Education business and the actors involved in it have gained increasing global attention. However, little is known about the commercial actors participating in mainly publicly maintained comprehensive schooling in Finland and how the roles of teachers and schools are seen in this edu-business. In this article, we analyze 'edu-business…

In a time when the construction industry shares the challenge of labour shortage, more attention should be paid to how attractive careers in the construction field are in the first place. The constantly evolving working environment is causing significant changes in careers and career management in the field, leading to the need to explore company…

This study uses a person-centered approach to investigate construction workers' learning at work, focusing on their approaches to learning, self-efficacy beliefs and work engagement and how these vary according to their goal orientation profiles. Survey data were collected from Finnish construction sector employees (N = 1,280) in June 2021. The…

Many studies emphasise the need for supporting higher education students to develop general competences. In this study, we report on the first cycle of a designbased research project conducted in the Design Factory context. The aim of the project is to understand how general competences can be integrated into course modules and within…

Post-industrial society has witnessed trends according to which the labour market has become more flexible, services have expanded and immaterial work and horizontal work organisation has emerged, shaping professions in respect to the employment and work they can offer. An outcome of these trends is a portfolio career, an employment pattern based…

Vocational education and training (VET) can play a transformative role in reducing CO[subscript 2] emissions and improving the energy efficiency of buildings across Europe. Nearly zero energy building (NZEB) requires an energy literate workforce, with broader and deeper theoretical knowledge, higher technical and precision skills,…

This case study analyzed the Finnish National Broadcasting Company (YLE) literacy on socio-educational policies during the alpha and delta variant strategic turns 2021. The data comprised YLE releases, interdisciplinary global research, pandemic literacies, and statements of politicians/officials. Limitations occurred mainly in the data plenitude.…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the tension between learning and protection in university-industry relationships (UIRs) and, in particular, to identify practices that facilitate ways of coping with this tension. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical work for the study is based on a qualitative comparative case analysis of six…

Professionalization in adult education is necessary, and several initiatives are underway to improve the professional situation as well as the competences and skills of adult educators. The relevance and importance of adult education is often stated. Large-scale assessments such as the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult…

School-industry collaboration can be an effective way to implement STSE issues to teaching. However, teachers' negative beliefs, lack of knowledge, resources, support and opportunities to collaborate with companies can impede the efficient implementation. In this case-study, 42 Finnish and Slovenian pre-service teachers' STSE beliefs were first…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze learning in organizational transformations by focusing on concept-level tensions faced in two young companies, which were searching for a reorientation of activity with a production network between innovative product development and efficient mass production. Design/methodology/approach: An intervention-based…

Purpose: Organizational silos that build on the existing organizational structures are often considered to have negative effects in the form of focus on private narrow objectives and organizational fragmentation. To avoid such harmful outcomes, competence management is called for, and in this, the human resources (HR) function takes a key role.…

Informal learning in a physical work context requires communication and collaboration that build on a common ground and an active awareness of a situation. We explored whether mobile video conversations augmented with on-screen drawing features were beneficial for improving communication and remote collaboration practices in the construction and…

In the Finnish higher education system, government steering and the interests of industry and business have come to focus on the impact of the university in society. In 2010, "Aalto University" was created in a merger of three universities representing different academic fields. The new university developed a forward-looking strategy,…

Purpose: This paper aims to better understand how to lead toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up context. Design/methodology/approach: The study investigates the participants' experiences about the learning challenges in leadership toward creativity in virtual work in a start-up company and the meanings attributed to their experiences,…