Going Global: Finland
by Mary Hemphill & Maquisha Mullins
Welcome to Finland
Suomi, is Finnish for Finland. In Swedish it is Finland, but officially called the Republic of Finland. Finland is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north and Russia to the east, while Estonia lies to the south across the Gulf of Finland. 5.4 million people live in Finland (end of 2012), with the majority concentrated in its southern regions.
Finland was a latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. Thereafter, economic development was rapid, such that today, with a nominal per-capita income of over $49,000 (2011), Finland is one of the world's wealthiest nations. According to some measures, Finland has the best educational system in Europe and has recently been ranked as one of the world's most peaceful and economically competitive countries. It has also been ranked as one of the world's countries with the highest quality of life. In 2010, Newsweek magazine ranked Finland as the overall "best country in the world." Adapted from: www.wikipedia.org
The People
Population: 5.4 million, 15.8 inhabitants per km² (40.5 per square mile)
Life expectancy: Men 76 years, women 83 years
Languages: Official languages are Finnish (spoken by 91%) and Swedish (5.4%). Sámi is the mother tongue of about 1,700 people, members of the indigenous Sámi people of northern Lapland
Religion: Christianity; 79.9 % Lutheran and about 1.1% Orthodox. In practice society is fairly secularized
State & Government
Independence: Declared on December 6, 1917. Previously a grand duchy in the Russian empire for 108 years, and a part of Sweden for 600 years before that
Form of government: Republic, parliamentary democracy
Parliament: 200 members in one chamber, elected every 4 years in a direct vote (next elections in 2015)
Cabinet: Multiparty coalition cabinet. The current Cabinet is run by Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen
Head of State: President of the Republic, elected every 6 years, two-term maximum. Currently Mr Sauli Niinistö, elected in 2012.
International cooperation: Member of United Nations since 1955 and European Union since 1995
Society & Economy
Key features: High standard of education, social security and healthcare, all financed by the state
GDP per capita: 33,618 euros (2010)
Main exports: Electrotechnical goods, metal products, machinery, transport equipment, wood and paper products, chemicals
Main imports: Raw materials, investment goods, energy, consumer goods (for example cars and textiles)
Currency unit: Euro
© 1995 – 2013, thisisFINLAND
Published by the Finland Promotion Board, Updated February 2013
Produced by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Department for Communications and Culture
Higher Education
Scholarships for Bachelor’s and Master’s level studies?
No tuition fees are charged in Bachelor’s level degree programmes in Finland. The same is true of several Master’s programmes. The cost of this education is covered by the Finnish government, therefore, there are usually no scholarships available.
Workforce
Recreational Travel: Everyman's Rights
One of the great concepts in Finland is called "Everyman's Rights". Every woman's too. This gives you permission to roam freely, pick berries and mushrooms, and enjoy the peace and quiet of the forests, lakes and rivers. Thanks to "Everyman's Rights" you have far greater freedom to roam in Finland than in most other countries.
Everyman's Rights is a concept that evolved over the centuries, an unwritten code created by a sparse population living in a vast, densely forested country. Just a few things to keep in mind. You can pick wild berries - but you can't pick someone's apples or plums. You can go canoeing and camping, but not too close to someone's house. Don't leave litter, and leave the place the way you found it.
Finnish Top News Stories
Why Finnish Babies Sleep in Boxes
For 75 years, Finland's expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It's like a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.
It's a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and it's designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they're from, an equal start in life.
The maternity package - a gift from the government - is available to all expectant mothers. (Pictured: A 1947 maternity pack)
It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress.
With the mattress in the bottom, the box becomes a baby's first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their first naps within the safety of the box's four cardboard walls.
Mothers have a choice between taking the box, or a cash grant, currently set at 140 euros, but 95% opt for the box as it's worth much more.
The tradition dates back to 1938. To begin with, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949.
"Not only was it offered to all mothers-to-be but new legislation meant in order to get the grant, or maternity box, they had to visit a doctor or municipal pre-natal clinic before their fourth month of pregnancy," says Heidi Liesivesi, who works at Kela - the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.
So the box provided mothers with what they needed to look after their baby, but it also helped steer pregnant women into the arms of the doctors and nurses of Finland's nascent welfare state.
In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and infant mortality was high - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades that followed.
Mika Gissler, a professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, gives several reasons for this - the maternity box and pre-natal care for all women in the 1940s, followed in the 60s by a national health insurance system and the central hospital network.
To read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22751415
Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?
It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.
Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.
“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz2dtHacieYFollow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
OP-Pohjola to outsource 500 ICT jobs
02 Sep 2013
Read more: http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/index.php
Education: A Finnish Perspective
Finnish Educational System
Technology & Finland
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17288360
Location: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/
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Twitter: @OurFinland