Oona Tikkaoja // December 2003
Although my own field is visual art broadly, I discuss now the field of digital media content design, because this assignment is quite difficult to make concerning visual artists – there are no organizations, which hire them because they work usually as individuals. Most of them get their salary as grants or out of another job. Another reason for this focusing is that I’m now working for a school, which educates media assistants, so I’m considering the issue from that school’s point of view.
My main source is a new research of Finnish and international media culture (Uusi mediakulttuuri innovaatioympäristönä -kotimainen ja kansainvälinen tutkimus 2002). It presents a view of present day state of media content design and gives recommendations concerning future. Media culture is defined here as different phenomena, which are born in new media context: media art, games, virtual communications etc. (Mäkelä 2002, 101.) So this research tells just about people who I personally represent.
Many content designers work nowadays in the difficult-to-define area combining technology, art and commercial design. They have small companies (employing maybe only one or two persons), which work together in different project contexts. Funding is usually quite short-termed and insecure and the designers work in many projects at the same time (for example teaching added to design work) to get their living. Motivation is high and people want to maintain their freedom. They are very flexible, independent and don’t afraid hard work. (Tarkka 2002, 17/21.)
This suits well in the pictures of overall change in working life towards self-employing experts who have huge social networks and do mainly consultation work (Rinne & Salmi 2003, 96-101). In the future a person has to be very spontaneous in order to get information about working opportunities. Experts have important role, but mass work (physical as well as mental) is not needed any more (Mannermaa 1993, 118-119). Castells and Himanen (2001, 146-147) speak about hacker ethics in contrary to traditional protestant working ethic. Hacker ethics means passionate and creative attitude towards working. Work is considered interesting itself and money isn’t the most important outcome (compare to Tarkka’s research -quite similar notices!).
Many future researchers think work is going to be far less important in the
future because of automation (for example Rifkin 1997, 31 / 245, King & Schneider
1991, 82-83, Rinne & Salmi 2003, 77-80). This means people have more free
time, so they will maybe use media products quite much (so probably media workers
still have their jobs when all others don’t ;)) So the competition will
be harder, but on the other hand the peer networking can make it possible to
build new kind of societies of shared knowledge (Tarkka 2002, 27). I (and the
researchers) believe there is going to be a huge unemployment sooner or later.
In Finland there is quite a lot education in media field but the quality varies
a lot. There is also a big problem in developing new innovations. Highly educated
designers have to get their living from somewhere and because society doesn’t
give enough money to developing work, they have to work mainly with mass products
to get their salary. So they can’t concentrate on new product development
work (Tarkka & Mäkelä 2002, 193). On the other hand there is
far too much media workers – it is improbable that everyone could find
a work. The students who I’m teaching will graduate from the lowest educational
level. I think maybe they will still be working mostly in bigger companies
because the previous words of independent actors means mainly highly educated
people. An individual’s personal abilities will be in important role
when searching a place in the world. In vocational education there is quite
a lot hopeless young people without motivation and it’s a big challenge
to a teacher to try to improve their self-esteem and attitudes towards future.
One very good new technical feature is that new media companies (and their employees) can nowadays work from whatever location – for example in Rovaniemi are located many new media companies (for example Prosopon and Valkeus). Previously this wouldn’t be possible, but now good network connections and fast airlines make the location less important. So this can promote the equality of areas and freedom of choice.
I visited a media company Good Mood Inc. in Turku. The company has broad production in digital media – they offer services from scripting to implementation making for example television ads. Besides that the company is developing a webcasting software. (www.goodmood.tv)
I interviewed Mikko Granström, who works as a producer in the content design department. My questions touched three areas: 1) the development and nature of professional know-how, 2) vocational education from the point of view of business and 3) learning at work (during education and in working life). You can find the questions I asked as attachment. In this interview I’m interested mainly in the question: “How could the overall education and particularly the learning at work periods support the building of professional know-how?” I mainly think of a situation when a person starts her/his first job after vocational education: what skills s/he should have and on the other hand what s/he can’t have, what is achieved not until in the working life. I also focus on basic level work, because I’m now teaching in basic vocational level.
In Good Mood productions they have employees with a basic vocational degree doing both technical implementation work as well as planning and designing. They also have employees, who have come first to do their learning at work period –so it’s possible to get a work by doing one’s working practice well. Granström couldn’t remember if they actually have any media assistants. He said that the degree isn’t really so important – far more important are the persons’ skills and attitudes. He sees an education as a basic level, background for deeper learning and development of professional skills, which happens not until in working life. The actual working and enthusiasm are the sources of deep know-how, which he defined as two-sided: first you have of course know your own job and field but second, very important thing is to have good social skills for team work and customer service. His message is that students need to be taught basic manners because you can’t take them for granted nowadays. Social skills are most important when there is lot of competition of work. Granström highlights that during education students should learn 1) the basic skills of their vocation 2) social skills and 3) responsible attitude towards their individual work as a part of teamwork.
