Education and Training Monitor 2022

1. Key Indicators

Figure 1: Key indicators overview

Sources: Eurostat (UOE, LFS, COFOG); OECD (PISA). Further information can be found in Annex I and at Monitor Toolbox. Notes: The 2018 EU average on PISA reading performance does not include ES; the indicator used (ECE) refers to early-childhood education and care programmes which are considered by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) to be ‘educational’ and therefore constitute the first level of education in education and training systems – ISCED level 0; the equity indicator shows the gap in the share of underachievement in reading, mathematics and science (combined) among 15-year-olds between the lowest and highest quarters of socio-economic status; b = break in time series, u = low reliability, : = not available, 09 = 2009, 13 = 2013, 18 = 2018, 20 = 2020.

Figure 2: Position in relation to strongest and weakest performers 

2. A focus on skills shortages and the role of higher education

Finland is one of the EU countries with the highest European Skills Index score and can be considered as a role model. The European composite index measures skills development, skills activation and skills matching, through 15 indicators¹. Finland scored above 70 out of 100. 1 in 11 people in Finland are employed in high-tech companies, covering both high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services like ICT or finance sectors. Employment in Finland is projected to grow until 2030. The material and energy sectors – mining, production of electricity, gas or heat – are expected to grow the fastest, followed by transport, storage and construction. Construction work, ICT professions and office professions are the areas in which most new jobs are expected to be created in the next decade. In 2020, the share of young Finns (aged 25-34) with tertiary education (ISCED 5 or 6) who were employed in posts for which they are overqualified was 17.5% for men and 15.6% for women, below the EU averages of 24.1% and 24.3%, respectively².

Reskilling and upskilling are key to matching the demand for future skills in an increasingly digital and green economy. The 2019 Finnish Higher Education Act aims, among other goals, to improve continuous learning opportunities in universities and polytechnics. Higher education institutions are discussing their strategic profiles and the areas in which they could increase their educational offer, and receiving support from the PROFI funding programme³. In addition, the new performance-based funding model, in place since 2021, encourages higher education institutions to develop their adult education offer through continuous learning opportunities⁴.

The number of ICT specialists has not kept up with demand. According to DESI 2021, Finland ranks first among all EU Member States in the area of digital human capital. While Finland has the highest percentage of ICT specialists in the labour force in the EU (7.5%, almost double than the EU average of 3.9%), 59% of companies which recruited or tried to recruit an ICT specialist, had difficulties in doing so (EU average: 55%). In addition, the gender imbalance among ICT specialists remains a challenge. In 2021, 23% of ICT specialists were women (EU average 19%). With a shortage of highly skilled domestic employees, Finland also needs to attract highly skilled migrants to complement its reskilling and upskilling measures. The Finnish recovery and resilience plan (RRP) envisages measures to attract talent from abroad, notably through the Talent Boost programme (see box 1). The education offer in relation to advanced digital technologies by Finnish higher education institutions is, on average, larger than in the rest of EU⁵.

The RRP addresses education and skills in light of the green and digital transition. The plan includes a reform to the system for continuous learning. It also encompasses large-scale investments in upskilling and reskilling working age people. This is expected to increase the employability of the labour force and support the transition to a digital and green economy.

An action plan to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). A working group has been created to promote an action plan for the national LUMA or STEM strategy⁶ (MINEDU, 2022b), covering all levels of education, but also other actors in society (teachers, researchers, parents, service providers, collaboration partners), aiming to improve Finnish competence in natural sciences, mathematics, and technology (MINEDU, 2022c).

A digital forum has been created to maintain an overview of digital skills and create long-term goals for the country. As part of the national coalition on digital skills and jobs, the Ministry of Employment and Economy and the Ministry of Education and Culture set up the Do Digi Forum (2022-2023) to maintain an overview of digital skills and create long-term goals for the country.

