Context
Finland’s central government workforce faces a unique challenge: their demanding jobs require continuous skill development in a rapidly changing environment. Traditionally, training relied on in-person lectures, a time-consuming and geographically restrictive approach. Recognising this inefficiency, the Ministry of Finance, under Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government initiative to digitise public services, launched a key project in 2017. This project, titled ‘Joint e-learning in central government,’ tasked HAUS, the Finnish Institute of Public Management, with creating a centralised online learning platform for government employees. This project, with tight deadlines and limited resources, became the genesis of eOppiva.
Objectives
eOppiva’s primary objective was to revolutionise government training by making it efficient, accessible and consistent. This meant creating a platform that catered to the diverse needs of over 70 000 employees spread across 170 different agencies, from police officers in the south to tax officials in the far north. eOppiva’s solution was a digital learning environment offering flexibility and location independence. This shift not only saved travel time but also ensured equal access to training opportunities regardless of an agency’s budget constraints.
Implementation
The project began as a two-year experiment with a small, highly skilled team of just six members. This lean structure, driven by tight project timelines and funding limitations, fostered a resourceful approach. The team leveraged diverse skillsets, encompassing project management, content visualisation and video production, to build the platform. Today, eOppiva boasts over 200 courses, with a hundred developed directly by public officials through eOppiva’s support and processes. The platform itself has evolved into a two-pronged system: a Moodle platform accessible only to government employees and a public website offering free content to anyone. This dual approach caters for the specific training needs of the government workforce while simultaneously sharing valuable knowledge with the broader Finnish community.