Västra Nylands folkhögskola Folkakademin

The Further Education College of Västra Nyland

Ms. Kerstin Romberg
Strandpromenaden 1
KARIS 10300
Finland
Tel: +358-19-222 600
Fax: +358-19-222 6011
e-mail: vnf-kansli@vnf.fi
www: www.vnf.fi

History

VNF was founded in Karis in 1905. The activities were moved to the neighbouring municipality of Pohja in 1906, and it got its own facilities there in 1922. A joint consortium consisting of several municipal authorities from Southern Finland took over the ownership of the College in 1973. In 1978 the College returned to Karis, where the building of new facilities had been completed within a riverside park. During the last 25 years, the College enjoyed a period of exceptional growth, being repeatedly in tha vanguard of new educational developments.

Main act

The College offers several one-year programmes of study (e.g. Art, European Studies, Languages and Tourism, Photography, Drama, etc) and a large number of short-time courses, from gardening and handicrafts to Open University modules. The number of participants in all these courses goes up to alomst 3000 each year. In line with the traditional role of folk high schools as a provider of education for all, we offer tuition in basic skills to secondary school graduates who have failed their school-leaving exam or wish to improve their skills. .

Cp projects

Mrs. Kerstin Romberg, Principal, kerstin.romberg@vnf.fi Mr. Radu Szekely, Coordinator of International Affairs, radu.szekely@vnf.fi

Intenational projects

1. TEACh-Teaching European Active Citizenship (Grundtvig 1) aims at developing a European curriculum for enhancing participation in democracy.

2. EIW-The European Intercultural Workplace (Leonardo project) aims at creating a Eruopean Intercultural Workplace Diploma together with a group of 9 other institutions led by Dublin City University.

3. Developing Skills for Efficient Communication with People from Different Cultural Backgrounds (Grundtvig 2 Learnign Partnership) has ssen the development of a strog cooperation between the partners in terms of teachers' exchanges and common activities for students; it has also produced a catalogue of skills/competencies needed for intercultural work.

Mission statement

In terms of international work, the main areas of interest for the College are active citizenship, intercultural competence, social inclusion and generation bridging.