Vocational education also benefits from digitalisation – Kpedu gets a new digital strategy
The Federation of Education in Central Ostrobothnia Kpedu was impressed by Netum’s strong competence in the education sector. A digivision and roadmap are used to build a digital operating environment that makes the everyday life of both students and teachers easier.
Kpedu offers vocational upper secondary education to more than five thousand students in four locations: Kokkola, Kannus, Kaustinen and Perho. The federation also includes a folk high school in Kälviä. In addition, Kpedu produces shorter training courses and recruitment assistance for companies in the province.
Although vocational education takes place mainly in physical spaces – not only in a classroom but also in a workshop, kitchen and stable, for example – digitalisation also offers opportunities for developing vocational education, says Niina Patrikainen, Data Management Manager at Kpedu.
- "We have implemented various knowledge management and digitalisation projects for years. However, we lacked a bigger vision of the overall picture of digitalisation, a digital strategy. We wanted external assistance with this," says Patrikainen.
Kpedu decided to implement a digital strategy with Netum. A few years ago, we had a positive experience with a data storage project with Cerion, which has now merged into Netum.
- "We quickly noticed that Netum speaks the same language as us. Netum was familiar with the education sector, and the project manager had a strong background in the digitalisation of learning environments. Consultants often need to be taught to understand the world of vocational schools, but now there was no need for that at all," Patrikainen says.
Everyone is involved
Before joining Netum, Management Consultant Johanna Lammi had a long career in the higher education sector and change management. Lammi, who worked as the project manager for Kpedu’s digital strategy work, emphasises the human aspect of digitalisation.
- "Digitalisation is not an intrinsic value, but a tool for achieving, for example, better quality, cost savings or more meaningful use of time. We wanted to find concrete ways for every Kpedu employee and student to benefit from digitalisation," says Lammi.
The work began in the spring of 2024 with two workshops, for which the participants in Kpedu were given preliminary tasks. It was particularly important for Lammi to identify the people affected by the change projects.
- "We also wanted to involve information management staff in the workshops so that we could get the voices of others than the management heard. The discussion in the workshops turned out to be rich, and trust played a key role. Trust is only created by listening and being present," Lammi says.
The final workshop took place in autumn. In addition to Kpedu’s management and information management, HR and communications experts and people responsible for pedagogical development and the working life community participated in the workshop. The result was a digivision and roadmap for the coming years. The digivision defines four strategic goals, each with its own responsible parties and development projects with schedules.
There is plenty to do, but Patrikainen is already enthusiastically rolling up her sleeves.
- "The best thing about digivision is that it takes all levels of our operations into account. I can discuss it with the management team, but also with each teacher affected by a project," says Patrikainen.
Better learning paths for students
Patrikainen believes that digitalisation will bring not only concrete tools for learning the profession, such as VR simulators, but also new opportunities for expanding the training offering with online courses, for example.
- "Educational institutions will also be able to build completely new kinds of ecosystems among themselves. We can offer students an even more diverse learning path," says Patrikainen.
Patrikainen is pleased that Kpedu joined the project.
- "The workshops were prepared to a very high standard, and the materials we received afterwards were carefully analysed. Everything that was agreed was also implemented, and we constantly had a common understanding of where we are heading. I can't help but thank you," says Patrikainen.
Cooperation also worked well from Netum’s point of view. According to Lammi, Kpedu’s management was exceptionally committed to the project, which made Netum’s work easier.
Netum’s strength lies in the ability to offer the customer a full range of services, from management consulting to technical development.
- "At best, we can take the whole journey together with the customer, from the first observations to strategic visioning and technical development, not forgetting the support of change management," says Lammi.