The focus of discussion has been learning and developing in higher education in order to benefit working life. The expectations to universities of applied sciences (UAS) in Finland are to create regional advantage. Trough research and development (R&D) the higher education institution can produce broader advantage. Interactive partnership between working life and higher education institutions is the base for R&D work. The objective of this study is to provide deeper understanding concerning creation of partnership between working life and higher education. The objective is also to understand the need of new kind of competence of educators that is required. The partnership between a working life organization and higher education institution is the first level. The second level is partnership between managers and teachers. They are guiding the real work of development. The third level is partnership between staff and students. (Goddard 2005; Ora-Hyytiäinen, Ikonen & Ahonen 2008.) The partnership is a good opportunity for students to create expertise (Hakkarainen, Palonen, Paavola & Lehtinen 2004). The research questions in this study are; What kind is the process of creation of partnership in eNNI project and What kind of expectations and demands do the partners experience in eNNI project?

The framework of this study is realistic evaluation (Pawson & Tilley 1997). eNNI is the R&D Project for Creation of Nursing Information Competence in cooperation between education and working life. eNNI is financed by the Ministry of Education and the partners are 14 UAS. There are 26 educators and 38 managers from working life organizations. Learning by Developing (Raij 2007) is the model of cooperation. The data was collected with focus group interview (Barbour & Kitzinger 1999) in WebEx environment. The interviews were taped and the attendees were asked to write their answers to some of the questions in chat. Three different interviews were realized and the data was analyzed with content analysis (Tesch 1995). Reporting thoroughly all phases of the research process gives a possibility to evaluate externally the validity.

The partnership between organizations is essential for the partnership of teachers and managers. The support from the leaders of organizations and institutions is significant. The results refer that the structures of higher education institutions and working life organizations are preventing the creation of partnership. A mutual focus of interest is promoting creation of partnership at the level of teachers and managers.