Education and Training Monitor 2023

1. The teaching profession

Teaching continues to be an attractive and respected profession in Finland. Finnish teachers are, within the EU, those who feel most valued by society; they are very satisfied with their work and only a few of them consider leaving the teaching profession in the medium or long term (OECD, 2020a). Job stability also makes teaching an attractive profession in Finland. However, in recent years and according to a survey among members of the YLL (Union for University Teachers and Researchers in Finland), while most respondents report enjoying and feeling satisfied with their work, they consider it necessary to improve their working conditions, skills and salaries (OAJ, 2019). School teachers seem to also be dissatisfied with their working conditions (especially their wages). This dissatisfaction led them to go on strike at the beginning of 2022 on several occasions, after over 30 years, requesting improvements in their working conditions (salary increases, a multiannual salary progression programme, and the limitation of their workload). By mid-2023, trade unions and the government had reached an agreement on the contract negotiations addressing teachers’ demands (OAJ, 2023).

Teachers’ salaries are lower than those of other university graduates and generally progress slowly throughout their career. In 2021, the average monthly salary for a classroom teacher was around EUR 3 600 (Labore, 2022), higher than the median salary in 2023 of EUR 3 148 for all Finnish full-time employees¹. In 2021, the actual salaries of schoolteachers were lower than those of what other tertiary-educated staff earn (67% for early childhood education and care [ECEC] teachers, 88% for primary school teachers and 98% for lower secondary school teachers), except for general upper secondary school teachers with 110% (compared to the EU-22 averages of 78%, 85%, 89% and 95% respectively [OECD, 2022a]). There is also a difference between the gross average hourly earnings of female and male teachers. The average salary for male teachers was EUR 3 663, while for female teachers it was EUR 3 034. Salary progression is also one of the lowest in the EU. The top salaries for primary and secondary school teachers are about 30% higher than their statutory entry salaries, while for pre-primary schoolteachers the increase over their career is only 8% (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2022). It takes a teacher 20 years to reach the maximum salary. (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2022).

Finnish teachers have fewer working hours, so they can focus more on teaching than their EU peers. The 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) (OECD, 2019a) shows that on average teachers in Finland work 33.3 hours a week (the EU-22 average is 37.5). Finnish teachers also perform non-teaching tasks, such as lesson planning and preparation, marking students’ work, being in contact with parents or guardians as well as administrative and reporting tasks, but this consumes less of their working time (38% vs the EU-22 average of 48%) (OECD, 2019a). The average class size is below the EU-22 average (18 and 19 students vs 20 and 21 in primary and lower secondary education respectively) (FINEEC, 2018, 2021; OECD/UIS/Eurostat, 2019). Class size can also vary significantly depending on the subject and on how learning processes are organised (FINEEC, 2021).

The ageing of the teaching workforce seems less worrying in Finland than in other EU countries. In 2021, schoolteachers (ISCED 1-3) below the age of 30 made up around 10% of the workforce (more than the EU average of 7.5%), and 23.6% of schoolteachers were 55+ (below the EU average of 24.5%)². The proportion of teachers under 30 years old increased compared to 2015 (from 6.8% to 9.9%), much more than at EU level (from 7.2% to 7.5% on average at EU level). The proportion of teachers over 55 years old has also increased (from 21.1% in 2015 to 23.6% in 2021), and retirements will affect large groups of teachers (for example, special needs, mathematics and science subject teachers). Still, the ageing workforce is less worrisome than in other EU countries, since there are more young teachers today than a decade ago.

Teacher shortages affect several areas of education. There is a lack of ECEC teachers, especially in the Helsinki area. Each year, Finland must educate at least 1,400 new teachers in early childhood education and care, considering the needs of both national languages³. There are also regional differences in the availability of special needs teachers. Shortages have also been observed in the teaching of Finnish and Swedish as second languages (Pyykkö 2017; Tainio and Kallioniemi 2019; Airas et al. 2019; Kyckling et al. 2019). Sámi-speaking teachers are also lacking at all levels of education, especially in subject teaching. It is also necessary to improve teachers' career guidance skills, especially in vocational education, but also in basic and upper secondary education (Goman et al., 2020; Vuorinen, 2020).

