Towards working life skills — A vocational student as a learner in working life projects
Keywords:
vocational education, key competences for lifelong learning, working life skills, emotional skills, project learning, project learnerAbstract
The article examines the opportunities offered by working life-oriented project learning to support vocational students’ working life skills. In work-oriented project learning, knowhow and competences are acquired under the guidance of a teacher in the authentic learning environments that this learning method enables. The research question is: What kind of skills does a vocational student require to succeed in working life-oriented project learning? The study involved 129 vocational students who implemented various working life projects as a part of their commercial vocational studies. Research data was obtained from students engaged in working life projects through questionnaires, written feedback, and material they produced for brainstorming. This data was analyzed in part by theoretical methods. It was found that working life-oriented project studies require a student to be motivated, have a positive attitude, and maintain a sense of responsibility. Self-direction, self-confidence, open-mindedness, flexibility, discipline, and commitment were determined to be a project learner’s key working life skills. Emotional skills linked to working life skills were shown to intersect with the above working life skills.
