Internationality

Internationality and multiculturalism are increasingly part of working life and everyday life. The purpose of Varia's international activities is to offer students and staff opportunities to accumulate memorable experiences and strengthen their international competencies along with their language and cultural knowledge.

Periods abroad for students

During a period abroad, you can develop language and cultural skills and see the activities and operation of your study field from a slightly different perspective. Employers value competence gained from abroad, such as problem-solving skills, flexibility and creativity. Varia has international partners globally, through different projects and collaborations.

Our students have the opportunity to go to Europe for a period abroad for a learning period at a workplace or an educational exchange in a partner institution, usually for 2–11 weeks. Periods abroad are mainly financed with the support of the EU Commission's Erasmus+ projects. Student exchange can also be implemented for a group of students. Varia also gives student grants for the destinations students have searched for themselves. 

In addition, Varia has also taken part in projects involving partners from countries outside of Europe, such as South Korea (FinKoEdu-network) and China (FinnVET in China-network). At the moment there are no mobilities to these destinations.

International educational events

International and cultural content is utilized in Varia in many different educational fields. For example, the differences in work tasks, materials, tools and techniques in different cultures and countries can be taken into account in teaching.

With international partners, virtual teaching, co-teaching and the utilization of digital tools for collaboration can be implemented. Virtual international cooperation has already been tried in many fields, and it is well-suited, for example, for practising the English language, getting to know students from another country, and for field-specific comparisons. Virtual collaborations can be implemented e.g. in the eTwinning-service.

As an example of such cooperation, every year since 2003 in the field of mechanical and production technology, a two-week project work has been carried out with German partners, where students have collaborated to create a device related to different themes. A remote-controlled robot car has also been built together with an educational institution as a virtual teaching collaboration.