Curriculum reform in vocational education: how to update your learning materials

In Finnish vocational education the qualification requirements are being renewed. According to the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH), the renewed common units of vocational basic qualifications take effect on 1 August 2026, and the content was last updated in 2018. When the requirements change, many teachers face the same question: materials built for the 2018 requirements no longer match the new competence goals, and making new ones takes time that is scarce in everyday work. In an OAJ member survey, nine out of ten vocational teachers found their work more burdensome than before (OAJ 2024).

This guide walks through one concrete way to update the materials for the common units so that you do not have to build everything from scratch.

What changes in the common units

There are three common units: communication and interaction competence, mathematical-scientific competence, and competence in society and working life. Their scope stays at 35 competence points, but the content is updated. According to OPH, the reform adds, among other things, financial literacy, communication and multiliteracy skills, and data-security and AI competence (OPH 2026). The area “maintaining work ability and well-being” also gets a new name and content. OPH supports the rollout during spring 2026 with training for education providers.

In practice this means the competence goals and assessment criteria are partly rewritten. From a teacher’s point of view the question is not only what is taught, but also which existing materials still work as they are, which need editing, and which are dropped.

Don’t start from scratch; map what already exists

The temptation when facing a reform is to start from a clean slate. That is the heaviest route. A lighter starting point can be to go through the materials that have already worked and see which of them match the new goals with small edits.

One way to proceed is a rough split into three: materials that work as they are, materials that need an update to new terminology or an assessment criterion, and gaps that need entirely new content. Most of the old material usually falls into the first two groups. Real gaps are often fewer than they seem at the start of a reform.

A heterogeneous group does not disappear in a reform

In vocational education students’ starting levels vary a lot, and the reform does not remove that. A University of Jyväskylä study on differentiation in vocational social and health care education found that “the students’ transition from the structured learning environment of comprehensive school to a self-direction-oriented environment did not remove the needs for differentiation”. In the same study, teachers wanted more time, expertise and means to support students individually.

When materials are updated to the new requirements, it is a natural moment to build the different skill levels in from the start. The same topic can be made as a lighter and a more demanding version at once, so differentiation does not become separate extra work. This is covered in more detail in the differentiation guide.

How Bruukki helps with the update

Bruukki is built exactly for this situation. You bring in your existing material and get a suggestion that can be aligned with the new competence goals and assessment criteria. The AI suggests the changes, you decide what stays. So you do not discard years of work; you update on top of it.

The same applies to differentiation: you get the same task set to different skill levels without writing each version separately.

Where to start

There is no need to update the whole qualification at once. One way is to start from one unit that comes into teaching first after the new requirements take effect, and carry it through. Once the method is familiar, you can repeat it for the next units. It is worth keeping OPH’s spring 2026 support material alongside, so the updates hit the new criteria.

If you want to try how your own material adapts to the new requirements, try Bruukki for free. We are glad to hear feedback from teachers, so do tell us if something does not work.

Sources

• Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH). Ammatillisten perustutkintojen yhteiset tutkinnon osat. (in Finnish)
• OPH (2026). Yhteisten tutkinnon osien uudistus tuo ammatillisiin perustutkintoihin lisää viestintä- ja talousosaamista. (in Finnish)
• OAJ (2024). Survey: vocational students’ support needs have grown and teachers’ workload has increased. (in Finnish)
• Niemi, J. (2023). “Päämäärä on sama, mutta reitti on eri”: differentiation in vocational social and health care studies. Master’s thesis, University of Jyväskylä (in Finnish).

Read also: differentiation in language teaching without double the work.