Omnia Education Partnerships

What can VET professionals learn from Finland's approach to career guidance?

Following our study visit in Finland, we have published two new articles exploring the practices, insights, and lessons that make the Finnish model a reference in supporting learners' career development.

🔗 Discover the key takeaways from the CG International study visit: https://careerguidanceinternational.com/cg-international-partners-explore-finlands-lifelong-approach-to-career-guidance/

🔗 Read Uniser's perspective on the Finnish career guidance system: https://uniserblog.net/2026/04/14/what-vet-teachers-and-students-can-learn-from-the-finnish-career-guidance-system/

Mundus (Spain), Uniser (Italy), Omnia Education Partnerships (Finland) CINOP (The Netherlands), APPK - Agjensioni i Përkrahjes së Punësimit Kosovë (Kosovo), SHMT "Lutfi Musiqi" Vushtrri (Kosovo) ЈУ Средња стручна школа Пљевља (Montenegro) Tirana College of Technology (Albania)

As part of the LDC Future Forum in Helsinki, Omnia and Kuninkaantie Upper Secondary School welcomed international guests to experience Finnish vocational and upper secondary education in practice.

The visits opened valuable discussions on inclusion, public-private partnerships, future skills, and on how education providers can equip young people with the competences, confidence and pathways needed for the changing world of work.
International forums like this create space for meaningful exchange, strengthen professional networks, and bring together diverse perspectives to co-create the next generation of education solutions.💡

A warm thank you to all visitors, hosts and partners for the inspiring discussions and shared commitment to building more inclusive and future-oriented education systems.

How do we make vocational education a pathway of opportunity — not a fallback option?

During a recent visit to Finland, a 40-member education delegation from Telangana explored how Finnish VET supports flexible learning, progression, mentorship, and stronger links between vocational and academic pathways.

The programme also included an ex tempore visit to Omnia, hosted and led by OEP. It was a valuable opportunity to see Finnish vocational education in practice and discuss how system-level ideas can be adapted to local priorities.

At OEP, we believe international exchange is most useful when it leads to practical reflection:
What can be adapted?

What needs to be redesigned?

What will genuinely improve learner outcomes?

Thank you to the Telangana delegation for an open and meaningful exchange.

Some highlights from the past weeks!

OEP Experts had the pleasure of supporting Omnia, Espoon seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä in hosting a 13-member delegation from Cambodia in Finland. The internship programme was part of the 36-month EU initiative “Supporting Upper-Secondary Technical Education Reforms in Cambodia”, carried out in collaboration with France, Germany, and Finland. Finland is leading the component on Work-Based Learning, with Omnia, Espoon seudun koulutuskuntayhtymä, playing a key role in showcasing the Finnish approach to vocational education.

The delegation included representatives from the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Cambodia)
and Cambodian educational institutions. During the programme, participants explored the Finnish education system and cooperation with working life through job shadowing, expert discussions, and company visits.

Over the course of the internship weeks, the delegation visited several Omnia campuses and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences to discuss topics such as work-based learning, career guidance, and fast-track pathways. The delegation also had the opportunity to visit Nokia, ABB, and Fazer to learn more about their operations, collaboration with educational institutions, and internship opportunities.

The programme also included inspiring visits to Opetushallitus | Utbildningsstyrelsen | Finnish National Agency for Education, Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö/Undervisnings- och kulturministeriet/Ministry of Education & Culture, Aalto Design Factory, Yrityskylä, and a local primary school.

A warm thank you to all delegation members for the inspiring discussions, knowledge sharing, and wonderful moments together during these sunny spring weeks in Finland. We would also like to thank all our partner organisations and visit hosts for welcoming us and sharing their expertise.

Special thanks as well to Omnia’s media students, who joined the programme throughout the internship period to capture photos and videos as part of their own work-based learning placement — most of the photos featured in this post were taken by the students. 📸

We look forward to continuing the collaboration and building on everything learned during these meaningful weeks together.

🌳 The Erasmus+ GreenVET project has officially come to an end — but its impact continues.

💡 One of the key outcomes of the project is the open GreenVET platform and resource database, which remain available online for vocational education and training professionals everywhere.

