Results (OHTY)

Results related to the OHTY project (Development of Guidance and Working Life Skills in Higher Education)

The project seeks to promote fluent progress of academic studies, timely graduation and students’ transition to working life. The project activities include surveys on students’ needs for guidance and universities’ guidance arrangements as well as development of methodology for guidance and counselling. The Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, is carrying out two OHTY subprojects. The first one (Working Life Competencies and Connections in Higher Education) is integrated with the activities of the TAO Learning Network in terms of its research topics but also by the people involved, since the leader of TAO Network, Professor Päivi Tynjälä is also acting as a supervisor and expert advisor while TAO Network Coordinator Anne Virtanen is working as a researcher in this project.

Our subproject on Working Life Competencies and Connections in Higher Education focuses on university students’ working life skills and knowledge and related development in the course of their studies. In addition, we are going to explore various pedagogical solutions to support such development. The research project seeks answers to the following questions, for example:

• How can the working life connections of academic studies be improved?
• How to incorporate working life competencies into curricula?
• How can students’ practical training be improved from the viewpoint of working life skills?
• How to develop universities’ career counselling so that it would lead to employment as smooth as possible and relevant both for the university graduate and the labour market?

Our purpose is to publish recent results of our research on this website.

The places for learning working life skills and knowledge at university (October 2009)

In a survey, university students (N=489, n=287) were asked to tell which of the current university courses had concretely broadened their views and experiences of skills and knowledge needed in the world of work. In this connection the students were encouraged to name individual courses. Preliminary results regarding their views are presented in the following.

In order to get a clear picture of the places for learning working life skills and knowledge for different fields, the students are divided into four groups. The first group consists of teacher students pursuing either class or PE teacher studies. The second group consists of generalist students of social/behavioural sciences (majoring in sociology, philosophy, social policy, political science, social work, education, adult education, or special education). The third group comprises students of mathematics and natural sciences who major in chemistry, mathematics, physics or biology. The fourth group includes economists, i.e. students of the school of economics.

TEACHER STUDENTS

As regards the most concrete sources for broader views on working life skills and knowledge needed in the world of work, most teacher students named practical training, referring thus to different teaching practice periods relative to their studies, which were apparently at least partly integrated to some larger study module. For example, PE teacher students mentioned most often training at a designated partner school as one of their significant learning experiences. (A glance at their degree requirements reveals that such training refers to practical training taking place at an elementary school in the second year of university studies so as to introduce the students with the work of PE teachers.) The respondents named also other study modules besides practical training. Class teacher students identified individual courses belonging to so-called POM studies (multidisciplinary studies for subjects and themes taught in basic education) as well as basic courses in special education. In many occasions, the PE teacher students highlighted health education studies as an important source of their working life knowledge. Interestingly enough, both class and PE teacher students pointed out such parts of their Intermediate Studies that had to do especially with learning and improving the skills of interaction.

GENERALISTS OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

Practical training periods with related seminars belong to the curricula of these students as well, and were highlighted as main concrete sources for the learning of working life skills and knowledge. Besides the practice periods, both the students of education and the students of social sciences mentioned so-called alumni type courses as good sources in this respect. These are courses where lectures or presentations are given by professionals of the field. Usually these study modules included also a learning assignment besides the lectures, which connected the issues addressed in the lectures to the world of work. Also actual alumni days and sessions were pointed out as significant opportunities for the learning of working life knowledge, like also their minor subject studies, such as managerial studies. The students of education also mentioned a general study course called Orientation to working life as well as the discussions related to their personal study plans. Both generalist groups stated that they had learnt skills and knowledge relevant to working life also in language and communication studies. The social science students identified particularly two study courses in this connection, namely Textual skills for working life and Basics of written communication, although admitting that also different courses on meetings and negotiations have been useful. The students of education regarded various courses of oral communication and interaction skills as useful.

STUDENTS OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES

Also these students found practical training as one of the most important sources for them to gain concrete knowledge about working life. In their case the practical training was part of the pedagogical studies for subject teacher students. Apparently this was the only kind of practical training available in this field; at least the students did not mention any other types. According to the chemistry students, the practical studies organised by their own department and intended for future chemistry teachers, were very useful. They also considered that studies taking place in the laboratory increased their working life knowledge in a concrete way. The students of physics mentioned a study module called Researcher’s toolbox as a good experience. Also courses dealing with data analysis software were considered useful.

