Introduction

In August 2016, the Education Bureau (EDB) organised a pilot Attachment Programme in Finland (the Programme) that allowed participants to gain in-depth knowledge and first-hand experience of the Finnish education system – one that is internationally acclaimed for its education success. The Programme was first proposed by the Committee on Professional Development of Teachers and Principals (COTAP) as a new type of continuing professional development (CPD) programmes for the teaching profession and was materialised after months of liaison and planning by the Professional Development & Training Division, EDB.

A distinctive feature of the 3-week Programme is that, on top of various expert sessions and visits arranged to give participants an overview of Finnish education as well as latest developments of specific focuses, participants also got the chance to attach to different local primary and secondary schools to observe the implementation of those focuses of the Finnish curriculum in actual local school environments and to have a taste of the Finnish school life. 7 serving teachers and school leaders as well as 5 EDB officers joined the Programme, which was held from 29 August to 16 September 2016, and all agreed that they had benefited profoundly from the learning experience.

To facilitate a more effective sharing and wider dissemination of insights gained from the experience, it was decided that an e-learning package be developed on top of the Study Report to explore a specific topic in a more comprehensive and detailed way with members of the teaching profession and the public.

To this end, Entrepreneurship Education (EE) in Finland, which is one of the 7 transversal competences and key elements in the Finnish Core Curriculum, has been chosen as a topic for in-depth sharing and this e-learning package has been developed based on participants’ observations during the Programme and first-hand information collected from lesson observation, interviews and materials available.