Through the GreenVET database, VET teachers, school leaders, administrators, and other education professionals can:

✔️ Search for sustainability-related resources shared by colleagues around the world
✔️ Access teaching materials, reports, articles, videos, podcasts, best practices, and practical tools
✔️ Explore resources in multiple languages
✔️ Upload their own materials and contribute to the wider GreenVET community

The project has supported VET institutions in taking a Whole Institution Approach to sustainability — looking not only at what is taught, but also at how sustainability is reflected in school culture, leadership, operations, learning environments, and community engagement.

For OEP, GreenVET has been a valuable example of international cooperation that creates something lasting: practical resources, shared knowledge, and a platform that continues to support education professionals beyond the project timeline.

The project has ended, but the platform remains open - and its value will be determined by the people who use it!

We warmly encourage all VET and education professionals to explore the database, use the resources, and share their own examples with colleagues across the world.

Explore the GreenVET database from the link below! 👇

https://green-vet.eu/content/database.php

When your promise is “making global best practice your next practice,” you don’t study excellence from a distance. You go and see it in action.

In January, we were honoured to visit the International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA) in Dubai. ICCA is an institution that, over the past 20 years, has continuously redefined what a world-class culinary school can look like.

What impressed us most was not only the polish of the facilities, the strong industry integration, or the clarity of standards across the learning environment. It was the mindset. Despite already operating at a very high level, development has not slowed. New elements are added. Processes are refined. Standards are revisited. Excellence is treated as a moving target, not a fixed destination.

This is what it looks like:
✔ Alignment between vision and practice
✔ Industry relevance embedded in delivery
✔ Infrastructure that supports pedagogy
✔ Continuous renewal, even after success Benchmarking is not about admiration. It is about learning with discipline and translating insight into your own next practice.

Thank you to the ICCA team for the openness and professional exchange.

At this time, we also want to recognise the current situation in Dubai and send our warmest wishes to our colleagues and partners there. We are thinking of you and hope for safety, strength, and calm in the days ahead.

Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting the study visit of project CG International in Finland🇫🇮

Over three days, we explored how career guidance is embedded across the Finnish education and employment system, from legislation and school-level practices to innovation environments and employment services.

Highlights from the visit:
🔹 Career guidance as a lifelong right, supported by strong cross-sector collaboration
🔹 Practical examples from Finnish schools and higher education
🔹 Innovation ecosystems like A Grid and Omnia Makerspace
🔹 Workshops translating learning into concrete action plans for VET institutions

The visit was not only about learning, but also about sharing experiences, building connections, and shaping the future of career guidance together.

A big thank you to all participants and speakers for three inspiring days!

This past year reminded us that meaningful learning does not depend on everyone speaking the same language.

In our latest blog post, we share lessons from delivering multilingual training with Palestinian education professionals, and how interpretation, thoughtful design, and simple tech tools helped make the experience interactive, accessible, and impactful.

A good reminder that when the methodology is strong, language becomes something to work through, not something that stands in the way.💡

Read more:

Lessons from a Year of Multilingual Training - Omnia Education Partnerships Explore OEP’s lessons from a year of multilingual workshops and study visits, combining interpretation, AI tools, and interactive learning design.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation of 27 education and career guidance professionals from the Podkarpackie region in Poland to Omnia 🇵🇱🇫🇮

During the visit, OEP’s Mika Heino shared insights into the Finnish VET system and Omnia’s approach to aligning education with labour market needs. The programme also included a campus tour, offering a closer look at Omnia’s learning environments and practical training facilities.

Thank you for the engaging discussions and inspiring exchange of ideas – we truly value international collaboration and peer learning 🤝

How can vocational education drive real change towards sustainability?🌱

Join us at the GreenVET Pathway Final Conference to discover practical tools, inspiring examples, and concrete actions for whole-institution transformation in VET. The event will take place online on 20 March 2026, from 11:00 to 13:00 CET (12:00–14:00 EET).

As a proud partner in the project, OEP has contributed to developing the GreenVET database and other key outputs that help schools advance their sustainability work.

👉 Registration and full agenda coming soon!