Greetings from International Week for Engineering of TAMK 2014

The International Week for Engineering of TAMK was organised on 10-13 February 2014. This was the 4th International Week for Engineering at TAMK. TAMK welcomed 19 colleagues from 13 partner universities from eight countries.

The visiting professors met student groups from nearly all the 11 Degree Programmes in Engineering of TAMK. The two Schools of Engineering hosted their guests on one afternoon and the participants were also invited to attend the project workshops of the International Week for Research, Development and Innovation Services that ran simultaneously with that of Engineering. The social programme included a sightseeing tour in Tampere, visits to Molok.Ltd and Demola, a dinner, a sauna evening, and outdoor activities.

Text: Riku-Matti Kinnunen

International Week for Non-teaching staff 2013

International week participants at Pispalanharju.

TAMK International Week For Non-Teaching Staff ended on Friday the 31st of May and the 34 participants from all over Europe said their goodbyes to Finland, TAMK and new friends. The theme of the week was Intercultural Communication Skills and the programme of the week concentrated on it very effectively.

Finnish-German-French teamwork

The lectures of the week about intercultural communication skills were presented by international coordinator and PhD Ms. Irja Pietilä. During the week programme the guests and TAMK personnel got to study and work together in both theoretical and practical tasks. The group also visited another interesting university at Tampere, the University of Technology.

Irja Pietilä presenting her lecture about intercultural communication

Intense international teamwork during the lecture of Irja Pietilä. Can you find the positive Portuquese João in the picture?

One of the tasks was to draw together as a group, not as easy as it may seem like

A pair of finished group drawings by participants from Finland, France, Czech Republic and Germany. Stunning similarities!

During the programme at TAMK the guests and TAMK participants were divided into seven different Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for example to IT and Library services. During the SIG sessions they compared and shared information, knowledge and experiences of their own fields. Possible future co-operation and projects were also discussed, and hopefully this will be a start or continuation to useful and valuable partnership.

Human resources Special Interest Group discussion

Marketing and Communications SIG sharing information and experiences

After an intense start of the week of working and getting to know each other the participants got to enjoy the recreational parts of the programme as well. Tampere and Finnish culture were also playing a big part in the week programme and the guests got to know a bit about them for example from a sightseeing bus ride in Tampere and in the evening event at restaurant Kaisla located in the harbour Mustalahti. The number one culturally oriented event of the week was nevertheless the day trip to Maisansalo in Teisko, which is located only 30 minutes bus ride from Tampere.

Tuesday evening dinner at the restaurant Kaisla. Great setting and fantastic food!

At Maisansalo the week participants started the day with a lecture from Ms. Pietilä and after it was finished a delicious lunch was served. The lunch consisted of some traditional Finnish dishes, especially the fish dishes were fantastic. After the lunch the group got to try some Finnish summer games like croquet, mölkky and darts. Many visitors also tried nordic walking with our sports specialist from TAMK, Mr. Esko Tirkkonen. Big thanks to Esko for helping with the sports and games, because of him our guests managed to get to know a bit more about the Finnish culture!

TAMK representative Noora Kahra and the guests enjoying a beautiful summer day at Maisansalo

Croquet, a Finnish summer game, also playable in a wheelchair!

Action shot from a Mölkky game.

Most of the guests wanted to try the traditional Finnish smoke sauna offered at Maisansalo, what a nice and exciting atmosphere it was! The regular Finnish sauna also had many users, and the bravest also took a quick swim in the lake even though the temperature of the water was only 12 degrees Celcius. Relaxed smiles in sunshine after the experience were everywhere and the guests would have wanted to stay there for days.

 

A typical Finnish lakeside scenery and swimming after sauna were the favorites of our guests.

Relaxing after sauna

On the final day of the week the guests were asked to summarize what they had learnt about Finland and the topic of intercultural communication skills. The resulting presentations were both funny and full of information and smiling people. Judging from the teams' presentations and guests' feedback it was a really successful week in all aspects! Many thanks to our guests and participating TAMK personnel as well as the organizers and lecturers.

Aww, what a nice message.

A little overview of the week and the experiences of the participants

Summary of our guests' feelings on the last day

Text: Panu Alanko

Photos: Panu Alanko, Noora Kahra & Tuula Härkönen

Coming soon! International Week for Non-Teaching Staff 2013.

