HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences and EduCluster Finland Ltd continue pioneering work in education export. It is hoped that education export will become the next export success story for Finland. The HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences and EduCluster Finland Ltd will continue their solid co-operation with the Saudi Arabian Technical and Vocation Training Corporation (TVTC) that started a year ago.

In September, a couple of dozen Saudi Arabian vocational teachers will arrive in Finland for three months. The education will be organised by the HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences and EduCluster Finland Ltd, which belongs to the University of Jyväskylä Group.

The Saudi Arabian teachers will be presented with the best sides of Finnish teacher education. The three-month programme has been tailored to meet the needs of TVTC and aims to provide the participants with skills to develop their own expertise by familiarising them with the most recent methods and practices of Finnish education competence and teaching.

“Finnish education competence is already very well known in different parts of the world. Our strong points lie in education areas where Finnish education competence is valued. A solid teacher education is precisely one of the education areas that we need to market to the rest of the world,” says Ritva Laakso-Manninen, President at HAAGA-HELIA.

The Saudi Arabian education markets are experiencing a strong growth

Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) is the national provider of technical and vocational education in Saudi Arabia. It comprises over 100 different institutes that currently have approximately 180,000 students in total.

The education programme that will start this autumn is considered as the next step in the co-operation that started last year and it is hoped that it will develop into a long-term strategic partnership in the education co-operation between Finland and Saudi Arabia.

“Possibilities for global export of education will increase as more and more countries invest increasing amounts in education and competence. This is evident in many of the Middle Eastern countries, in particular. Even though competition is internationally tough, I believe that we Finns in particular have great prerequisites for exporting tailor-made education packages,” says Elise Tarvainen, Business Director at EduCluster.

A fair wind for exporting education has also been provided by the Government decision-in-principle made last year on making Finland one of the world’s leading countries in education and education system competence. Another goal is to significantly increase the share of education of Finland's total exports by 2015.


Further information:
Ritva Laakso-Manninen, President, HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences, tel. +358 50 364 7839
Elise Tarvainen, Business Director, EduCluster Finland Ltd, +358 50 440 7989