A wide range of in-service training is available, but participation is not consistent across schools. Continuous professional development (CPD) is provided by universities, the OAJ trade union, subject-teacher unions, the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), commercial actors and others, but its availability for teachers is often limited by education providers’ and schools’ ability to arrange substitutes for teachers who participate in CPD. One fifth of teachers do not have access to in-service training every year; this figure varies from one municipality to another. Less than 15% of teachers have a personal development and training plan made and approved for them by their employer (OAJ, 2022). In 2022, the Finnish Teacher Training Forum revised the 2022-2026 teacher development programme for pre- and in-service teacher training, outlining the focal areas in teacher training and professional development (Finnish government, 2022). According to TALIS (OECD, 2019a), teachers do not feel sufficiently prepared in ICT or to teach in multicultural and multilingual settings.

Fewer young people wish to enrol in university studies in education⁴. In 2021, the proportion of students enrolled in tertiary studies in the field of education (almost 16 700 students, from which 2 600 were new entrants) was around 5.4% of the total, below the EU average of 7.4%⁵. The number of students applying as a priority to become schoolteachers has decreased between 2015 and 2022 (from 4 675 to 3 280). Approximately 40% of applicants for general teacher education (classroom teacher education and education sciences) are admitted annually, but the proportion differs among teacher education programmes. The subject teacher education programme is the most difficult one to gain admission to, followed by programmes for classroom teachers and ECEC teachers (10%-53%, 16% and 38% in 2020 respectively) (FINEEC, 2022). University access to teacher training is sometimes as competitive as it is for law or medicine (about 10%).

Additional student places for the professions most in demand have been created. Between 2017 and 2020, the number of university graduates in education increased by 18% (4 441 graduates in 2020). In 2021, they were 5.7% of all bachelor’s graduates, below the EU average of 9.4%⁶. Finland allocated a total of EUR 124 million to creating over 10 000 additional student places in higher education institutions between 2020 and 2022 to tackle the shortage of professionals in various disciplines and regions. The number of student places available in higher education will be increased to reduce the backlog of applicants (European Commission, 2021). New places have already been added, especially in ECEC (400 new places), speech therapy and psychology.

2. Early childhood education and care

Finland offers high quality ECEC, but participation is still below average. ECEC in Finland combines a low children-to-staff ratio with high qualifications of ECEC teachers to ensure that children get sufficient attention from trained staff. The ECEC participation of children between age 3 and the compulsory primary education age is increasing. In 2021, 90.6% of children participated in ECEC, bringing Finland closer to the EU average of 92.5%⁷, but still below the EU-level target of 96%. The ECEC participation of children under 3 was 40% in 2022, approaching the national Barcelona target (45%)⁸.

Children from low-income households are less likely to participate in ECEC. The participation gap, especially between the participation in ECEC of children under 3 from low-income households and of children from more affluent households, is around 30 pps (OECD, 2020b). ECEC fees, based on family income, do not apply to low-income families. Still, the fees paid cover only a part of the full cost of ECEC, and together with the child home-care allowance⁹, this is seen as a possible impediment to Finland’s reaching its ECEC participation target.

Finland has a nationwide shortage of about 6 000 ECEC teachers. The shortage is mainly in the Uusimaa region¹⁰. The shortage of qualified ECEC teachers has prompted the City of Helsinki to increase financial support for families with children in private ECEC institutions (HS, 2022). Since 2018, the number of places on ECEC teacher training programmes has been continuously increased. Currently over 1 000 places are available each year. In addition to increasing the number of places, universities have created more flexible and shorter educational paths for people who have other higher education degrees or ECEC qualifications.

4. School education

The budget cuts of the last decade in education start reverting. Public spending on education was around EUR 14.3 billion in 2021, with the majority spent on comprehensive (primary and lower secondary) school education¹¹. Despite an increase in 2021 of around EUR 0,4 billion for education, general government expenditure as a proportion of GDP (5.7%) slightly decreased by 0.2 pps compared to 2021 and remains far below what it was in 2015 (6.2%). The OAJ trade union has asked for spending levels to be raised to those of neighbouring countries. The Ministry of Education and Culture’s (MINEDU’s) (2023a) Education Policy Report emphasised that Finland could not afford not to invest in education and research as this would result in its lagging behind the countries it wants to compare itself to and compete with. More investment is requested by stakeholders, but not necessarily supported by the general public. According to the Eurobarometer survey, fewer people in Finland than on average in the EU think that the government should spend more on education (39% vs 68%)¹².

