Jolana is a 16-year-old upper secondary school student from the Helsinki metropolitan area. She took two advanced Japanese courses at the Helsinki Adult Education Centre, for which she wanted to receive credits. We asked Jolana more about what interested her in Japanese language studies and the possibility of receiving credits.
Why did you choose a Japanese language course?
– I chose Japanese because it is an interesting language and the characters are different from all the other languages I know. Learning a different language is a good challenge for the brain.
Why did you want credit notes for the courses?
– I wanted the credits for the two Japanese courses I took because I passed them in our high school. I got a total of three credits from the two courses. For comparison, taking one high school course usually gets you two credits.
What did you think about studying at the Helsinki Adult Education Institute courses?
– The pace of progress was good, there was enough content and the courses were challenging enough. The group size was suitable, so the teacher had time to give feedback to everyone. The teacher was also able to comment on each kanji character, which encouraged them to practice them more.
How do you plan to use your Japanese studies?
– Knowing the language will definitely be useful in the future. You can't study Japanese at my high school, so it was great that I was able to take evening classes at the Helsinki Adult Education Center.
Helsingin aikuisopisto, along with other community colleges, offers the opportunity to receive credits for completed community college courses.
Competence can be assessed in courses that have a separate marking "credit course".
Recording skills in the Koski database is official and can be useful, for example, when applying for a job or in workplace development discussions.
With official registration, the competence can also be recognized at another educational institution. Please note that the decision on the acceptance of competence always rests with the receiving educational institution.
To receive a study mark, the student must have given consent to the official mark when registering for the course and paid the course fee, which includes the competency-based office fee.