We also discussed about the future. Granström had very similar opinions with the future researchers: according to him the pace of changes is still accelerating: an expert has to adopt more quickly the new information continuously emerging in her/his field. The criterions for good work will also get stricter because of the competition. The relationship of work and free time is changing all the time more ambivalent because of distance work possibilities and new attitudes (sounds like Castells’ and Himanen’s hacker ethics and Tarkka’s research!). So the concept of work will not be so clear anymore. He mentioned also some changes in media technology: the development of web communication to very comprehensive media and the convergence of different devices to one communication and entertainment machine which can perform all the tasks before done by many devices.
I asked also about the experiences about vocational education and wishes for the teachers. Granström emphasized the dialog between schools and companies: schools should for example find out what software do they use in companies so they can teach the important, core skills to the students. The function principles of different types of companies should also be taught at school so the students would have some kind of concept concerning working in business. He finds learning at work periods very useful, but the shortest ones are not so good for company and student either. He wished longer periods in the same work place so the student would get familiar to the particular job and company. He also prefers opportunities to expertise during the education rather than learning something out of everything in the broad media field.
Good Mood has plenty of contacts to educational institutes. Granström said, that only their Turku office employs several students across the Finland doing their learning at work period. The students come from every educational level from vocational schools to universities. The company has mainly positive experiences of co-operation. Sometimes for example complicated bureaucracy still doesn’t seem meaningful. Some schools also want the company to pay them for the student’s work, and that’s not accepted in Good Mood. The policies of money in learning at work periods are very variable: some schools pay to the companies, in some cases there aren’t needed any money and some schools want the company to pay. I also asked about the educational possibilities of Good Mood’s own workers. Education is based on individuals’ own activity: if somebody finds an education s/he wants to attend the company will support her/him by giving time or/and taking part in the expenses.
I found the interview very useful because it’s nice to hear the same issues I have red from books now from someone who really is working in the media business. I don’t mean I’m happy because I would consider all the sights of future to be positive (it depends on how do we solve the problems we have), but hearing the same thoughts from the different sources, from concrete scene as well as from researchers work, gives quite a good background for further discussion.
I discuss here how learning at work is organized in a vocational program called the Basic Degree of Audiovisual Communication at the Vocational School of Ylivieska Region (YSO). I worked there last winter and I am going to work also on January-February 2004 (to do my second teaching practice and development project experiment). They have a six-week period system, so there are six periods in an academic year.
Students have to do 20 cu learning at work out of degree’s total 120
credit units. The practice is divided in many parts and it’s done in
three different contexts: 1) school’s own media company Make@media 2)
local newspaper Vieskalainen and 3) “real” companies (two places
for each student).
On the first study year the students have 2 cu working practice. They go one
by one to local newspaper Vieskalainen for a week, where they get acquainted
in the environment of a newspaper office. This is more a visit than real work
but they also do some jobs suitable for their skills, for example write a gallup.
On the first year spring the students work for the school’s company for one credit unit. They can have more demanding jobs there than they could have in real companies. Teachers are supervising the work, so it’s possible to give tasks also for first year students. The nature of work varies according the orders: the company is “real” so that the local companies and institutions can order there for example web sites, multimedia productions and ads.
On the second year the amount of learning at work is 8 credit units. Two of them is done again in the school’s company, one on autumn and one on spring. Now the students work also for the local media companies for six weeks: now they can have a deeper insight to the work. Although Ylivieska is a small town, there are quite many media companies in the region: newspaper houses, advertising offices and printing companies. First students were at the practice last spring (the study program is only three years old in YSO) and the feedback from the companies was very positive. Some students did their practice at school, if it could be seen in their studies that they wouldn’t have the skills and responsibility to work in a company.
On the last study year the students have 10 cu working practice. They do it during the last two periods at the spring. It’s planned so that now they would search the places themselves (the second year practice places are mainly organized by teachers) and they could find a place where they could maybe have a job after they graduate (like somebody has got in Good Mood…). Now they have to search wider area, because the local companies can not take all (and the second year students have their working practice period in the local companies at the same time). It’s thought that this could make them easier to get a job. They graduate immediately after this practice so if they are lucky they are free to start working.
As I mentioned earlier the study program is only three years old, so there isn’t much experience of this system, but it has worked well this far. The first students graduate on spring 2004 and after that we can see how the last practice works. I personally consider this as a quite good system: the responsibility demands grow in line with skills and vocational identity. The school’s own company is important because it is a safe environment where the students can have opportunities to do real job for real institutions.
