Future photographic education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Future photographic education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The strategic partnership project “Future photographic education” has been carried out by three project partners: Folkuniversitetet – Kursverksamheten vid Stockholms universitet, Sweden, Novia University of Applied Sciences, Finland and Media College Mediaskolorne Denmark. All three parties are vocationally trainers against the professional role of professional photographer and, in the case of Folkuniversitetet, also Digital Imaging Specialists

The project’s main goal was to develop the educations to meet future skills needs, intensify the collaboration between the educations and working life and to create a platform for an overall future discussion for the photography scene in the Nordic region.

For nearly three years, the project has investigated and discussed, both internally among the project’s partners educations and with other actors in current education areas and the visual industry, the conditions for future photography education. The conditions that have been discussed and prepared for concrete proposals are based on the demands and opinions of working life, technological development, research, etc.

The project has carried out various types of iterative development processes in the form of e.g. business collaborations and curriculum development / educational design. We have also built networks both nationally and internationally and created new conditions for photographic education. The discussions and experiences were gathered in a white paper that was distributed mainly to other stakeholders in education and working life in visual communication. The White Paper can serve as a basis for discussion in the continued development of the visual educations of the future.

Teachers and other staff in the educations have participated very actively in the project work. There is a large and solid professional knowledge among the employees of the educations. There are many ideas about change work concerning e.g. pedagogy, methodology, competence goals, working methods, future technology, etc. documented by the project.

The project’s results, in the form of Intellectual Output 1, propose radical and innovative changes in education that lead primarily to the professional role of professional photographer but also other professions in visual communication. The professional role of professional photographer was in practice the same for more than 100 years, until the digital revolution in the 1990s. A major change has since taken place and is now moving faster and faster.

Professional photographer is a profession that is largely run as a self-employed person. Clients demand higher competence, both theoretically in the form of e.g. entrepreneurship and storytelling, which is practical in the form of e.g. new forms of visual media production and increased speed of workflows. The demands on cost-effective and competitive production are constantly increasing. The increased requirements must be followed up within the educations, with an increase in the competence of the teachers, a change in the implementation of the educations and an increased collaboration with working life.

It is important that the educations provide the skills needed for the students to be able to establish themselves in the professional role with good results. Indirectly, a qualitative education in photography also means that production in the field can be maintained within the EU. The combination of competence and quality means that a transfer of work in the professional role to low-wage countries, outside the EU, does not take place. A threat that today is a fact

The Image, both still image and film, is one of the most important media for influencing and changing society. The area of imaging is constantly changing; both technically and theoretically. The proposals we make as a result of the project in our Intellectual Output 1, form the basis for an important discussion before this ongoing process of change. A process where the work must take place across the borders between research, business and education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 139808 Eur

Project Coordinator

Folkuniversitetet Stiftelsen Kursverksamheten vid Stockholms universitet & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Media College Denmark
• AB YRKESHOGSKOLAN VID ABO AKADEMI