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Microsoft and seven Finnish cities just launched a close partnership highlighting the endless opportunities of technology in education. Cities like Oulu, Tampere, Vantaa, Helsinki, Salo, Turku and Espoo will take part, adding up to the participation of over a hundred schools in the pilot phase of the project. Other interested cities are also invited to join the network.
The partnership represents a substantial financial investment of three years for Microsoft. On one hand, Microsoft will invest in teachers' training and learning materials so that teachers benefit from the many possibilities offered by technology. On the other, students will be provided with the Microsoft Office packs free of charge, if the teachers have an Office license. In addition, Microsoft will help the cities in planning their technological environments.
By assisting and working closely with teachers, students and school leaders, Microsoft will help improve education at all levels. This will be central to ensuring that Finnish students are given the best opportunity to learn and reinforce their technology skills, which they will require in the modern workplace. Besides using cutting-edge productivity tools around the classroom with technology-savvy teachers, they will learn powerful soft-skills such as collaboration with their peers and problem solving. Adopting technology in innovative ways is critical to the workforce readiness of Finland's youth.
This partnership is a wonderful opportunity to reach the education system from top to bottom, allowing educational leaders and educators to share powerful teaching practices, and helping inspire young people to learn vital workplace skills to ultimately realize their professional ambitions, said Anthony Salcito, vice president, Worldwide Education, Microsoft. Microsoft looks forward to seeing the program develop across the three years and Finnish education taking pioneering steps forwards.
At Microsoft, we hope that the entire learning ecosystem would cooperate and take part in the discussion. The extended steering group of the project includes the Finnish National Board of Education, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, the Trade Union of Education in Finland, and the Department of Teacher Education as well as leading local businesses including Finnish Consulting Group, Innofactor, Triba and Neoxen.
The cooperation between companies, cities and others, aims to address the challenges resulting from shrinking budgets and the simultaneous need to develop learning environments and teaching. Technology, implemented innovatively and with the right educators and leadership, can help better prepare the next generation for the requirements of the modern business with 21st Century skills to ultimately boost their employability in the globalized workplace, says Manager Kati Tiainen from Microsoft's digital learning strategy team.
The project develops the learning system and methods, and supports digitalization. In the city of Salo, it was clear that we want to cooperate in such a pioneering project. In addition to education, we also see this as an economic and employment opportunity: the project can generate new start-up businesses and Microsoft offers them a global channel , says Antti Rantakokko, Mayor of Salo.
The cooperation rethinks the goals of learning and the role of the teachers, considering the effects the information society has on learning and improves the conditions for an electric matriculation examination, as well as for the execution of the new national core curriculum of basic education. Once a vision has been established, the project will build a development program for teachers and school directors that stresses the further development of acquired skills, critical thinking, and responsibility for learning and communications skills - critical for the modern worker's competitiveness.
