Maarit Virolainen (PhD, Adult Education) is a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her studies have focused on the combination of learning, education and work. Learning from work experience has been her continuing research interest, as well as transitions from education to work. At present she involved in e.g. the project Wisdom in Practice (https://ktl.jyu.fi/en/research/esse/wisdom-in-practice). She has participated in several national and international research projects since her career began.
She is active in national and Nordic research networks in vocational education and training, such as the Finnish Vocational Educational Research Association (FiVERA) (i.e. Ottu ry, in Finnish) and NordYrk, and is a member of the editorial boards of the following peer-reviewed journals: the Finnish Journal of Professional and Vocational Education - Ammattikasvatuksen aikakauskirja (akakk.fi), Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training (NJVET), the Journal of Vocational Education & Training | Taylor & Francis Online (JVET) and the Finnish journal of rescue and safety research: Pelastus- ja turvallisuustutkimus -lehti. - Pelastusopisto.
Maarit Virolainen is a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä. Her research has concerned organizing learning from work experience as a part of school-based learning and transitions from post-compulsory education to work the world of work and higher education. She has studied the Nordic models for organizing vocational education, and how various models of Nordic vocational education support transitions to higher education and to the world of work. Her research interests are centred on two key areas: the development of post-compulsory education, and learning from work experience.