Reading performance, while of a high standard, is affected by children’s socio-economic status. The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) shows that, on average, Finnish fourth graders¹³ perform better in reading than the EU-19 average (549 points vs 527), the highest average score in the EU (European Commission, 2023a). The proportion of low-achieving pupils in reading literacy is the second lowest of the participating EU education systems (16% vs the EU-19 average of 23%). That said, socio-economic status is a strong predictor of reading performance, and Finland is not an exception: children from families with higher socio-economic status score 571 points on average, while children from families with lower socio-economic status score 490 points. This is broadly in line with EU trends.

Figure 1: Reading performance difference by socio-economic status, PIRLS 2021

The proportion of early leavers from education and training (ELET) varies a lot depending on geographic location and gender. Finland’s average ELET rate was 8.4% in 2022¹⁴ (0.2 pps more than in 2021), still below the EU average of 9.6%. It increased significantly in the Uusimaa region, from 6.3% to 8.2%, but decreased significantly in the Etelä-Suomi region, from 11.4% to 8.2%¹⁵. Overall, ELET rates continue to be much higher in rural areas (11.7%) than in cities (6.5%)¹⁶. Fewer young women (6.4%) than men (10.3%) leave education and training early. The gender gap (3.9 pps) has doubled since 2012 (1.7 pps), due to a greater decrease in women’s ELET rates. The difference in ELET rates according to country of birth increased in 2022 compared to 2021: more foreign-born young people (16.3% vs 13.4%) discontinue education, while the ELET rate for young people born in Finland (native) remained stable (7.6% vs 7.7%)¹⁷.

Figure 2: Early leavers from education and training (18-24 years) by country of birth, by degree of urbanisation and by gender, 2022

Experts recommend reforms and policy measures to improve the quality and inclusiveness of ECEC and school education. Finland made progress in implementing several policies, under the Right to Learn programme¹⁸, to improve the quality of, and equity in, ECEC and in basic education (OECD, 2022b). The final report of one of the working groups under the Right to Learn programme contains proposals for measures to promote child support, and support for learning and school attendance and inclusion in ECEC, pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education (MINEDU, 2022). With the support of the EU‘s Technical Support Instrument multi-country project (together with Ireland), Finland will implement strategies to develop an inclusive school culture and address regional differences to ensure quality inclusive education for all children.

Digitalisation in comprehensive schools is slowly progressing, but digital technology is still rarely used in schools. The DigiVOO study, done jointly by the University of Helsinki and Tampere University, looked at the impact of digitalisation on learning situations, learning, and learning outcomes (Oinas et al., 2023). Teachers reported that digital technology was rarely used in teaching. Lessons using digital tools had usually been pre-designed by the teacher, with learning mostly focused on repeating learned content. Students were rarely active users of digital tools. The study found that digital technology was more targeted and used by students with special needs, students from an immigrant background, and students with low education outcomes. Learning situations using digital devices and environments did not differ significantly from situations without digital devices. However, in many cases the digital delivery of lessons had a positive impact on group dynamics and students’ motivation.

4. Vocational education and training

VET continues to be an attractive study choice and most students in medium-level education take part in vocational programmes. In 2021, 67.3% of all upper secondary school students were enrolled in VET¹⁹. In 2022, four out of five (80.1%) of recent mid-level VET graduates were employed, exceeding the EU average of 79.7%²⁰. Most (77.4% in 2022) recent graduates benefited from work-based learning²¹ during their VET. This figure is relatively high compared to the EU average of 60.1%.

Finland is working to improve the accessibility and quality of the VET system. The Finnish national implementation plan has set national objectives for VET and lifelong learning until 2040 (Finnish government, 2021). To achieve these objectives, MINEDU conducted a project to develop upper secondary education, with the aim of increasing its accessibility and quality across Finland²². As part of its recovery and resilience plan (RRP), it has developed a labour and skills forecasting system for the last quarter of 2023 to strengthen its capacity to anticipate the skills needed by the working age population.

