Assessment of learning outcomes in Finnish vocational education and training

Abstract

This article provides an outline and critical review of assessment, an evaluation of learning outcomes, in vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. Assessment of VET is formative, development-orientated and criteria-based. There are no national tests and information from vocational skills demonstrations is used instead. Assessment targets are individual and communal learning focusing on processes instead of reports. Interactive, multifaceted assessments and qualitative methods promote learning and are based on trust – not control. The developmental assessment of learning outcomes started as an experiment in 2002 and as a permanent system in 2007. The whole process has been included and still includes also many challenges of methods, which this article tries to open.

Keywords:

• evaluation and assessment of learning outcomes
• developmental assessment and evaluation
• skills demonstrations in VET
• Finnish evaluation system of VET

Notes

1. In the Finnish language, the same term (arviointi) is used when speaking of individual student assessment, assessment of learning outcomes, and summative system evaluation; the latter includes, among other things, the national evaluation of learning outcomes. In this article, we use the term assessment where there is no particular need to distinguish between types of activity, system evaluation for activity designed to collect summative data at a national or community level, and student assessment for activity designed to collect data on individual student achievement.