Alumni, re­spond to a ca­reer track­ing sur­vey and help to de­ve­lop university education

This autumn an invitation to respond to a career tracking survey will be sent to those who completed a master’s degree, a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) degree or an early childhood education teacher degree in 2015 or a doctoral degree in 2017. By responding, you help solidify the connection between studying and professional life. Professor of Practice Pekka Sauri believes it is important to close the gap between the labour market and education.

Since 2005, the placement of Finnish university graduates in the labour market has been monitored by conducting career tracking surveys, which aim to determine how well university education is able to meet the requirements of professional life. The data collected is used, among other things, for developing the career skills of current students.

Ef­fects of the coronavirus situ­ation a spe­cial theme in this year’s sur­vey

A special theme of this autumn’s career tracking survey is the effect of the exceptional circumstances brought about by the coronavirus pandemic on the employment and labour market situation of university graduates:

“We want to get first-hand information on how the coronavirus period has affected ways of working, the content of work and the skills needed in work. To what degree have the circumstances transformed work in different fields, such as teaching, medicine, journalism or research? We need more information to make university education meet future needs even better,” says Eric Carver, specialist in charge of career tracking surveys at Strategic Services for Teaching.

Job de­scrip­tion for pro­fess­or­ships of prac­tice shaped through ex­per­i­ence

The first appointments to the position of professor of practice were made at the University of Helsinki in 2017, with the appointees also tasked with bringing professional life and studying closer together. At the University of Helsinki, a holder of a doctoral degree with professional merits and experience of particular significance from outside the academic world may be appointed to the position of professor of practice. Pekka Sauri, professor of practice in organisational communication, was among the first appointees, and his three-year term is coming to an end this autumn.

Sauri says he has had ample opportunities to influence his duties in the position. In the past three years, he has, for example, coordinated career-oriented courses for master’s students of the Faculty of Social Sciences, contributed to the Faculty’s operations and served as a visiting lecturer on the courses of others. Sauri’s courses have also had a solid foundation in case examples originating in professional life:

“I’ve invited visiting lecturers diversely from different sectors of society to talk about current topics on my lecture-based courses. Among the people who have given presentations on organisational communication to students are Olli Rehn, governor of the Bank of Finland, and Päivi Anttikoski, director of government communications at the Prime Minister’s Office,” says Sauri.

Pro­fes­sional life and study­ing must be brought closer already dur­ing stud­ies

Sauri points out that students need to get diverse information and examples of professional life already during their studies to improve their qualifications to enter the labour market:

“The University has a strong need to bring studying and professional life closer together,” Sauri sums up.

According to Sauri, the career-related experiences of alumni directly benefit students, as they can use them to expand their views of employment opportunities and gain a realistic notion of how different organisations function.

Eric Carver, specialist in charge of career tracking surveys, agrees with Sauri and adds that the information gained from the surveys also makes it possible to alleviate students’ concerns regarding employment:

“Knowledge of the varying career paths of earlier graduates helps current and future students contemplate their own future. Students and degree programmes are particularly interested in information on the skills needed in different positions. The University’s degree programmes monitor the development of the competence requirements on the labour market, for example, by utilising the Osaamistutka (‘Skills radar’) application developed at the University, which has been collecting data on graduates’ skills requirements in conjunction with the surveys for more than 10 years,” Carver says.

Source: University of Helsinki

Share

European Higher Education Organization

European Higher Education Organization is a public organization carrying out academic, educational and information activities on higher education in Europe. The EHEO general plan stresses that: Higher education systems require adequate funding and, as an investment in economic growth, public spending in higher education should be protected. The challenges faced by higher education require more flexible governance and funding systems, which balance greater autonomy for education institutions with accountability to stakeholders. Thus, EHEO plans: improve academic and scientific interaction of universities; protect the interests of universities; interact more closely with public authorities of European countries; popularize European higher education in the world; develop academic mobility; seek funding for European universities.

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Success for UiO at the European Research Council

Sat Oct 10 , 2020
Four out of seven Norwegian recipients of the European Research Council’s (ERC) Starting Grants are from UiO. The ERC announced the awards today. This is very good news! Behind these four prestigious awards lies enormous work put in by our talented younger researchers as well as long-term strategic work from […]