Paradoxically, however, austerity combined with performance-based funding have tightened the structure and purpose of VET around output and comparability. By extension, students’ and providers’ autonomy only means the freedom to compete on the marketplace where skills are bought and sold.

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