3. Early childhood education and care

The shortage of teachers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a challenge for the expected increase in ECEC participation. The ECEC participation rate in Finland is below the EU average (90.9% of children from age 3 to the starting age of compulsory primary education, EU average 93%) and it is at some distance from the EU-level target of 96%. Participation in formal childcare (from age 3 to compulsory schooling age) is lower by 6 pps for children at risk of poverty or social exclusion (EU average 7.5 pps). Recently adopted reforms in ECEC⁷ have not yet yielded the expected results. Challenging working conditions and relatively low salaries have reduced the attractiveness of the profession,while the 2018 reform (LAW 540/2018) requires that two thirds of the ECEC staff in an institution have a degree in early childhood education at Bachelor level, either from a research university or a university of applied sciences. This requirement put additional pressure on the availability of ECEC staff. Municipalities in the Helsinki metropolitan area have started to compete in hiring ECEC teachers by increasing salaries. The Minister of Science and Culture announced the opening of 400 extra tertiary study places for early childhood education. Among these, 40 study places at the University of Helsinki in 2022 are being financed as part of the RRP. This measure might not be sufficient to remedy the shortage. In addition, the birth rate again increased over the last 2 years, after a previous decline (from 1.35 in 2019 to 1.46 in 2021); this could worsen the situation.

Figure 3: STEM tertiary graduates as a proportion of total graduates in 2020

The arrival of displaced children from Ukraine may exacerbate the scarcity of ECEC places in certain locations. The bigger cities and municipalities and the border regions (the southern provinces of Varsinais-Suomi and Uusimaa) received a relatively large number of children from Ukraine. The number of minors (0-18 years old) is currently small (around 8 000 in May), but is expected to rise to about 30 000, close to three quarters of the size of a Finnish age cohort. (EDUFI, 2022).

4. School education

Fewer students complete upper secondary education in the expected time.The rate of early leavers from education and training (ELET) in Finland was 8.2% in 2021 on average (below the EU average of 9.7%), while the rate for women was  2.2 pps lower than for men. In the 2019/2020 academic year, 6.8 per cent of students attending education that leads to a qualification or a degree discontinued their studies and did not resume them. This proportion was 3.6% for general upper secondary students⁸. A proportion of Finnish students (21%) do not complete general upper secondary education in the expected time (3 and half years) and after 4.5 years, 11% had not completed the matriculation examination (general upper secondary degree)⁹.

Figure 4: Gap in children's participation in formal childcare or education between the age of 3 and the minimum mandatory school age, by AROPE, 2020

There are gaps in students’ performance in Finland, notably in reading. Current educational challenges in education include the growing impact of students’ socio- economic and migrant background on educational achievement, and the increasing performance gaps between students and between schools. However, the impact of socio-economic background is still among the smallest in the EU, as measured by several indicators. Existing data seem to indicate a continuous decline in learning outcomes and an increase in differences related to students’ home background (Metsämuuronen & Nousiainen, 2021). In a study on equality, equity and participation, the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC)¹⁰ reported that ‘basic education does not seem to be able to close the gaps caused by students’ home background’. Another study¹¹ also reports that students’ attainment had declined and differences between students increased. The decline in Finnish students’ reading skills and reading habits is also a matter of general concern.

Schools need to do more to improve digital skills. A study (Vainikainen et al., 2022) reveals that lower secondary students have mainly acquired their digital skills outside school. According to this study, about 14% of students reported that their digital skills were inadequate and that they feel anxious when faced with digital requirements. Boys seem to make more multi-faceted use of digital devices, while girls predominantly use social media. Digital problem-solving tasks in schools seem to favour boys. Accordingly, the authors of the study recommends that schools should pay more attention to inviting all students to use their basic digital skills to be able to learn and study on an equal basis. The lack of school-based training in ICT also came up in a recent FINEEC report on programming in general upper secondary education (Nousiainen & Kivistö, 2022). It was found that only half of schools implemented courses in programming, and a majority of those only do this to a very limited extent.

