Thursday, October 13, 2016

Thursday, October 13th

We started the day in the school with some team-building sports activities. We had the chance to play floorball and basketball with all of the participating students. Besides getting to know each other better, we could burn some calories. After a short pause, we learnt a bit Finnish language from the Finnish students, so now we can start a short conversation, introduce ourselves or ask if we are going to the sauna. After we ate in the school canteen, we visited a local company called DINOlift. There they gave us an interesting presentation about their job and how they succeed.  Later we walked through the factory and got a first-hand experience of the previously mentioned work.

We all spent the afternoon together by a lake. In the cottage, we could not only play games and hang out, but we tried out some Finnish traditions as well. We used the sauna and right after coming out of it, we jumped into the cold water then we went back. After the delicious dinner, all four countries showed some national dances and taught it. We finished the day with a hunting game in the dark forest, where we had to find our teams colour, and then complete a puzzle. The puzzle was the home country's, Finland's flag. We all would like to say thank you for the amazing day! Kiitos!

Teachers had an extra programme, which was a meeting with the representatives of the local vocational school. We got deep insight into the Finnish education system and the position of the vocational training within. Taking the hairdressers' course as an example we learnt about the structure of the curriculum, the ratio of general and professional subjects, the ratio of theoretical and practical training and the exam requirements. We also talked about the international cooperation with foreign vocational schools that provide on-the-job training opportunities for students. E.g. Erasmus, Kam'oon China, ThaiGo.