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TAMK International

Educational Leadership Forum at TAMK brough a group of enthusiastic leaders to Tampere during the last week of April 2022

— Riikka Kramer
People sitting and smiling in a classroom.
Educational Leadership Forum gathered together participants from several countries. Picture: Renata Brito.

Few weeks back the Educational Leadership Forum was arranged at Tampere University of Applied Sciences in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish National Agency for Education, Business Tampere and the City of Tampere. Important topics of the latest trends, policies, and innovations in education were the focus areas of discussion during the week.

Participants of the event came mainly from partner institutions outside EU countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Kenia, Nigeria and India. Anita Lehikoinen, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education and Culture and Jouni Kangasniemi, Programme Director from Finnish National Agency of Education, gave their insight and greetings from the national authorities on the first day giving the week a general framework to work with.

Event full of diverse topics

Mornings from nine to 12 were reserved for keynotes on different topics. These topics were about teacher education, digitalization of education, entrepreneurship and innovation, not forgetting the discussion about the future of education and the change processes that these require. Week had many great topics from the vast pool of expertise of TAMK and we had also the pleasure to listen to Ilkka Halava, one of leading futurists of Finland and a business coach, who left us with a clear message, “You will not be able to cope with tomorrow’s challenges with yesterday’s recipes”.

Afternoon programme included optional routes to visit different levels of schools from pre-primary to higher education and different innovation platforms in Tampere. These visits gave the important opportunity to anchor theory with practice and witness everyday activities in these places.

New recipes for the future

The week was closed with panel discussion bringing the know-how from our international guests on these topics and sharing the ambitions and visions of the future of education. The participants were working together on the “new recipes” which Halava mentioned. Everyone was left with a great amount of new ideas and cooperation opportunities in different initiatives and topics.

People sitting in a classroom.
The participants received many new ideas at the Educational Leadership Forum. Picture: Virpi Heinonen.

A new network of global leaders has now begun, facilitating dialogue and cross-collaboration between stakeholders from these different participant countries. We have plenty of co-creation work ahead, hopefully taking the full advantage of this week takeaways and build on the new partnerships that were created among the leaders.

Text: Virpi Heinonen

Pictures: Renata Brito and Virpi Heinonen

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