Article Gold Open Access 2026

The education-to-work transition: a systematic analysis of pedagogical interventions in the context of higher education

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
Journal · Vol. 70 · Issue 1 · pp. 164-188
Abstract

Higher education has implemented various pedagogical interventions to increase connectivity with the workplace and ease students’ education-to-work transition. However, the effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of these interventions in supporting students with this transition remains largely unexplained. The present review article analyzed 49 articles bringing together two theoretical frameworks on this transition: connectivity and boundary crossing. Results show that connectivity can be increased by collaborating with the workplace in several ways. However, our results also show that higher education seldom learns from this collaboration, resulting in a lack of effective boundary practices to support students in their education-to-work transition. On top of that, our research demonstrates the importance of assessing the effectiveness of any of these interventions from both a student and a labor economics perspective. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Higher education boundary crossing connectivity education-to-work Transition

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, Maastricht, Netherlands
Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia
University of Jyväskylä, Jyvaskyla, Central Finland, Finland
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
1 References Marked with an Asterisk Indicate Articles Included in the Analyses
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8 Bates, Paul Raymond, It's more than stick and rudder skills': an aviation professional development community of practice, Teaching in Higher Education, 18, 6, pp. 619-630, (2013)
9 Beagon, Úna, Problem-based learning: student perceptions of its value in developing professional skills for engineering practice, European Journal of Engineering Education, 44, 6, pp. 850-865, (2019)
10 Journal of University Teaching Learning Practice, (2015)
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