Abstract:

Many people have come to the realization that the university degree they achieved 10 years ago, or even less, seems irrelevant in today’s world. Change in organizations, new competence and skill requirements, and being stuck in their present jobs have made them wonder how they can stay relevant in dynamically shifting work environment.

To address the need for competence and skills update for adult learners, the three biggest universities of applied sciences in the Helsinki Metropolitan area in Finland, namely Laurea, Haaga-Helia and Metropolia, decided to offer together a part-time 30 ECTS master’s level business program in the substance area of digital marketing and sales (M & S). Due to digitalization M & S has developed very fast in the past years and therefore was identified as a crucial area where organizations are facing lack of skilled workforce. The author of this paper was involved in planning and building the program and finally acted as one of the instructors.

To ensure relevance of learning objectives and course contents, more than twenty recognized companies were involved in the planning phase. Industry input was gathered in workshops and interviews and results were analyzed by HE professionals who also continued the planning the whole program.

Adult learners, who work full-time, are motivated by the possibility to integrate challenges in their job with learning program (Sogungro, 2015). When designing courses, learning activities, instruction, and learning assignments, careful attention was paid to usefulness of them to learners’ tasks in their jobs.

Furthermore, other important motivational factors for adult learners are quality of instruction, relevance and pragmatism (Yoo & Huang, 2013). To achieve these measures, outside industry experts in relevant fields were involved in instruction together with higher education professionals to complement theoretical aspects with up-to-date practical knowledge. The learners considered this combination of instructors useful and they were able to utilize and carry their learnings into practice in their respective companies.

The program has proven to be highly useful and relevant for learners. According to learners’ feedback, they have been able to use education for their and for their companies’ benefit. New skills that they have acquired enable them to do their jobs better and more efficiently. Several of them have been promoted in their companies, or have been offered a new job outside of the organizations where they worked when they started the program.

References:
[1] Olusegun Agboola Sogunro, Motivating Factors for Adult Learners in Higher Education, International Journal of Higher Education, Vol 4, No 1 (2015)
[2] Sun Joo Yoo & Wenhao David Huang (2013) Engaging Online Adult Learners in Higher Education: Motivational Factors Impacted by Gender, Age, and Prior Experiences, The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 61:3, 151-164, DOI: 10.1080/07377363.2013.836823

Keywords:

Higher education, university-industry collaboration, university of applied sciences, micro master's, digital marketing and sales, competence development.