The Board of Education inspects the Jedu Vocational College, which has attracted mainly Russian students, on the commission of the Ministry.
Foreigners the questionable flow of language-impaired students to the northern Poznań vocational school has led to official action.
The Board of Education conducts an extraordinary audit of the activities and finances of the Jokilaaksoje educational municipality group, or Jedu, which operates in the area of seven municipalities south of Oulu.
The inspection by the end of the year concerns students attracted to Jeduu from third countries.
Among other things, Jedu is suspected of accepting students who do not know Finnish at all, even though it is only licensed to organize teaching in Finnish. The educational institution should make sure that the student has sufficient conditions to complete the desired degree.
Helsingin sanomat newspaper told at the beginning of January, how Jedu has especially attracted Russian students in recent years.
Dead-end students who did not take the Finnish language test required for a place of study have also been accepted as students.
In addition to free studies in Finland, students from third countries can receive free housing and student meals.
The Board of Education chief director Petri Lempinen says that the attention of the authorities was attracted by Jedu's greatly expanded group of clearly language-impaired students from third countries.
According to Lempinen, if only people who speak their own mother tongue are accepted to study, the question arises as to whether the education can certainly be organized as planned and whether the students will achieve the desired professional skills.
The education authorities received information about the problems related to Jedu at the turn of November and December.
“Other authorities have come to know that there have been various problems there. They cannot be opened any further, because they are not public matters,” says Lempinen.
Is it a tip from the Immigration Office Migri?
“It's not about Migri,” says Lempinen.
And is it the police?
“It could possibly be the police.”
Jeduu's inspection is not routine, but is done exceptionally by the decision and mandate of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
“I have been in this position for three years, and there have been no other similar assignments during that time,” says Lempinen.
I eat manager Matti Väänänen justifies the intense recruitment of foreign students with the region's labor shortage.
That's what Jedu tried to facilitate, for example, with the EU-funded Ulpo project it managed for 2020–2023, which was one of the routes for foreign students to Jedu.
Through Ulpo, which paid around 380,000 euros, a total of 215 students came to Jedu, mainly from Russia, but also from Asia and Africa. They came to Finland with a student residence permit, even though many of them practically immediately went to work and even though they did not have the required Finnish language skills.
The education authorities are particularly interested in the criteria on which Ulpo's students were selected and what kind of learning and training agreements were made with them.
If deficiencies are found in Jedu's operation, the educational institution may have to to restore state subsidies paid without justification.
Väänänen emphasizes that Ulpo's results were nevertheless good.
The final report of the project was completed in early summer 2023. The survey conducted for the report reached 200 of the 215 foreigners who participated in Ulpo. Of them, 137 people said they were working or in apprenticeship training, and 47 people were studying. About 30 participants in the project were either unreachable or unemployed.
HS information according to some Jedu employees were already worried in the summer of 2022 that a large number of Russian students who could not speak Finnish started coming to the educational institution. However, the employees felt that their care was not taken seriously.
When the authorities became interested in Jedu's activities at the end of last year, the educational institution corrected its activities. Since the turn of the year, Jedu's student selection has been handled by the joint application service unit of all locations.
Previously, Jedu's seven different operating units used their discretion in student selection, which led to “different interpretations”, according to Väänänen. However, according to Väänänen, Jedu had planned to unify the application process even before the authorities contacted.
Despite the repair shop, even at the beginning of this year, according to the Keski-Pohjanmaa newspaper, Chinese students who did not speak Finnish came to Jedu's Kalajoen unit.
Education director of the Kalajoen unit Esa Siirilä confirms to HS that seven Chinese tourism students started in Jedus in January, whose teaching is organized in English.
“It could be that choices were made last year and people were invited who have now come. I know that it can happen and has happened, but it wouldn't happen again,” says Matti Väänänen.
There have been foreign students in Jedus, especially in the units of Kalajoki, Haapavesi and Oulaiten. Väänänen estimates that in Oulaiin the selection of students has “certainly been strict”, but in Kalajoki and Haapavedi the units have used their discretion more freely.
Keskipohjanm
aa magazine in the interview The Board of Education's Lempinen hoped for an open discussion about foreign students. He asked whether the limited resources should be used to educate the population living in the country instead of attracting foreigners.
In Lempinen's opinion, it is also questionable that educational institutions suffering from a shortage of students look for foreign students in order to fill up the Training Places and thereby receive state funding.
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