The Definition of Informatics Competencies in Finnish Healthcare and Social Welfare Education

Finland is a world leader in the use of public electronic services. Continuous improvement to competencies is a prerequisite for the success of digitalisation in the service development sector. The increasing use of information technology in health and social care needs to be taken into account in the education of the health and social care sector work force. The mandate of the national SotePeda 24/7 project is to identify and define the informatics competencies required for multidisciplinary education of this sector in Finland. The project has adapted international recommendations for use in the national context. The national recommendation covers 12 areas of competency and related content. In addition to defining competencies, the project has produced a toolbox of materials for use by educators of these topics in universities that cover applied sciences and lifelong learning. The results of the project are expected to significantly improve the preparedness of graduating health and social care and related engineering and business sector students to make full use information technology, all of which benefits the national health and social welfare system.