I’m very interested in future studies, so I have been discussing here quite a lot about the future of work overall. It felt quite funny and positive to find myself from Tarkka’s research: I have been used to be a weirdo amongst all people around me who want a full-time, permanent job to make money and buy a car and house. Himanen’s and Castell’s hacker ethics really is my ethics – I have never believed on the protestant way to work for money or to work for work still if you don’t like it – only because you can so have a place in society.
I really believe that work (as a traditional concept) is going to end but of course there is always lots of things to do in our marvelous world. I only hope we can act wisely and understand the value of all kind of human knowledge and skill. We could really make for example third sector a lively forum for different actions. Humans could at last live like the early inventors of machines thought: free from hard work, surrounded by opportunities for developing themselves and enjoying their life. But this is a matter of decision: we can as well have a society of deep differences with ultimately poor majority and small minority who has access to the luxury of work.
Printed
Castells, Manuel & Himanen, Pekka (2001) Suomen tietoyhteiskuntamalli.
Sitran julkaisusarja 242. Helsinki-Porvoo-Juva: WSOY
King, Alexander & Schneider, Bertrand (1991) Ihmiskunnan vallankumous – Rooman klubin työvaliokunnan raportti. Helsinki-Porvoo-Juva: WSOY
Mannermaa, Mika (1993) Tulevaisuus –murroksesta mosaiikkiin. Helsinki: Otava
Rifkin, Jeremy (1997) Työn loppu. Helsinki-Porvoo-Juva: WSOY
Rinne, Risto & Salmi, Eeva (2003) Oppimisen uusi järjestys. Tampere: Vastapaino
Tarkka, Minna & Mäkelä, Tapio (eds.) (2002) uusi mediakulttuuri innovaatioympäristönä- kotimainen ja kansainvälinen tutkimus mediakulttuuriyhdistys m-cult ry sisältötuotanto-työryhmän väliraportti 7
Interview
Mikko Grönlund, producer in Good Mood media company.
Interviewed 28.11.2003
Web
www.goodmood.tv - the company’s web site
Vocational Teacher Education College of Jyväskylä
Working Life as a Learning Environment Seminar Assignment
Oona Tikkaoja
oona@vikuri.com
24.11.2003
Koulutus ja työelämä
Media-ala
Media-assistentin tutkinto (ammatillinen kolmivuotinen perustutkinto).
Jos työpaikalla ei ole kokemusta juuri tästä tutkinnosta, kysymyksiin
voi vastata
yleisemmästä näkökulmasta (perustutkintotasoinen työ).
Ammattitaidon kehittyminen
1. Onko teillä töissä media-assistentin tutkinnon suorittaneita
henkilöitä?
Jos on, millaisissa työtehtävissä he toimivat?
2. Miten määrittelet ammattitaitoisen työntekijän
(omalla alallanne, perustutkintotasoisissa tehtävissä)?
3. Mikä on mielestäsi muodollisen koulutuksen ja työkokemuksen
välinen suhde / ”tärkeysjärjestys”?
Minkälainen rooli näillä erilaisilla oppimisen tavoilla on ammattitaidon
rakentumisessa?
4. Millaisia muutoksia uskot digitaalisen median alalla tapahtuvan lähivuosina? (esim. tekniset / sisällölliset / työntekijöiden asemaan tai työhön liittyvät)
Ammatillinen koulutus
5. Mitä odotat media-alan ammatilliselta koulutukselta?
- millaisia aihepiirejä (esim. softien tekninen käyttötaito,
sisällöntuotanto, lainsäädäntö jne.) olisi mielestäsi
tarpeen käsitellä? Millaisilla painotuksilla?
- millaisia työtapoja olisi hyvä käyttää (esim. harjoittelun
määrä)
- kuinka yleistä tai erikoistunutta opetuksen pitäisi olla (tarkoitan
siis pitäisikö antaa suppeammat tiedot mahd. monilta ammattialan
osa-alueilta vai mahdollistaa erikoistuminen)
6. Millaisia valmiuksia toivot koulutuksen antavan opiskelijoille?
- mitä toivot heidän konkreettisesti osaavan tullessaan töihin
teille?
- millaisia asenteita / arvoja toivot heillä olevan?
- mitä toisaalta et usko / odota suoraan koulusta tulevan työntekijän
hallitsevan?
Työssä oppiminen
7. Miten koulutuksen ja työelämän välistä yhteistyötä voisi
kehittää?
Millaisia kokemuksia yhteistyöstä yrityksellänne on?
8. Millaisilla tavoilla yrityksessänne tuetaan työssä oppimista?
(en tarkoita nyt työharjoittelijoita, vaan yrityksen omien työntekijöiden
kehittymismahdollisuuksia – kurssit jne.)