Crossing the Education/Working Life Boundary at High Speed 

In October, a two-day International Services Management intensive course was held at Turku School of Economics.  Former students of Turku School of Economics assembled the course on their own initiative.

‒ We offered current students the kind of course we would have liked to study in our day, explains Alexis Lesage who graduated in 2006 and now works in Google's European Headquarters in Dublin.

 Other organisers are also engaged in interesting and challenging tasks in large international companies. Indeed, the innovative brainstorming techniques used during the course were borrowed directly from corporate life. The course organisers wanted to inform students of what to expect in working life.
 

‒ We wanted to show that there isn't really such a firm line between study and work. In later life too, it's useful to remain in touch with your alma mater – because there are so many ways of developing your expertise, it's important to keep your networks up to scratch, comments Jaakko Iso-Järvenpää.

Student feedback was so good that there are plans to organise the course again next year. This is also the wish of fifth-year student Teemu Kinos:

‒ Every course should be like this!

Active alumni relationships benefit everyone

Many people value their ties to their former institute of higher education. Such voluntary ties are also highly valued by Turku School of Economics.

 ‒ We want to involve our former students in our development and in keeping our ties with practical life vital. We need alumni to tell us about the kind of know-how needed in working life and how well we have


Jaakko Iso-Järvenpää, Esa Stenberg ja Alexis Lesage

succeeded in educating our students, states Satu Lähteenmäki, Director of Turku School of Economics.

Many alumni view giving a guest lecture as a rewarding way of supporting the professional development of current students. To support this goal, TSE and its alumni have jointly founded the Alumni Keynote Forum, with the aim of encouraging direct dialogue between students and top business experts.