Technology Sector Finnish courses encourage students to continue learning on campus and in technology workshops

The fall semester of Technology Sector Finnish has gotten off to a flying start, with students beginning their field-specific Finnish courses in two different groups. The themes of the Technology Sector Finnish 3 course include student life and student stories in the field of technology, instructions in a workshop and on campus, and communication in studies and working life.

The teaching materials used in the project are based on the Technology Sector Finnish material package developed by Finnish teachers Elisa Räsänen and Verna Pelkonen. The philosophy behind the material is to create participatory tasks that encourage students to activate their field-specific skills and use the entire campus and their free time environment as language learning environments.

Portfolio assessment is used as course assessment in the Technology Sector Finnish courses. The portfolio assignments for the third course involved creating videos entitled My Day at Aalto, which used material posted on the Aalto website by technology students as a model (see, for example, the vlogs by students in automation and robotics, and information technology). In the second portfolio assignment, students create videos where they introduce a technology workshop for new students. In the third assignment, students analyze messages produced by artificial intelligence (AI) for the workplace from the perspective of language use and style: to what extent is AI useful in workplace communication, and how should messages produced by AI be edited before sending? Upon completion, the students portfolios showcase their language skills in a comprehensive way.

In the academic year 2025-2026, courses in the project are supported by an informal technology-themed conversation club led by students in Bachelor of Science and Technology, Wakana Maeda and Junya Iwata, who work as course assistants. In the student-led club, students can practice Finnish through conversation and games. The club got off to an impressive start, with a total of 16 enthusiastic participants attending the first meeting. The discussion club reinforces the key objective of the Technology Sector Finnish project, which is to engage students and the entire community to use Finnish in and outside of classes. Course assistants are important peers who have learned Finnish themselves. 

We have also received several visitors in the courses. The first visitors were from the Guild of Automation and Systems Engineering. Before the guild members' visit, the students researched guild activities online, and then interviewed active guild members in Finnish. Among other things, the students were interested in hearing what inspires guild members to participate in guild activities.

The project also includes career guidance. During her visit, Teresa Ihamäki from Aalto Career Design Lab told the students about career design and Aalto's career services. Ihamäki led a guided group discussion on Finnish working life, and students' experiences of working life in other cultures were also shared. Students can also book individual career guidance sessions via the Job Teaser platform. 

“It has been particularly inspiring to note the students’ tremendous motivation to learn Finnish, especially the relevant language in the technology sector,” says Verna Pelkonen, a teacher involved in the project. “The My Day at Aalto videos created by the students provided an excellent glimpse into the everyday life of a technology student. Through these videos, the students learned about each other’s majors and were also able to explore various environments relevant in the technology sector, such as a robotics workshop and a chemistry laboratory. I can't wait to see what the students' actual workshop presentation videos will be like," adds Elisa Räsänen.