Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

measures should apply to all parties – teaching staff, workplace instructors and students. Whenconcretized, the aforementioned recommendation means that teaching staff will utilize working-lifecontacts and activities more than before and career and life management will be more stronglyintegrated into the students’ study programmes. For workplace instructors this means an increasinglevel of education.Expanding entrepreneurship education. The age structure and the loss of enterprises is a significant threatin Central Finland. As entrepreneurship based on information and technological know-how becomes moreimportant, there are high expectations for HEIs, as educators of future entrepreneurs. In contrast, however,studies indicate that the probability of an individual becoming an entrepreneur decreases as the individualbecomes more educated. In the light of this information, the policy of raising the general level of educationin Finland puts more pressure on the role of HEIs in creating a positive image for entrepreneurship. TheHEIs in the Jyväskylä region have also tried to promote a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship, butthere still is a clear need for improvement.Discussion proposal 8: The importance of entrepreneurship education as an essential part of studiesin HEIs should be emphasized more in the future. Creating an atmosphere that encouragesentrepreneurship and adopting entrepreneurship as a possible choice of career, at least later in onescareer, should be the central aims. The challenge of entrepreneurship education could partly be metby teacher education, which is one of the Jyväskylä region’s areas of strength. Increasing teachers’knowledge and skills concerning the themes of entrepreneurship would, for its part, help to createpositive attitudes towards entrepreneurship from the first days of school onwards. Integratingentrepreneurship education in different studies in both the University (for instance in the basicstudies) and the Polytechnic should be emphasized. This type of process has recently been launchedin the Jyväskylä Polytechnic. Developing entrepreneurship paths for each school at the JyväskyläPolytechnic is an essential step to further promote entrepreneurial thinking.International students. International students could promote the possibilities of regional effectiveness in thefuture. International students can be seen, for example, as potential customers for education services, aspromoters of intercultural skills in the region, and as a potential reserve of human resources. At the moment,interaction with foreign students is partly inconsistent and inefficient. In the best situation, internationalstudents could become a natural bridge for cooperation between the Polytechnic and the University.Interaction with foreign students could be arranged in a much more efficient and successful way throughcooperation.Discussion proposal 9: Deeper cooperation should be achieved between the HEIs to moreefficiently utilize resources when interacting with international students. International studentsshould be seen as a resource from the point of view of regional development also, and the creation ofan international labour market large enough (international atmosphere) is one of the key issues inpromoting the willingness of students to settle in the region and in achieving extended impacts onthe region as a whole. Thus, this is a challenge for the whole region. As a concrete first step, a jointmeasure for the Polytechnic and the University that would be based on a thorough study, respondingto the challenge set by international students, should be established.Increasing the efficiency of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is considered as one of the prerequisites forthe development of the information society. An individual must have an opportunity for lifelong learning.Both Jyväskylä Polytechnic and the University of Jyväskylä respond to this challenge through a number ofways. Degree education in itself is the route to lifelong learning. In addition, the challenge is met throughopen higher education and through continuing education. Altogether, the options provided by continuingeducation and open higher education are versatile and functional. Thus the central target of development is amore efficient utilization of the possibilities opened up thorough cooperation.Discussion proposal 10: In order to increase regional effectiveness, closer cooperation between theHEIs should be developed, especially in continuing education and open higher education, andregional targeting should be strengthened. Complementary roles and clarifying the division of labourshould form the basis of educational cooperation. As a concrete measure concerning these functions,113