STUDENTS OF ECONOMICS

These students considered that they gained working life knowledge both through visiting lecturers and through project studies linked to or taking place at the workplace. The students of economics did not mention practical training in this connection. Apparently such training does not belong to the curriculum in this field, either.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we can say that practical training is considered to play an important role in increasing authentic working life knowledge. This applies to both teacher students and such generalist students for whom practical training is part of the study programme. The generalists and the students of economics also highlighted alumni-type courses/visit lectures in increasing their working life knowledge. For the students of economics, also project works, which were carried out partly at the workplace, were of great importance in this regard. The students of mathematics and natural sciences appreciated laboratory –based studies. The so-called generalists of social and behavioural sciences, in particular, also emphasised the role of general studies here, like language and communication studies.

FURTHER RESEARCH

We intend to go on with this investigation soon. Some of the above-mentioned study modules will be presented more closely on this website, providing that the departments concerned give their permission for this. The purpose is to offer these well-proven practices for consideration by others as well.

For more information about this study and possible further research interests, please contact researcher Anne Virtanen (email: anne.virtanen@jyu.fi or phone: +358 14 260 3218 [tämä lienee syytä päivittää]).

A summary of papers presented at the Annual Conference of the Finnish Educational Research Association in Tampere, November 2009

We presented at the conference some results based on a questionnaire survey conducted in early summer 2009.
Our paper presented in the theme group of university pedagogy dealt with university students’ perceptions on working life connections in their education as well as the working life competencies it provides. According to our results, they considered that their education provided reasonable possibilities for the development of practical competencies and also reasonable opportunities to develop one’s own professional competence, even if there were fairly few actual connections with the world of work. The lack of real workplace connections is depicted by the fact that the students found that they learn about the skills and knowledge needed in working life mostly from sources outside their actual university studies: by their own work experience, from friends at work, and from other university students. While university education as such seems to have but limited possibilities to offer actual workplace connections in any larger scale, the teaching provided at university can, however, compensate this to some extent.

The above summary is based on the conference paper:

Virtanen, A. & Tynjälä, P. 2009. Yliopistokoulutuksen työelämäyhteydet sekä sen tuottamat työelämävalmiudet opiskelijoiden arvioimana [Student perceptions of their university education as regards its workplace connections and working life competencies provided]. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Finnish Educational Research Association, November 26-27, 2009. Tampere, Finland.

In the theme group ”From Higher Education to Work” our paper reported what skills and knowledge university students find they are learning during their education. According to our results, they consider that they learn a wide range of different skills and knowledge, most notably those related to the search and analysis of information as well as independent working. Also collaboration and communication skills and basic field-specific competencies were learnt to a reasonable extent. We also found out that students learn different skills and knowledge at different stages of their studies, which seems to be based on the current structure of study programmes. For example, the students considered that they learnt to search and analyse information most in the third study year, which typically coincides with baccalaureate theses and seminar works.

However, there were statistically significant differences between students of different faculties in terms of the skills and knowledge learnt. In so-called professional fields (class and PE teacher programmes) the students learnt more extensively professional skills of their own field, in particular, and also collaboration and communication skills appreciated at the workplace than their peers in the other fields. Correspondingly, students in so-called generalist fields (e.g. social sciences) considered that they learnt more typically traditional skills produced by university education, such as search and analysis of information. This brings us to the question i) how to make university students realise the meaning of tacit knowledge as essential to professional competence, and ii) how this could be supported by pedagogic means in their education.

The above summary is based on the conference paper:
Virtanen, A. & Tynjälä, P. 2009. Yliopisto-opiskelijoiden itsearviointeja tietojen ja taitojen oppimisesta [University students’ self-assessments on learning of skills and knowledge]. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Finnish Educational Research Association, November 26-27, 2009. Tampere, Finland.

Further information about the papers: Researcher Anne Virtanen (email: anne.virtanen@jyu.fi)