Abstract
Unemployment of PhDs (including Post-Docs) in the labor market has been one of the major concerns for science and technology policy in Japan. In order to cope with the situation, several policy measures for universities and research institutions hiring PhDs have been developed and implemented, but their outcomes are not yet visible. In contrast, there are countries where the unemployment rate of PhDs is quite low. Finland is one of such countries. The purpose of this case study is to investigate what are the major differences in the circumstances surrounding PhDs' employability issues compared with those in Japan. The study was mainly based upon visitations and interviews of key persons at two Finnish Universities (University of Oulu, and University of Helsinki) in early summer of 2012, with relevant documents obtained during the visitations. One of the main findings is that stakeholders of PhD education programs (professors, program coordinators, students, university administrators, government personnel, and private sectors) were profoundly and extensively aware of the importance and necessity of components on 'working life skills (transferable skills)' development within official PhD education programs. Also described is the status quo of such 'working life skills' components in Finnish PhD education programs as well as their struggles with the new doctoral education system itself.
