The Foundation’s history

1874

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.

At the time, the rules of the Foundation had to be approved by the senate before the founding meeting. This is why the Foundation’s first rules were written already in 1873, although the founding meeting was not held until the next year in connection with the school teacher meeting in Jyväskylä.

The operation was started with the first annual meeting in September 1874 in Helsinki.

There was a strong consensus about the Foundation’s nature and vision from the very time of its establishment. Its goals were listed in the Foundation’s first rules, which gave the basis for its practical operations:

Our purpose is to publish useful, affordable literature that the people can easily understand, and to spread such literature, as well as to use other suitable means to spark knowledge and the desire for learning.

In the beginning, the Foundation acted as a publisher and agent for books, but its operation broadened quickly as the amount of ideas was too plentiful to realise.

The operation was based on the idea that enlightenment belonged to everybody, regardless of social class or gender. Sivistys was thought to be a shared thing that brought all the people together. This was used to justify the necessity of the Foundation.

Source: Ojanen, Eero (2014).

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1881

The 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.

1884

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.

1890

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.

1913

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.

1918

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.

1920

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.

1926

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.

1934

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.

1941

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.

1945

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.

1964

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.

In 1964, the Kvs Foundation began to publish the English-language magazine “Adult Education in Finland”, which later became “Life and Education in Finland” (LEIF). The magazine introduced Finnish adult education and culture to an international audience. In 1996, the concept was renewed and the magazine named “Lifelong Learning in Europe” (LLinE), which was turned into an online magazine in 2012. Its mission was to build a bridge between the research and practices in the field of adult education. In 2015, LLinE became ELM Magazine.

There had been a lot of internationalisation since the 1960s. The Foundation was already known for offering language courses, so it 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 1995.

In the mid-1970s, the Foundation had also started to provide, with government support, basic education for expatriate Finnish children, meaning those who live outside Finland. In the beginning, the basic home education of expatriates was part of the Correspondence school, but it soon became its own unit. The school started to offer online courses at the end of 1990s, and developed into a pioneer in online teaching in Finland. In the 2010s, more and more of the teaching was transferred online, and in 2011 the school changed its name to the Kulkuri School of Distance Education.

A new step was taken towards international advocacy in 2012, when a communications unit of the European Association for Education of Adults (EAEA) was transferred under the Kvs Foundation.

Source: Ojanen, Eero (2014).

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1981

Magazine 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.

2014

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.

2019

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.

2020

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.

The project was started because the officials wanted to secure the children’s basic and human rights even during exceptional circumstances. The goal was to bring routine and stimulation to the everyday life of children and teenagers, and also to give opportunities to find joy in learning and making discoveries. An additional goal was to support and facilitate the integration of the children and teenagers living in the middle of a crisis when they return to Finland. 

The distance education was implemented entirely through WhatsApp messages. Because there were no existing educational materials for mobile distance learning, the project’s work group created one in accordance with the curricula of Finnish pre-school education and basic education. This worked as the basis for the operational model of mobile distance learning.

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2022

The Soppi science centre is established

The Kvs Foundation expanded its operations by opening the Soppi science centre on learning and education.

2024

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.