Browsing by Subject "työelämävalmiudet"

My thesis is set in the vocational special education institution, where I researched development of working life competences of students with special needs during two school years. My goal is to find out, what kind of working life competences students have in different period of studies and what kind of influence competences may have to students' employment after studies. In my thesis I also think about how existing working life competences support and insufficient working life competences prevent to reach the work and how to support and develop insufficient working life competencies. The reform of the vocational education and training became valid in the beginning of year 2018 and it will change the vocational education and training in Finland. In my thesis I reflect this reform on the vocational special education. The qualitative research was focused at a small group of special education students, in the first research year seven students and in the second year five students. My research is an ethnographic research, because at the same time when I collected my data I worked as a teacher in the research field. I collected my data by observing and keeping a diary of my observations and discussion with students and workplace instructors. I made inquiries to students, one interview to one workplace instructor and collected other material. I made analysis with the content analysis. Making themes in the analysis I used competence classification of Evers, Rush and Bedrow, where working life competences are separated to managing self, communicating, managing people and tasks and mobilising innovation and change. Working life competencies of students developed best during on-the-job-learning period in the workplace. Students of the vocational special education institution didn't reach all fields of working life competencies which could have supported their employment. Insufficient working life competencies should be identified and support and guidance to students must be offered. During working life periods should be schooldays when students can get support from teacher and own study group. It is the institution's mission to make sure that learning in the workplace is along goals and student gets enough guidance. In the workplaces there should be enough workplace instructors, who are capable to guide students with special needs. The reform of the vocational education and training offer possibilities but include also threats. There should be chances for every young student, although student with special needs does not represent the ideal student of the reform: quickly graduated and employed.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine what kind of working life skills students had learned during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. Working life skills are skills and abilities, which are applicable in a range of contexts and tasks and are learned while completing disciplinary content studies. According to previous studies university studies contribute to the development of students’ working life skills to some extent but they do not necessarily provide all the skills required at the labour market. The second purpose of this study was to examine what kind of learning experiences had supported the development of the students working life skills during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. In previous studies students’ working life skills have developed especially in the instruction/courses emphasizing experiential learning. Methods. The study is based on narrative research methods and the data were collected by utilising the narrative interviews from six students at Aalto University. The interviewed students had completed Aaltonaut minor program at Aalto Design Factory during their Bachelor’s level studies. A one-question interview technique was applied in the interviews. The interviews were analysed with narrative analysis and analysis of narrative. Results and conclusions. Students reported that during their Bachelor’s level studies, they had learned working life skills related especially to social and communication skills. These skills were, for example, teamwork, oral communication and presentation skills. Students perceived that they had also learned working life skills, such as entrepreneurial mindset and innovative thinking, as well as the ability to reflect on their own learning and knowledge and confidence about their own expertise. According to the findings of this study, students experienced that basic and major studies in their Bachelor’s degrees developed their working life skills narrowly. These studies contributed mainly to their working life skills related to teamwork, information retrieval and scientific research. The students perceived that their working life skills developed especially through the learning experiences, which were based on concrete experiences. In the Bachelor’s level studies, these kind of learning experiences were mainly offered by the Aaltonaut minor programme.