ABSTRACT
University plays a key role in preparing students for professional life. As such, improving learning and teaching so that students are well positioned to take on professional roles is an important issue in higher education. According to the NMC Horizon Report, universities should be “incubators of high-quality products – actual inventions and developments that progress positive trends, as well as the most important product of all: graduates who not only fulfil evolving job market needs but redefine and improve the workforce they enter” (Becker et al., 2017 p. 6). In practice, however, students’ transition to the workplace is not always smooth (Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä, & Paloniemi, 2014; Hytonen, Palonen, Lehtinen, & Hakkarainen, 2016). In response to this problem, some universities are developing programmes that interconnect with workplaces using technology (Trede et al., 2016). While the purposes and goals of tertiary education are many and varied, our interest is in innovative theoretical approaches that enhance connections between formal learning and workplace contexts, thereby supporting students to enter professional life.
