The Foundation’s history
The Lifelong Learning Foundation is established
The Lifelong Learning Foundation (Kvs) is one of Finland's first national associations and the oldest organisation for enlightenment. Its establishment was decided at an 1872 primary school teachers’ meeting in Jyväskylä, but the idea had been talked about in public discussions much earlier.
Lue lisää SuljeThe calendar is published, the library institution is started
In the 1870s, the Finnish society was in the midst of changes. The traditional, almost unchanging society had been taken into a new “age of change”. The absolute number one product of the Lifelong Learning Foundation, its calendar, was first published in 1881.
The song fest – Finland’s first festival
When the Lifelong Learning Foundation was established, no one expected music to become a central part of its operation. The Kvs Foundation’s Executive Director Aksel Granfelt had a great fondness for Estonia. On his travels to Estonia, he saw what great popularity nationalistic song fests had gained and wanted to bring them over to Finland, as well.
Adult educational centres and the open university
At the end of 1880, the Lifelong Learning Foundation established a work group to plan the programme and the implementation of a Finnish adult educational centre. However, for a long time the programme was stuck in the senate, whose approval was needed for establishing an educational institution, and the project was delayed.
The Foundation’s own building is finished
In 1913, the Foundation’s secretary, a historian and a significant political influencer, Väinö Voionmaa, had the Foundation’s first building constructed on Museokatu in Helsinki. During the first decades, the Foundation had operated in different rental spaces in Helsinki, and had often been so cramped that the Foundation’s office and the secretary’s apartment were overlapping.
The Foundation is one of the founding members of the Alfred Kordelinin Foundation
Once upon a time, Alfred Kordelin was the richest man in Finland. He had become a member of the Lifelong Learning Foundation in 1913. He died in the unrest of 1917.
Kordel bequeathed a large part of his property to promote Finnish science, art, literature and enlightenment.
The Lifelong Learning Foundation’s Correspondence school is started
The idea of learning via letters entered Finland from abroad as early as the 1910s. The Kvs Foundation’s Correspondence school was created as a byproduct of the adult education centre activities. The Foundation’s Home Study Secretary Onni Tolvanen stated that there was a need for a correspondence school.
The school covered the entire country comprehensively. In the 1940s, it got the name Distance school. At the start of 1944, the Correspondence school had over 40,000 students, making it overwhelmingly the largest educational institution in Finland. It took until the 21th century for the University of Helsinki to surpass it.
Establishing Yle and radio broadcasting
In the mid-1920s, the people’s enlightenment work got a whole new tool and dimension with the start of radio broadcasting and the establishment of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. The new apparatus and its possibilities piqued the interest of people at the Foundation.
With a small share of a few per cents, the Lifelong Learning Foundation became a shareholder in the new company. From the autumn of 1926, the Kvs Foundation regularly produced presentations for Yle.
From an association to a foundation
In 1908, the Foundation’s celebratory meeting had been problematic due to party political reasons. Russia’s second period of oppression had started and conservatives thought that it would be good to make some kind of a compromise with Russia, while others demanded resistance. At the Foundation’s meeting, the latter side cleverly increased their popularity.
Later on, the Academic Karelia Society became excited about the Greater Finland ideology and wanted to take over organisations that could help influence the public opinion. It took over the Association of Finnish Culture in 1927 and also tried to influence the youth association movement, in which many of Kvs Foundation’s leaders were involved. The AKS considered the Foundation and its leaders to be conservative and failed to get the money it had asked to fund the Greater Finland project.
In 1928, as the Kvs Foundation worried about these developments, a committee suggested changing the association into a foundation in order to avoid any surprises or sudden changes in personnel.
The Correspondence school becomes the largest school in Finland
The Kvs Foundation’s Correspondence school was created by accident or unnoticed as a byproduct of the adult education centre activities. The idea of learning via letters entered Finland from abroad.
At the start of 1944, the Correspondence school had over 40,000 students, making it overwhelmingly the largest educational institution in Finland. It took until the 21th century for the University of Helsinki to surpass it.
The Kvs Foundation acquires Orivesi College
In 1945, The Foundation made their most significant individual decision by assuming ownership of the Orivesi College of Arts.
The start of internationalisation
In 1964, the Kvs Foundation started to publish the English-language magazine “Adult Education in Finland”, which later became “Life and Education in Finland” (LEIF). In 1995, the Foundation was appointed the task of giving language training to the Finnish officials and those who wanted to become EU officials as Finland joined the European Union.
In the mid-1970s, the Foundation had also started to provide, with government support, basic education for expatriate Finnish children, which later on turned into the Kulkuri School of Distance Education.
In 2012, a communications unit of the European Association for the Education of Adults was transferred under the Kvs Foundation.
Lue lisää SuljeMagazine publishing expands
The Lifelong Learning Foundation has been involved in publishing throughout its existence. In 1980, the Foundation, together with the Finnish Society for Research on Adult Education, established the scientific Aikuiskasvatus magazine, which had its first issue come out in 1981. In addition, the Kvs Foundation has published online magazines directed at adult education professionals.
The Lifelong Learning Foundation’s 140th anniversary
The Lifelong Learning Foundation celebrated its 140th anniversary in the midst of many changes and in economic uncertainty. This is nothing new in the Foundation’s history. Liberal education has been constantly changing for over a hundred years to fit the needs of society.
The Foundation starts maintaining the Southern Helsinki Adult Education Centre
The merger strengthens digital learning environments, innovations of lifelong learning and the development of operations in the entire liberal education sector.
Distance school project for Finnish children in al-Hol 2020–2022
At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Kulkuri School of Distance Education, maintained by the Kvs Foundation, implemented a distance school project for the Finnish children at the Al Hol prison camp in Syria.
Lue lisää SuljeThe Soppi science centre is established
The Kvs Foundation expanded its operations by opening the Soppi science centre on learning and education.
The Year of Sivistys 2024
We celebrate our 150th anniversary and coordinate the national Year of Sivistys 2024, designated by the Ministry of Education and Culture.