A growing number of students apply for programmes with intensified special needs support instead of regular general and vocational upper secondary education. This fact might be the consequence of declining learning results in lower secondary education. The comparison between 2021-2022 data (Torsell, 2022) reveals that while the number of students applying to upper secondary education as a whole has slightly increased to 1 735 additional applications, the number of students applying to general upper secondary education has decreased (840 applicants less). The number of students applying to vocational education decreased considerably (by 7 600 people). Most of these changes are  explained by an increase in the number of students who applied for upper secondary education with intensive special needs support (an additional 7 100 people).

Upper secondary students were strongly impacted by the pandemic and the related school closures. Upper secondary students were the first to move to distance learning and the last to move away from it. A FINEEC report on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that, while a majority of students consider that  their studies have advanced as planned, about half of the students felt less motivated and a fifth believed that their studies have not advanced as planned. A joint study by Tampere and Helsinki Universities¹² reported that 40% of the counselling and guidance personnel for upper secondary schools felt that personal student welfare services provided by multi-professional teams weakened during the pandemic. The teachers surveyed also reported a decline in students’ performance. The FINEEC has called for increased support to guarantee the equity of education and level out schools' potential inability to close learning gaps resulting from differences in students’ social backgrounds (FINEEC, 2022).

The increase in the compulsory school age from 16 to 18 came into effect in August 2021 and is expected to have a positive impact on the education level and well-being of young people. The reform aims to increase competences, reduce learning gaps, boost equality and non-discrimination in education, improve the well-being of young

people and raise the employment rate. The implementation of the extension of compulsory education is being monitored through a separate monitoring plan¹³ covering 2021 to 2024. The extension of compulsory education has brought new requirements for upper secondary education institutions to support learning and monitor absenteeism. The Trade Union for Education (OAJ) has criticised what it describes as an excessive share of teachers’ time being taken up by work not directly related to teaching and learning.

The impact of the new process for selecting higher education students is being evaluated.. Apart from the extension of compulsory education, the main change in relation to lower secondary education is the reform to student grading in the final assessment (European Commission, 2021)¹⁴. In late 2021, the Ministry of Education and Culture launched an impact assessment of the 2018 reform of higher education students’ selection (Karhunen et al., 2021). In addition, in spring 2022, the Rectors’ Council of Universities launched their own study (UNIFI, 2022).

Low teacher salaries and poor working conditions led to the first teacher strike in Finland since 1984. Lasting 5 working days in spring 2022, the strike called for salaries to be increased, particularly for ECEC teachers, and working conditions to be improved. Complaints relate to concerns over large class size, too little time for lesson planning and work with children, too much paper work, and too few material and teaching resources. A new teacher education development programme for 2022-2026 was published. It had been drawn up collaboratively between teacher educators (e.g. universities), the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Finnish National Agency for Education and representatives of stakeholders (such as municipalities, teacher organisations and the OAJ trade union) (MINEDU, 2022a)

5. Vocational education and training and adult learning 

VET continues to be an attractive study choice, although the number of new enrolments has been decreasing in recent years. In 2020, 67.8% of all learners at upper secondary level were enrolled in VET (including adult students)¹⁵, compared to 68.7% in 2019 and 71.6% in 2018. The decline in the employment rate for recent VET graduates (aged 20-34) continued, from 74.6% in 2020 to 72.4% in 2021¹⁶.

The Finnish government set out the target state for education and research towards the 2040s¹⁷. The Education Policy report (2021) outlines several challenges for VET in Finland, including the rapid demographic change and its varying effects from region to region, changes in the world of work, a shortage of skilled labour. As a response, the Ministry of Education and Culture has launched a project to develop upper secondary education with objectives of increasing its accessibility and quality in different parts of Finland and meeting the needs of compulsory education and continuous learning, as well as skills needed for working life and society¹⁸.

Provision of VET has been strengthened, with a particular focus on teachers and trainers. In 2022, the Ministry of Education and Culture allocated EUR 75 million to VET providers under the ‘Right to Learn’ development programme. A total of EUR 70 million was allocated to 115 training providers for the recruitment of teachers and mentors and support for teaching and guidance. A further EUR 5 million was allocated to piloting the training allowance for apprenticeships in VET.