To further support the high quality and attractiveness of VET, in 2022 MINEDU allocated EUR 70 million to 115 VET providers²³ to recruit teachers and instructors under the “Quality and Equality in Vocational Education and Training program” (Oikeus osata). In 2022, the development programme for the sustainable development and green transition of VET supported 10 projects on sustainability practices for a total of EUR 3.5 million. VASKI is the largest of these projects, with a total budget of EUR 2.5 million and 61 participating training providers, to be completed in 2023²⁴.

Finland supports the internationalisation of VET. Since autumn 2022, a new optional qualification unit has been set up in all upper secondary VET programmes to give students the skills they need to work in international environments . It improves learner language and communication skills and familiarises them with international work environments, cultures and societies.

5. Higher education

Tertiary educational attainment (TEA) has been stagnating for years. In 2022, TEA rates were 40.7% (0.6 pps more than in 2021), below the EU average of 42%²⁶ and the EU-level target of (45%). The rate has been relatively stable over the last 10 years, around 40%. Regional differences in TEA rates remain significant (from 35.3% to 47.7%)²⁷. The gap by country of birth is significant (30.2% of foreign-born students vs 42.4% of native-born)²⁸. The TEA rates gender gap in 2022 persists in favour of women (46.9%) vs men (34.9%).

Work on a common standard for micro-credentials at higher education institutions has started. The creation of the Digivision 2030 programme in 2020 forms the basis of the reform²⁹, which will be steered and monitored by a parliamentary committee, labour market organisations, education providers and other key organisations and ministries. As part of the reform, MINEDU and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment have jointly established the Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment, which is tasked with, for example, analysing the skills and labour market needs of working life, and the financial management of education and training activities for working-age people. MINEDU and Tampere University also participate in several European Erasmus+ projects for the creation of a common European framework for micro-credentials (Microbol, MicroHe, Microcredx³⁰).

The 2018 reform of admission to higher education has had a positive impact. The reform’s aim is to streamline the transition to higher education and improve the allocation of student places to better match the students’ choices. The preliminary results of the reform (Higher Education Authority [HEA], 2022) show that it has made it easier to apply for a study place for both first-time applicants and those who have already been allocated a place in higher education but want to change studies. It has enabled more students to get access to tertiary studies, albeit in a subject that might not have been their first choice. Once enrolled, many students then applied the following year to study their first choice. The report points out, however, that the changes observed are not necessarily the result of the reform, but of other things, such as the COVID-19 epidemic and the creation of additional student places in higher education institutions (Ministry of Education and Culture (MINEDU), 2021b).

A new scoring system for certificate-based admissions to universities³¹. A proposal for a new scoring system that considers students’ matriculation examination results, opened for consultation in early April (VYOK, 2023), was published in September 2023. The new scoring model is to be used in student admissions from 2026 onwards.

6. Adult learning

The current adult learning system is well developed and learning opportunities are offered through a wide variety of providers in Finland. Lifelong learning is popular and considered part of Finnish identity. This is also reflected in the comparatively high percentage of participation in learning by the adult population. Of Finland’s population aged 25-64, 25.2% participated in education and training in 2022. This was a decrease from 30.5% in 2021 but was still 13.3 pps above the EU average of 11.9%³².

Finland has set a national EU headline 2030 target of 60% of adults participating in learning every year (54.1% in 2016). Finland is doing very well compared to other EU countries, with an annual participation rate of slightly over 50%, according to the Adult Education Survey. With the current system working well and reporting high attendance, a key challenge is to adopt the right approach and measures to reach the national target.

Education in Finland has seen intense development in the last few years. Finland has addressed its current and expected skills shortages by introducing a reform of continuous learning (included in the RRP), focusing on the needs of working life (MINEDU, 2023b). The government has also made equal access and non-discriminatory plans mandatory at all levels of education, including adult education. In 2019-2023 term, several initiatives were launched for adults with low basic skills and disadvantaged groups, including a review of disadvantaged groups’ challenges in education (Finnish government, 2019).

The ESF+ promotes lifelong learning and reskilling/upskilling of the labour force, with investments worth EUR 183 million. The ESF+ will support the development of comprehensive lifelong training services and make education and training accessible to all. The Just Transition Fund invests around EUR 20 million in supporting skills development for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship in regions that are hit hardest by the adverse effects of the low-carbon transition.