Challenging year brought out inventiveness
Due to the corona pandemic, all our continuous education in Finland and abroad went online practically overnight. The change did not happen by itself but required additional work and ability to learn new practices from customers, teachers and the continuous education team. We can however be proud of the final result: TAMK’s continuous education ran in an exemplary manner in 2020.
TAMK’s Global Education team faced quite a special challenge when borders were closed. After a short quiet phase, education export went online too – and the work continues there at high speed.
Tree: universities community’s continuous education services from one place
In 2020, the largest change in continuous education was that TAMK’s continuing education unit, TAMK EDU, became Tree – Continuous Education. Both TAMK’s and Tampere University’s continuous education services, such as continuing education, education export and open university, can now be found under Tree.
Tampere University’s and TAMK’s continuous education teams have their own education provisions and employees but their communications and marketing take place under the joint name Tree.
Popularity of open UAS continued to grow
In 2020, more than 20,000 credits were completed in the open UAS. By means of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s additional funding, we could offer free studies in October-December for the unemployed, laid-off and joint application applicants who did not receive a study place in higher education. Thanks to the campaign, more than 500 target group members could study open UAS courses free of charge.
New education pilots
Public financiers’ interest in new working life oriented education types and digitalisation themes increased. We had the chance to plan and open for application three diplomas of higher education for 2021. Their themes are smart industry, full stack development and IoT systems.
Diplomas of higher education are narrower than degree studies, but still extensive trainings. They are designed to meet the changing needs of working life. Diplomas of higher education may suit people who search for continuing education or do not have the required basic training for degree studies. The diplomas were piloted in other universities of applied sciences.
Text: Maria Kasdaglis. Editing: TAMK Communications Services.
Photo: Saara Lehtonen
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