Now for the second time, Omnia hosted a group of Genoese students this autumn. Both the participants and the recipients considered the exchange a successful learning experience and hoped that a similar two-week student group exchange would become a tradition. The first group from Omnia will go to Genoa in the spring and winter of 2024.
The Genoese group exchange is part of their Erasmus+ project. Students and teachers from two educational institutions, a general language upper secondary school and a vocational upper secondary school, participated in the project.
Learning about Finland
The goal of the exchange week was to get to know the Finnish language, culture and education. The effects of sustainable development and digitalisation were considered in more detail.
The first contacts were made with Omnia students during bingo on the Suomenlinna study tour. This autumn, the people of Genoa visited the tourism and audiovisual media classes. The use of new technology was tried out in MakerSpace, where everyone was given a key case they had designed.
Relaxed school life and friendly people
The group visited the Helsinki Design Museum, Ateneum, Helina Rautavaara Museum and Fazerila. From the first meeting, the Oodi library was taken as a resting and meeting place. Although the students missed the heat of Italy, the weather was almost summery here and it warmed them during the trip to Nuuksio National Park and the day visit to Tallinn.
The Italians considered experiencing the friendliness of Finns and enjoying Finland's clean nature to be the best part of their visit. They wanted to take with them the more relaxed and practical atmosphere of the school's everyday life, as well as the safety of being outdoors.
Finnish text and photo by Sirje Hassinen