Browsing by Author "Inkinen, Reetta"

Objectives. Neoliberal education policies have put pressure on strengthening the relationship between universities and working life, and universities expected to better prepare students for working life. Universities have long sought to meet the needs of the labor market by, among other things, increasing more work-oriented teaching, but nevertheless students face many employment-related challenges in transition from studies to working life and the number of unemployed with a university degree has increased. The working life equivalence of university studies has studied a lot, but qualitative research on students' personal experiences has lagged behind. The aim of this study was to find out the experiences of educational students about their capital supporting their employment and the factors accumulating them during their studies. In addition, the perceived benefits of capital in the transition from university studies to working life were examined. Methods. The study examined the experiences of students studying for a master’s degree in education about the capital supporting their employment during their studies, the factors accumulating them and their benefits in the transition from university studies to working life. The data consisted of seven semi-structured theme interviews. The interview data were analyzed using abductive content analysis method. Results and conclusions. Students described that they had accumulated a variety of forms of capital during their studies to support their employment. Capital accumulated most through internships, optional studies, organizational activities or other student activity and work experience, and the importance of these factors as a supporter of one's own employment emphasized. Instead, the connection between the formal studies related to the degree and working life was felt to be insufficient, and more concrete information was desired for the studies from the perspective of working life, for example by adding internships. In the transition from university studies to working life, the clarification of one's own work goal, the ability to identify, say and make one's own skills visible, and useful networks and interpersonal relationships that provide information about hidden jobs or a referee to support one's own employment seem to be important. It could be concluded from the results that the main subject studies in education in particular should better develop in a direction that supports the strengthening of student employment.