Paasivuorenkatu 5 B
00530 Helsinki
Finland
tel: (+358-9) 4762 800
fax: (+358-9) 4762 8680
e-mail: tsl@tsl.fi
Chairman:
Mrs Ulla Juurola, MP
Head of organisation:
Mr Jorma Turunen, General Secretary
Contact for international partners:
Mr Jorma Turunen , General Secretary
Workers' Educational Association WEA in Finland (originally Työväen Sivistysliitto TSL ry) is an 79 years old educational organisation in the sector of the Finnish liberal adult education. It is the biggest of the eleven Finnish educational associations (study centres), by the volume of activities and by the participation in studies. Also the amount of full-time personnel (in the begin of the year 1998: 57 persons) is the biggest of all these organisations.
TSL - WEA in Finland has 52 member organisations. The most significant of them are The Central Organisation of the Finnish Trade Unions and its member unions, The Social Democratic Party in Finland , The Central Organisation of the Retired and some organisations of handicapped.
TSL - WEA is a decentralised
organisation providing educational services directly to the students.
This is facilitated by the regional services and communications technology
applied by TSL - WEA Finland.
TSL - WEA Finland has deep roots in the Finnish society.
It has been providing adult education services since 1919 and forms today
an integral part of the Finnish adult education system receiving public
funding for its work.
TSL - WEA Finland focuses on team work skills, communicative
skills and self-actualization and promotes educational activity in the
Finnish society. TSL - WEA Finland provides general adult education especially
for the less-educated adult population hit hardest by the ongoing structural
change. TSL - WEA Finland is among the first educational institutions
in Finland to arrange training with the European Social Fund support for
the unemployed and those threatened with unemployment.
TSL - WEA Finland offers advisory services and consulting
on education, trains tutors and leaders for study groups, organises courses
and publishes study material. TSL - WEA Finland has also many years of
experience in organizing distance teaching and multi-method training.
For TSL - WEA Finland, Europe stands for the free movement
of people and communication. Innovation, language skills and communicative
networks at the grassroots level are the key to this goal. TSL - WEA Finland
trains local-level decision makers to become experts on the regional and
structural policy of the European Union.
TSL - WEA in Finland is a member organisation of EURO-WEA.
Main interests for international collaboration are:
-
education for the disadvantaged/unemployed/migrants
-
small groups
-
language training
-
collaboration on the Internet and other multi-media communication
Links to the TSL-WEA international projects:
IFWEA
and EURO-WEA home pages (hosted by TSL)