Budget | The 120 million cut is intended to be aimed at people changing industries – It can still hit young people as well

Government cuts 120 million euros from vocational training. The cut is intended to target students who already have a secondary degree or a higher degree.

The government has therefore promised that the cut will not affect young students completing their first degree. However, it is practically impossible to avoid it, says the head of the education policy of the trade union OAJ Nina Lahtinen.

“Even if it were said that the surgery is aimed at those who have a second degree, it is actually really difficult. Funding has not been earmarked between adults and compulsory school students,” says Lahtinen.

OAJ according to the calculations, 120 million means, for example, a reduction of about 1,600 teachers.

“If there are fewer teachers, there will be less teaching, and there will be less from everyone they teach.”

Chairman of the association of students studying for a profession, Sakki ry Patrick Tanner says the cuts are raising fears about the quality of teaching.

“We are already hoping for more classroom teaching, and the concern is that the cuts will make the situation worse.”

Tanner also wonders how the surgeries can be targeted only at adult students.

“Those taking their first and second degrees sit in exactly the same classes.”

In spring there is already a government proposal for the decided cut of 100 million euros. According to it, targeting is intended to be done so that education organizers are given permission to offer fewer study places than before. Thus, they can allocate study places to those who do not already have a degree.

Director General of the Ministry of Education and Culture Petri Lempinen According to VET, there are very different educational institutions in the field of vocational education: in some, almost all the students are young compulsory students, while in others there are many adult students who already have a degree.

According to Lempinen, the cuts are intended to be targeted especially at the latter educational institutions. He does not take a position on which educational institutions are in question and whether their entire operation may be threatened due to the cuts.

According to OAJ’s Lahtinen, there are plenty of adults in adult education centers, for example. There are a dozen of them in Finland. In total, half of the vocational education students are adults, which means that there are plenty of adults in other educational institutions as well.

And even if the cut is mainly aimed at educational institutions where the majority of students are adults, this also causes problems, according to Lahtinen.

“120 million euros is such a large amount of money that the operation of these educational institutions threatens to end.”

Adult it doesn’t make sense to cut back on studying at all, says Lahtinen.

“In this situation where there is a skills shortage. If we get, say, large orders for shipyards in Finland, then who will build those ships there if we don’t make it possible to change jobs and retrain?”

Lahtinen points out that adult education has already been cut before, when the government abolished adult education support. According to Lahtinen, a quarter of its users studied in vocational training.

“Adult education is now being kicked in the head with a job. The government lacks a vision of how adult education can be organized.”

Also The Central Chamber of Commerce is concerned about the effects of the cut on companies. According to the Central Chamber of Commerce, people’s opportunities for training should be strengthened so that companies can get the workforce they need.

“Without skilled professionals and effective integration, the skills shortage can become a bottleneck for future growth”, the leading expert of the Central Chamber of Commerce Suvi Pulkkinen says in the announcement.