Finland invests in sustainable VET. The programme for the sustainable development of VET and the green transition aims to support the achievement of the global Agenda 2030 goals in vocational education and training and to address the challenges posed by climate change and nature loss in the operation and operating culture of VET institutions. 10 projects are being supported with allocated funding of EUR 3.5 million.

Finland is finalising the modernisation of its regulatory framework for VET. The government proposed to amend the Higher Education Act, the Act on Vocational Education and Training and the Act on the Financing of Education and Culture. It aims to clarify the regulatory framework on general and vocational secondary education, as well as the funding framework¹⁹. The government aims to present the proposal to Parliament in the fall 2022 with entry into force expected in 2024. Finland continues to implement its 2018 VET reform, with a budget allocation of over EUR 270 million for 2020-2022.

The service centre for continuous learning and employment (JOTPA) started its activities in 2021. As part of the continuous learning reform, JOTPA's tasks include analysing competence and labour market needs, funding education and training for working age people, developing advisory and guidance services, and participating in developing a digital service package for continuous learning. In 2022, approximately EUR 14 million has been allocated to the centre’s operational expenditure and EUR 16 million has been earmarked for the development of continuous learning and skills. Finland has one of the highest rates of in adult participation in learning in the EU (30.5% in Finland, 10.8% in the EU-27 in 2021). Finland set a national target of 60% of adults (aged 25-64) participating in learning activities by 2030, matching the EU headline target on adult learning.

6. Higher education 

To reach the national tertiary education attainment target, the RRP provides for an increase in the number of study places in higher education. The Finnish ambition is that 50% of the 25-34 years-olds should have a tertiary education degree by 2030. In 2020-2022, 12 500 new study places were added to the existing education offer, 600 of them were supported by the RRP. In line with employment prospects in the different sectors and regions, there will be an emphasis on the sectors most affected by labour shortages, including the STEM sectors and especially ICT.

The number of tertiary education students grew in 2021²⁰.According to Statistics Finland, a total of 159 500 students attended in 2021 higher education leading to a university degree. The number of students increased by 1.9 pps compared to 2020, continuing the trend of the last few years. There were 32 600 new students, which is 6.8 pps more than in the previous year. A total of 31 000 degrees (Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees and doctorates) were completed. The majority of students chose engineering, manufacturing and construction, followed by business, administration and law (over 20 000 students in each field). ICT is the fifth largest field, with slightly over 17 000 students, although only a quarter of these students are women.

Completion of tertiary education within the target timeframe improved in 2020²¹. Within the target time (4.5 years), 57 per cent of students at universities of applied sciences finished their studies (the same as in the previous year). Broken down by gender, 42 per cent of male students and 71 per cent of female students finished their studies within the target period. The field of technology has the lowest rate of students completing their studies within the target timeframe (38%). At general universities, 34% of students completed master’s degrees within the target timeframe of 5.5 years (28% of male students and 40% of female students), 4 pps more than in 2019. The lowest completion rate was in natural sciences. Rates of leaving tertiary level education before completing studies also decreased (particularly among men)²².

Universities managed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis relatively well with regard to research and education, but students’ well-being was negatively affected. Higher education has run largely remotely since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the 2022 winter semester, Bachelor's degrees were awarded to students who had studied  most of their courses without physical contact either with their fellow students or with their teachers. Demands for psycho-social support for anxiety and depression at the Student Health Services have continued to grow since the beginning of the pandemic, more from women than men. The use of digitally improved remote health services helped increase the number of student visits. (Hauhio et al., 2022).

The Ministry of Education and Culture announced an action plan to support Ukrainian higher education students and researchers. 

According to the plan, students will be given opportunities to start or continue their studies, and researchers will be offered the opportunity to continue their research work in Finland. The Ministry estimates that these measures can provide 2 000 to 4 000 students with study opportunities. Using separate funding, the Ministry of Education and Culture will support Ukrainians in their studies and broaden the range of classes available to them, and will make provision for any guidance and counselling services deemed necessary.

Annex I: Key indicators sources

Annex II: Structure of the education system