Understanding human resources work through mentoring: Student learning at the boundary of higher education and working life

Abstract

Higher education is a formal requirement for most professions in Sweden, yet education alone is often considered insufficient for preparing students for working life. Mentoring, which integrates education and working life, has been identified as important for students’ learning, identity development, and transition to work and may be understood as a relational form of work-integrated learning. Despite this, limited research has examined how mentoring can be designed for interdisciplinary programs. This study investigates undergraduate HR students’ experiences of an extracurricular mentoring activity and how it contributed to their understanding of the educational content and the human resources (HR) profession. In doing so, it explores the learning potential of mentoring in an interdisciplinary, nonprofessional education program. Written assignments from 79 students who participated in a mentoring activity in a Swedish HR program were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. The results showed that mentoring supported students’ understanding of the HR profession and encouraged reflection on course content, themselves, and their future professional roles. The activity was described as facilitating reciprocal knowledge exchange between mentees and mentors. At the same time, students experienced tensions between academic learning and practical application, with working life often perceived as a more authentic and practice-oriented source of knowledge than the learning and knowledge acquired in educational contexts. The study highlights mentoring as a means of supporting professional identity formation, bridging theory and practice, and strengthening learning in interdisciplinary higher education.