LINKING THE WORK AND STUDIES – HOW STUDY ORGANIZATION AND METHODS CAN SUPPORT STUDENT’S WORK AND BE USEFUL FOR HIS EMPLOYER

Higher education institutions (HEI) are used to help working students with their studies - offering flexible study forms, possibilities of recognition of prior learning, counseling, tutoring etc. A working student seems to be a normal phenomenon, although academicians and other higher education representatives are eager to warn that only full commitment to studies (and not working at the same time) allows a student to achieve the study goals and learning outcomes.

In the light of the changing world, the trends in the labor market and life long learning, the HEIs need a paradigm shift from “working to support studies” to “studying to support work”. At HEIs we use students’ working experience and companies to enrich studies, but most probably we should use study methods and organizations to enrich work and workplace. This would also be a real example of cooperation of HEIs and companies and would show how the HEI serves the society and helps the economy. The aim of the present article is to map the benefits and implementation possibilities of work supportive studies (WSS).

Working students of Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences will be inquired to find out whether at all and through which methods and tools the work supportive studies might be possible to implement. Preliminary results show that the students are very interested in linking their work and studies; they prefer study assignments, the results of which can be used in their work or company. The employers are willing to support the employees’ studies more often if they can see it more as an opportunity for themselves and the company not as something that robs their employees’ valuable working time.