The fifth annual International Week for Non-Teaching Staff 2013 is approaching fast! The final preparations and finishing touches are getting done and the participants are counting days, some even hours till their arrival. The week begins in afternoon of Monday the 27th of May and lasts till Friday the 31st. The main topic of the week is "Intercultural Communication Skills", which should be interesting for everyone in the globalizing world of today!

The chaos under control.

Most of the programme at TAMK will be organized at modern premises of the Y-Kampus. Participants from all over Europe will work together and share their knowledge from their own expertise areas. The course will have seven different department expert groups: Library Services, Communications and Marketing Services, Financial Services, Project Management Services, Human Resources Services, Student Employment Services and last but not the least the IT Services.

Y-Kampus premises getting ready for the week.

The total amount of over fifty course attendees from 14 countries will work within their expertese group and with everyone else as well. Other organized events in the programme are for example a daytrip of work and Finnish culture to Maisansalo and a visit to Tampere University of Technology. Exciting!

 

The way we want our international guests to feel!

First things first.

Materials, what materials?

Text and photos: Panu Alanko

Hague University of Applied Sciences: It is possible to feel comfortable there

Travel broadens – and especially visiting a university of applied sciences abroad. My first study trip to Holland made it possible to visit the main campus of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The building impressed even if we only saw a fraction of it.

The ten-year-old campus building is located right at the centre of Hague. According to the staff, it is one of the most magnificent buildings in Holland.

I can’t deny that it stands out from the rest. The clean courtyard area and the round shape of the building make the first impression. Inside the building, the first eye-catchers are the glass roof and the terraces surrounding the light atrium. A couple of steps ahead reveal many interesting details: colours, shapes, spaces, sculptures, paintings, photos.

And people. More than 20 000 thousand people visit the campus daily, in the atrium and terraces people come and go to and from many directions all the time. But it does not feel crowded, groups are sitting here and there, and the atmosphere is convivial. The visitor tries to see what people are eating at the cafeteria. Next time I will also visit the campus shop and the library …

You can also visit the building on a virtual tour.

Text and photos: Leena Stenman, Head of Communications Services, TAMK

International Week for School of Vocational Teacher Education 17–21 April 2012

School of Vocational Teacher Education organised its first international week ever with a theme “The path to becoming a vocational teacher”. The week consisted of lectures and discussions of hosts and participants, visiting different kinds of learning environments, networking, project planning and some free time activities concerning Finnish culture. 

Active discussions began already during the first day and lasted until the end of the week.

School of Vocational Teacher Education hosted 18 participants from France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Slovakia and The Netherlands. As the theme of this international week was to become familiar with the path to becoming a vocational teacher in different countries, the lectures and presentations of participants (as well as hosts) were focused to this theme. The participants were quite interested in Finnish vocational teacher education system, which was introduced at the beginning of the week. The lectures and presentations of the participants dealt with interesting themes such as “Vocational teacher training in Hungary”, “Synchronous coaching of student teachers with WIME (Whisper In My Ear) device”, “Webb based evaluation support for vocational teachers”, “From novice to respected practitioner”, “Problems in mentor teacher training”, “Instructional use of ICT for vocational teacher”, “Students’ professional training in France” and “Education by project in French agricultural high school”. These themes and presentations gave an excellent insight to vocational teacher’s profession around Europe.

Two of the learning environments we visited during the week were ITSE Facilities (Facilities for independent living of elderly and disabled people at home) and the premises of aircraft technician training (Mänttä vocational secondary school)  

Sandra Landemaine is giving a presentation.

Some brave French guests went swimming in the lake Näsijärvi!

The participants had the opportunity to take part in informal free time activities in the evenings. Hopefully some unforgettable memories came from cooking and dining with TAMK degree programme students from hotel and restaurant management, swimming in the lake Näsijärvi and taking a sauna as well as dining with brilliant company.

The feedback we got from our guests was positive. The first international week for school of vocational teacher education was a success and TAOKK has the will to develop this to be a yearly event. TAOKK staff thanks all the guests and co-organisers for an unforgettable week. Hopefully we will see again!

Text: Maija Joensuu, TAOKK