National ESF Operational Programme and the Opin ovi projects
Background
Finland boasts one of the best guidance and education systems in Europe. However, international assessments have shown that adult guidance is in need of development. The responsibility for adult guidance is shared by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of Education. Regional cooperation across administrative fields has been found lacking. Furthermore, questions of distribution of work and responsibility in implementing guidance and counselling services are in need of clarification.
The working life lacks people who would be able to help adults undergoing changes in their life. For instance, workers being let go need guidance to help them find new career opportunities. In addition, guidance offered during the working career supports lifelong learning. In Europe, the working force is older on average than in other parts of the world. A Nordic objective for the operational programme implemented in 2007-2013 is therefore to secure the availability of qualified manpower.
The vision of the strategy of the operational programme stipulates that in 2014 Finland is to have multidisciplinary information, guidance and counselling services across administrative fields based on life-long learning and guidance responsive to the needs of adults and the working life. The services developed during the operational programme are customer driven (taking the needs of individual and corporate customers into account), multimodal and easily reachable.
For more information read also development programme's poster (2010).
Opin ovi project family
The common objective of the national Opin ovi project implementing the operational programme for adult information, counseling and guidance services is to improve the meeting of workforce demands (securing the availability of skilled manpower) by developing information, guidance and counselling services for adults.
9 national and 30 regional projects operate within the project family, developing local services all over Finland. An important challenge in the operational programme is implementing cross-administrative cooperation in practice. At the national level, the projects are administered by two different ministries, and at the local level Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, different educational institutes, adult education centres, third-sector actors and working life partners take part in the activities. In 2009, The Coordination Project also began cooperation with the ALPO support program of the Ministry of the Interior in the field of guidance for immigrants.
Project introductions
Get familiar with the Opin ovi projects by following the links below. The project web pages are mainly available in Finnish and Swedish.
Opin ovi project news!
Guidance in Finland 2010 seminar, organized in Helsinki February 10-12th 2010. See here for more information.
ECER 2010 conference at August 2010 in Helsinki. Download the poster
Strategy of developing lifelong guidance has been presented Spring 2011 - Read more!
