Value creation in education and company partnership: case study

Abstract

Public private partnerships and cooperation between universities and companies have been studied widely. Universities of applied sciences and their role in supporting small and medium sized enterprises has also long been on the agenda. The aim of this study was to understand value creation in partnershipwith secondary level vocational education provider and companies. The focus was in describingand understanding the future products/services and expectation for partnerships. The qualitative case study focused on cooperation with forerunner companies in service sector. Future value lies in competence development, competence gap detection as well learner support functions. Companies will increasingly be looking for outside resources in their recruitment, competence management as well as service development schemes. They arealso ready to bringthe partnership into strategic level.Apart from common value creation ground, developing its own processes was essential for education provider. Definingstrategic aim and business modelwould support this development.