The start of the regional Care about IT CoVE began with the kick-off meeting and workshops in Finland, aimed at strengthening cooperation between educational institutions, IT companies, and the social and health sectors.
On 14 February, at the Turku Vocational Institute (TAI), different actors in the field of health and well-being technologies (e.g. health-focused IT companies, education providers, healthcare providers, etc.) attended the event, with 15 participants in person and 14 participants participating virtually, to further understand how health technologies can be integrated in vocational education and training (VET), to discuss the results of the stakeholder analysis on sectoral challenges and needs, and the open dialogue workshops with local partners to address these issues.
Promoting the use of technology to modernise healthcare through VET training & CoVE
During the kick-off session, Kalle Ojanen, the head of the education programme at TAI, emphasised the role of education in bringing technology into the workplace by organising apprenticeships for students in health technology in cooperation with local companies in Finland. Sanna Paloposki, the project manager on the Finnish side, presented the objectives of the project, which are to establish a CoVE linking health technology sector actors and educational institutions, to develop tailor-made curricula, and to create a system of micro credentials to improve continuing education.
Key insights from the local stakeholder analysis
The results of the stakeholder analysis carried out by the TAI education developers, Jenna Pesola and Reino Tissari, were presented. A total of 19 sectoral stakeholders were interviewed. According to preliminary results, the most important trends in health and wellbeing technology in Finland are telemedicine, smart homes, digital home care solutions, digital health, and preventive healthcare. More than 70% of respondents felt that these health technology trends were not sufficiently integrated into education, highlighting the need to develop health technology-focused VET.
Workshops – desire for further collaboration, identifying challenges and expectations
At the end of the event, workshops were held to discuss what kind of cooperation the different actors would like to see in the field of health technologies, what they expect from the CoVE to be set up, and what challenges they see in the use of health technologies.
In particular, there was a desire for collaboration between technology companies and health sector organisations, with the educational institution acting as a facilitator. The companies also wanted the VET institutions to test products and participate in product development and piloting. Continuing the work of previous development projects and networks that have already been completed (e.g. wenla.fi, age technology network, welfare technology passport) was considered important.
The CoVE was expected to increase the flow of information and act as a link between the different actors. It was also hoped that it could be used as a platform for the development of health technologies. Challenges identified during the workshops included information flow and access to information, bureaucracy, and legal constraints.
We would like to thank all the participants who took part in the event and look forward to continuing to work with our partners on the above issues. Any organisation or company interested in our project is also welcome to contact us!
