Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to develop guidance of the path students in Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Laurea UAS operates in Uusimaa Finland. Laurea offers path study places in degree programmes in Finnish. The path studies are always done in open university of applied sciences. A person who has earned 60 credits may apply to become a degree student through a separate application process.

In Laurea the pedagogy is premised on work-based learning, skills required for a degree are acquired through work. The goal of work-based learning is to combine training and work. The guidance of work-based learning is linked with career guidance. The conscious expansion of professional skills with the student's workplace and his or her personal needs as starting points. A student who is working not only ponders what the requirements of a degree are, but also what skills and knowledge need to be improved when he or she has a job and a career.

The theoretical background consists of students’ agency in guidance in higher education. The agency can be seen as individuals possibility to influence their own lives. The agency could stay stable or could change during studies. (Vähäsantanen 2015). Interest and motivation, self-efficacy, competence beliefs and participation activity are resources of agency (Jääskelä & al, 2017).

In Laurea guidance is about a teacher supporting students in recognizing their learning goals and building up their study skills. Guidance is student-driven and typical for guidance is that there are no certain answers. Teacher and student together look for the solutions. After the first year the guidance also will concentrate supporting students competence development and career guidance. Values and ethical principles of the guidance are student driven guidance, equality, transparency, openness in guidance as well as constant observation, evaluation and developing. (Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulun ohjaussuunnitelma 2018).

The aim of this study is to develop path students guidance services. The research questions are:
1. What kind of guidance experiences path students have?
2. What kind of guidance they wish (or need), when they start as a degree student?
3. How is their agency developed?

Path students will answer the questionnaire in September. The results of this study will help teachers to develop better ways to organize the guidance. Constant observation, evaluation and developing are the leading principles in all process in Laurea.

References:
[1] Jääskelä, P., Poikkeus, A.-M., Vasalampi, K., Valleala, U. M., & Rasku-Puttonen, H. (2017). Assessing agency of university students : validation of the AUS Scale. Studies in Higher Education, 42 (11), 2061-2079. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/55718/assessing%20agency%20in%20universitystudentswhole%20article%20draft.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu. Path Studies
https://www.laurea.fi/en/degree_programmes/open-university-of-applied-sciences/path-studies/
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulun ohjaussuunnitelma. 2018. https://www.laurea.fi/globalassets/laurea/documents/laurean-ohjaussuunnitelma.pdf
[2] Vähäsantanen, K. 2015. Professional agency in the stream of change: Understanding educational change and teachers' professional identities. In Teaching and Teacher Education 47 (2015) 1-12. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0742051X14001516?token=2AE62E620B4AFBD786BCDC52CB5DD10C79AC4A27C9318A5C7AD82C24DF77B4AE2205D71D9D4F3817AAE8A6B4D754A740

Keywords:

Guidance, University on Applied Sciences, work-based learning.