Abstract:

Innovations are seen as important factors relating to the success in working life. Partly because of strong societal emphasis on innovation activity, also educational organizations have become strongly interested in the topic. The objectives of the presentation are to contemplate the concept of innovation in educational context and to present the preliminary results of KINOS -project. What do we actually talk about when we talk about innovations in educational organizations? How we could promote innovation activity in the context of education? What has KINOS –project done to promote educational organizations’ innovation competences?

The case study is on-going ESF -funded project KINOS in Mikkeli, Finland. Its aim is to develop educational organizations’ innovation competences and to create operations model to promote innovation activity at the area. The project is led by Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences. Partner organizations are Aalto University Small Business Center, University of Helsinki Ruralia Institute, South- Savo Vocational College and Otavan Opisto vocational school. The goal of the project is to develop multiprofessional and multiorganisational innovation communities and operations model to implement innovation activity in the future.

As a conclusion can be presented that the innovation activity requires new forms of collaboration and learning between different kinds of organizations. These new forms of collaboration can be found from the partnerships and co-creation between working-life partners and educational organizations. In the context of education the learning aspect of innovation activity is emphasized. There are several different educational models in Finland relating to work-based learning. Although some differences, there are also several similarities, such as communal nature of learning, authentic cases, dialogue, knowledge creation and developmental aspect of activity. These similarities could be kept as key aspects of innovation pedagogy.

Keywords:

Innovation, education, collaboration.