Abstract:

Trends, multi-level changes in the environment, and the requirements of working life form the contemporary starting point for the revision of curricula in higher education (HE). Working life insights are important to higher education institutes (HEIs) for renewing their Master’s degree programs. HE development is topical because both the private and public sectors are undergoing transformation due to digitalization. HE must respond into changes in society and working life to prepare graduates for the workplace. To ensure that HE prepares students for working life, special attention is directed to understanding the competence insights of new skills and knowledge necessary for the workplace identified by domain professionals to anticipate competence requirements.

In the twenty-first century, the use of a design approach, design specializations, design activities, and design methods have expanded beyond their traditional use by service businesses and for service innovation through an emergent area of expertise that has become a new design discipline: service design. Service design is widely used to solve complex problems within large socio-technical contexts such as services, organizations, and ecosystems. This paper conceptualizes this extension as a service design phenomenon. It summarizes the rise of design awareness and orientation. Furthermore, it encapsulates the use of design-oriented approaches such as service design in non-design fields, including management and organization, service marketing, and service innovation.

Research focusing on working life insights and needs for curriculum design using identified service design phenomenon approach is scarce. This paper reports on an interview study conducted to capture working life insights and to validate and innovate service design education on Master’s level. The premise of the paper is the importance of academia–industry relationships and the dialogue necessary for innovating higher education. HE must respond to the needs of society and working life to prepare graduates for the workplace. The interview study conducted to develop service design education in non-design Master’s degree programs. Its purpose is to reform them based on domain professional insight. The study investigated what service design competences are expected from graduates so that they can apply service design extensively as future experts, supervisors, and managers. The insight from the domain professionals are considered in the curriculum and course content development.

This study is part of Finnish Design Academy -project aimed at reforming design education in Finland. The project was launched in 2018 in cooperation with all Finnish design universities and was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Its purpose is to develop design education to meet the changing skills and other requirements of working life more effectively. This paper reports the study’s preliminary findings. The paper’s intent is to promote innovative competence in management education, specifically, service design competence.

Keywords:

Curriculum design, working life insights, service design, higher education, Master's degree.