June - July 2001 - Logging and Sawmilling Journal -

Finland's Kuru Institute of Forestry teaches students from around the world, including Canada, how to operate logging equipment and more.

From the moment you arrive, there's no mistaking the strong focus on timber harvesting. Towards the end of the year, there is a small Christmas tree in the corner of the common room. But the decorations are not quite what you might expect-instead, shredded plastic ties from a well-known Finnish timber processor are interspersed with harvesters and forwarders, carefully cut out from machinery brochures. The fairy at the top of the tree is wielding a chainsaw. Welcome to the Kuru Institute of Forestry in Finland. The Kuru Institute caters to a broad range of ages and needs, from basic forestry training for recent Finnish high school graduates to intensive courses for machine operators.

Students at the Kuru Institute certainly have classroom time, but up to 80 per cent of the training is practical, with much of it spent in the forest on a variety of harvesters and forwarders.

The college has an annual budget of $4.8 million for 280 students and 30 teachers, allowing it to keep up to date with the latest developments in machinery and technology. Though well-financed, less than 50 per cent of its funding comes from the government, so the institute has to be very proactive in raising funds from courses, projects and contract work. But for the prospective foreign student, what particularly sets this institute apart from others in Finland is the range of international courses offered and the practical nature of the training.

The Kuru Institute has always been interested in providing some of its courses in English, primarily to give Finnish students a solid grounding in a language which is so important to international Finnish forestry companies. But the institute is also outward looking and willing to share its forestry expertise with foreign students.

The 18-month International Vocational qualification has trained students from all over the world, with current students hailing from Finland, Britain, Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Many students go straight into employment following the basic training, but it can also provide a springboard to further education in forestry or to the Kuru Institute Machine Operators course which, beginning in 2001, will also be offered in English.

As the international vocational course is part of the Basic Training program, food and accommodation are provided free of charge to all students during the school week, an example of the enlightened attitude to training in Finland-and extremely popular with the students. But the most important reason for attending the institute is the quality of the training. Forestry education at Kuru teaches the students much more than just how to drive a machine. Forestry is a multi-skilled occupation and students are taught Finnish forest management and encouraged to start thinking for themselves right from the start.

This is done by giving students responsibility, beginning with the expectation that they will have already sharpened their harvester head chains and have enough fuel for the day and ending with the instructors leaving students to plan and carry out work themselves, though they always remain close by. "This is a good method," says Mika Laakso, machinery instructor. "When you give responsibility to the students, they understand that you trust them and that builds up their self-confidence and gives them the power to learn." Students learn to carry out thinnings and make good quality saw logs with chainsaws before being let loose on expensive harvesting machines.

But they actually spend very little time on the simulator, which at Kuru is used to introduce students to the basics of the machine and to teach information technology. "At first, the students are very nervous and wonder how we can trust them to use such expensive machines," says Laakso. "But they are here to learn and when they make mistakes, they do a lot of learning." As up to 80 per cent of the training is practical with much of it in the forest, one of the first lessons the students learn is that forestry is extremely hard work. One of the female students confessed that after a year at Kuru she had developed muscles in places that she didn't know she could have muscles.

The institute tries to make the step to the real world as small as possible and one way to do this is for students to work on real logging contracts. This is a vitally important part of the training as it brings home the importance of productivity and above all, quality of work, which no amount of simulator practice or even work in the 1,200 hectares of demonstration forest could do. The institute competes for contracts with other logging contractors in the area who support this practice, as they recognize the need for operator training.

The basics of machinery operation can be learned fairly quickly, but the forestry contractor has to work intelligently and make a lot of decisions in a short period of time. "The way to learn this is by experience," says vice-principal Hannu Salakari. "It's rather like learning to drive in the middle of London-you can't do it in a classroom. A rally simulator is a good start, but although my six-yearold son is very good on the simulator, I am better in a car." The institute currently owns five harvesters and nine forwarders (all the leading Finnish manufacturers are represented) and they aim to replace harvesters when they are around six years old. Manufacturers are happy to give them a good deal on the trade-in, as servicing and regular maintenance are also an essential part of the students' routine.

As you might expect, the institute has close links with all the Finnish forest machinery manufacturers. As technology advances and the computer programs become ever more complicated, institute tutors regularly visit the manufacturers to keep up with the latest developments. The institute is in the process of exporting their forestry training knowledge in overseas projects to help in the establishment of new forestry training institutes. The TACIS PCP4 Project, which has just been completed in the Leningrad region of Russia, has not only trained students in the sustainable use of forestry and machine operations, but has helped to develop a forestry college in Russia, selecting the best students and training them to become the forest and machine trainers of the future.

Being a student at Kuru Institute is a rather special experience. It's not just the wonderful opportunities for outdoor activities such as canoeing and ice climbing, or the companionable (if sometimes competitive) saunas at the end of a hard day in the forest, but something which the students refer to as the "Kuru spirit". Where does this spirit come from? Perhaps the practical nature of the courses results in a relaxed attitude, or maybe it's because the students live in apartments with their course colleagues, or perhaps it's the quiet influence of the principal, Juhani Vuori. Either way, Finland is widely acknowledged to be ahead of many other forestry countries in terms of forest management.

After all, where better to come for forest training than the school where forwarders and harvesters replace bulbs on the Christmas tree-and there's no messing around with that fairy at the top swinging a chainsaw.

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