Popularity of open university of applied sciences education continued growing in 2019

The popularity of open university of applied sciences education continued growing in 2019. The number of participants in open university of applied sciences education increased by 46 per cent to close on 67,000 participants and the number of teaching hours grew by 59 per cent to 1,416,000 teaching hours. These data derive from education statistics compiled by Statistics Finland.

Educational institutions’ adult education not leading to a qualification by type of education in 2019

Type of education	Participants (gross)	Change in participants in 2018 to 2019, %	Women %	Teaching hours	Change in teaching hours in 2018 to 2019, %
Other vocational education, education to intensify or supplement professional competence	40 829	. ²⁾	45	252 381	. ²⁾
Other vocational education, preparatory education for a professional task	262	. ²⁾	45	13 423	. ²⁾
Employment training for adults	22 589	5	46	431 085	-3
Courses ordered by the employer	134 184	2	46	313 045	2
Education organised as liberal adult education	1 564 948	-3	73	2 738 959	-1
Open university of applied sciences	66 745	46	64	1 415 602	59
Open university teaching ¹⁾	35 011	4	79	57 083	0
Other education	69 445	-21	59	473 569	9
Total	1 934 013	.	69	5 695 147	.

1) Excl. data on open university teaching implemented by the universities themselves.
2) The new types of education, advanced or supplementary vocational education and training and preparatory education and training for a particular vocational task, started from 2019. The previous time series ended with the year 2019.

The increased supply of courses has influenced the growing popularity of open university of applied sciences education. Students have the opportunity to advance to degree students through so-called study paths in the open university of applied sciences education. The supply of open university of applied sciences education has also been promoted by the financing model of higher education institutions, where completed studies at universities of applied sciences have an effect on their financing.

The legislation concerning vocational education was amended starting from 2018, and as a result, arranging of further vocational education and further vocational education carried out as apprenticeship training has ended and the compilation of statistics on these types of education has been discontinued. Instead, statistics on other advanced or supplementary vocational education and training and preparatory vocational education and training for a particular vocational task are compiled as new types of education. Advanced or supplementary vocational education and training refers to vocational education that is not aimed at completing a qualification or part of a qualification, and which advances or supplements vocational skills, for example, completion of education required for a hygiene passport or a hot work certificate. Preparatory vocational education and training for a particular vocational task refers to vocational education that is not aimed at completing a qualification or part of a qualification and which prepares for the tasks of commercial and airline transport pilots, air traffic controllers or urban rail traffic drivers. A total of 41,000 persons participated in other advanced or supplementary education and training and the teaching hours amounted to 252,000 hours. A total of 260 persons participated in preparatory vocational education and training for a particular vocational task and 13,000 hours of teaching were given.

The number of participants in labour market training increased by five per cent and that of teaching hours declined by three per cent compared to the previous year. There were 23,000 participants and 431,000 teaching hours in 2019.

Nearly 1.6 million persons participated in education organised as liberal adult education and teaching hours amounted to close on 2.8 million hours. The volume of education organised as liberal adult education contracted slightly: the number of participants was three per cent lower and the number of teaching hours was one per cent lower than in the previous year.

In total, educational institutions arranged slightly more education not leading to a qualification in 2019 than in the previous year. In 2019, the number of hours of teaching was 5.7 million, which is 14 per cent up from the year before. The number of participants (gross number of students) amounted to nearly two million, which is one per cent lower than in the previous year. As in the previous year, 69 per cent of the participants were women. The share of women among participants varied considerably by type of education: the share of women among students was lowest in advanced or supplementary vocational education and training and preparatory vocational education and training for a particular vocational task (45 per cent women in both) and highest in open university education (79 per cent women).

Close on one-half of all hours taught in education not leading to a qualification were given in education organised as liberal adult education, and 25 per cent as open university of applied sciences education. Labour market training covered eight per cent of all teaching hours. Good four out of five of all participants studied in education arranged as liberal education, seven per cent in education ordered by employers and three per cent in open university of applied sciences education.

The gross number of students in education organised as liberal adult education was 1.6 million and their net number was nearly 900,000. A person is included (as participant) in the gross number of students from each education he/she studies. Thus, a student can be included more than once in the number of students in one or more educational institutions during the calendar year. In net numbers of students one person is included only once.

The highest share (26 per cent) of all the teaching hours in adult education not leading to a qualification was given in the field of culture, where the most popular subjects were music, and crafts and design. Popular fields of education were also social, health and sports, where 21 per cent of hours were taught, and humanities and education with 15 per all cent of hours taught. These subjects have been popular from one year to the next.

In 2019, students in basic level education outside comprehensive school (upper secondary general schools, folk high schools, adult education centres and vocational institutes) numbered 5,183, of whom 4,708 were in basic education, that is, studying the full comprehensive school curriculum and 475 attended additional education (10th grade).

More detailed information on educational institutions’ adult education can be found in the database tables .

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tarja Seppänen 029 551 3220, Helena Aaltonen 029 551 2697, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Appendix tables

Appendix table 1. Educational institutions adult education not leading to a qualification by main content and type of education in 2019 (10.12.2020)

Updated 10.12.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Adult education of educational institutions [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-4551. 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.11.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/oaiop/2019/oaiop_2019_2020-12-10_tie_001_en.html