Number of participants in open university of applied sciences education continued growing in 2020

The number of students in open university of applied sciences education continued growing to nearly 103,000 participants, which corresponds to a growth of nearly 54 per cent in 2020. The number of hours of open university of applied sciences education, in turn, decreased by a couple of per cent to just short of 1.4 million teaching hours in 2020. These data derive from education statistics compiled by Statistics Finland.

Educational institutions’ adult education not leading to a qualification by type of education in 2020

Type of education	Participants (gross)	Change in participants in 2019 to 2020, %	Women %	Teaching hours	Change in teaching hours in 2019 to 2020, %
Other vocational education, education to intensify or supplement professional competence	24 146	-41	52	163 606	-35
Other vocational education, preparatory education for a professional task	361	38	63	7 712	-43
Employment training for adults	18 646	-18	49	410 833	-5
Courses ordered by the employer	102 771	-23	37	206 799	-34
Education organised as liberal adult education	1 243 955	-21	73	2 348 905	-14
Open university of applied sciences	102 516	54	64	1 389 068	-2
Open university teaching ¹⁾	37 186	6	80	52 642	-8
Other education	48 015	-31	60	295 266	-38
Total	1 577 596	-18	69	4 874 831	-14

1) Excl. data on open university teaching implemented by the universities themselves.

The increased supply of courses has influenced the growing popularity of open university of applied sciences education. Students have the opportunity to advance to degree students through so-called study paths in the open university of applied sciences education. The supply of open university of applied sciences education has also been promoted by the financing model of higher education institutions, where completed studies at universities of applied sciences have an effect on their financing.

In 2020, educational institutions organised less education and training not leading to a qualification than before. The exceptions are the above-mentioned open university of applied sciences education, open university education and preparatory education and training for a particular vocational task, in all of which the number of participants was higher in 2020 than in 2019.

The number of participants in open university education increased by six per cent to around 37,000 participants, but the number of lessons fell by eight per cent to close on 53,000 lessons.

The number of participants in advanced or supplementary vocational education and training was good 24,000, which is 41 per cent lower than in 2019. The number of lessons also fell to nearly 164,000, which translates to a 35 per cent decrease compared to 2019. The volume of preparatory education and training for a particular vocational task was low: good 250 participants in 2019 and good 350 in 2020. The number of lessons in preparatory education and training for a particular vocational task was approximately 7,700 in 2020.

In education and training ordered by the employer, the number of participants went down by nearly one quarter to close on 103,000 participants and the number of lessons fell by one third to just under 207,000 hours.

In 2020, the number of participants in labour force training decreased by nearly one fifth to good 18,600 participants and the number of lessons fell by five per cent to just under 411,000 lessons compared with the previous year.

The volume of education organised as liberal adult education, which is conventionally the largest type of education measured by volume, also decreased in 2020. The number of participants was good 1.2 million, which is one fifth lower than in the previous year. The number of lessons was good 2.3 million, which is 14 per cent lower than in 2019.

All in all, the number of participants in adult education and training not leading to a qualification went down by 18 per cent and the number of lessons went down by 14 per cent in 2020. In 2020, close on 4.9 million hours of teaching was provided, of which the share of lessons given as liberal adult education was nearly one half, the share of lessons given as open university of applied sciences education was close on 30 per cent and the share of lessons given as labour force training was good eight per cent.

There were close on 1.6 million participants (gross number of students) in adult education and training, nearly four out of five of whom participated in liberal adult education. Of all participants 6.5 per cent studied in education and training ordered by the employer, as well as in open university of applied sciences education.

As in the previous year, 69 per cent of the participants were women. The share of women varied considerably by type of education: the share of women among students was lowest in education ordered by employers (37 per cent) and highest in open university education (80 per cent).

The decrease in the volume of education and training arranged was partly due to the corona pandemic that began in 2020, which has made it more difficult to organise onsite or contact training at educational institutions.

The gross number of students in education organised as liberal adult education was good 1.2 million and their net number of students was good 760,000. A person is counted as a student (participant) in the gross number of students in each education and training they study. Thus, a student can be included more than once in the number of students in one or more educational institutions during the calendar year. In net numbers of students one person is included only once.

The highest share (26 per cent) of all the lessons in adult education not leading to a qualification was given in the field of culture, where the most popular subjects were music, and crafts and design. Popular fields of education were also social, health and sports, with 19 per cent of lessons, and humanities and education with 17 per cent of all lessons. These subjects have been popular from one year to the next. The data concerning the content of education have been classified according to the education administration’s classification of fields of education, adult education application 2003.

More detailed information on educational institutions’ adult education can be found in the database tables .

Source: Education. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tarja Seppänen 029 551 3220, koulutustilastot@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Appendix tables

Appendix table 1. Educational institutions adult education not leading to a qualification by main content and type of education in 2020 (1.12.2021)

Updated 1.12.2021

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Adult education of educational institutions [e-publication].
ISSN=1799-4551. 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/oaiop/2020/oaiop_2020_2021-12-01_tie_001_en.html