Senior Lecturer, International Coordinator, Digital Pedagogy Expert, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND?

I grew up in Seinäjoki, a small town in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland. Music played a big part in my childhood and youth: I started with classical piano and choirs and later on started playing and singing in various bands. In upper secondary school, I remember considering pursuing a career in music, but ended up studying acoustics and audio technology, which is of course engineering but still music-related. After a while I started having a second thoughts about the nature of the work I would be doing after graduation, and after realizing I want to primarily work with people instead of numbers, I made a U-turn and decided to become an English teacher and moved to Tampere. At the moment I'm living in Tampere in an old wooden house in the middle of two lakes with three kids and a wife.

WHAT IS YOUR PATH TO THE CURRENT POSITION?

After graduating, I started working as an English and Swedish teacher at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. However, as I'm a curious person and enjoy taking on new challenges, I quite soon got the responsibility of coordinating international affairs for our language education in addition to teaching. Ever since, I've been exploring various corners of higher education (e.g. digital pedagogy, AI, RDI projects, etc.) and making them part of my job description. A couple of years ago, my international coordinator duties were expanded to also cover our music education, which was a very welcome change, as I had already taught English for our music students for many years, and had a life-long passion for music.

WHAT IS YOUR PASSION IN YOUR JOB?

The best part of my job is without a doubt connecting with different people and learning from them. I am a people person to the core. There is always so much to discover through interacting with people from different parts of the world and different walks of life. I also love being able to play a part in opening up new possibilities for higher education staff and students, both in practical and psychological ways, and connecting people with each other. This is of course at the heart of what regularly happens when we meet each other through Nordplusmusic, so I guess it's no wonder why it has felt like one of the highlights of this job.