Second Survey School and WOW.pdf

WORKING GROUP: TRANSITION
the labour market, e.g. ICT‐businesses or other highly developed companies. The British
researcher Helen Colley draws a somewhat different picture of the present demands when
referring to the fact that: „Hairdressing, warehouse‐keeping and shelf‐stacking are three of the
fastest‐growing occupations in the UK“ 33 . This implicates, as she states, „a rather different
face on the ‘choices’ on offer“, but it also calls for a more diversified approach when trying to
interpret labour market demands.
Finland
Today’s society is often depicted in terms such as the information society, knowledge society
or network society to describe essential features characterising its current developments. The
most visible element of this new society is naturally the rapid development of the information
and communication technology and the fast increasing amount of information. Furthermore,
the growing production of knowledge, increasing networking between organisations and
individuals, and changes in occupational structures and contents of work are typical
developments of the information society.
The conditions of knowledge production have also changed. New kinds of industrial production
are dependent not only on new information technology but also on new kinds of expertise.
Many organisations have become knowledge intensive innovation centres in which
collaborative work, networking, and transformative and creative learning have become key
concepts in organisational development.
Table 2: Trends related to the working life in information society and corresponding
qualifications of employees. (Tynjälä, 2006)
33 Colley, Helen 2004
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