This dissertation examined efforts to bridge academic and working life expertise in continuing professional education in response to the new requirements of changing world and working life contexts. Its specific aims were to examine the development of professional social networks; to explore the role of the learners’ orientations towards expertise in terms of deliberate knowledge enhancement, problematising and knowledge building; and to examine interconnection of academic and working life expertise through guidance from more experienced actors. The studies were conducted in the context of two continuing professional training programmes: a diplomatic training programme, which represented old and traditional professional fields, and an energy efficiency training programme, which represented new and emerging professional fields. The data were collected using social networking questionnaires, interviews and diary methods and were analysed using social network analysis and qualitative content analysis. Altogether, 61 interviews were conducted. 

Study I examined newly recruited diplomats’ socialisation to the networked professional expert culture of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland over a six-month on-the-job training period as part of their preparation for service in the diplomatic corps. Study II examined the development of expert networks among all course participants and at small-group and individual levels in the context of a one-year energy efficiency training programme. Study III deepened the understanding of the knowledge exchange processes in the energy efficiency field by focusing on the key energy efficiency professionals positioned in the middle of the social network, who were more frequently sought out for professional advice than other trainees. Study IV examined a procedure involving two advisors (one from an academic context and the other from a working life context), who aimed to support the learning of the novel competencies required in the emerging field of energy efficiency. 

The results revealed that social learning environments and networks bridging academic and workplace expertise can provide workers important resources for updating their expertise, especially in emerging fields. However, the practical needs of workplaces and the scientific viewpoints and standards of the academic world do not necessarily meet without friction when trying to find new forms of cooperation between higher education and working life. Therefore, shared standards and guidelines for organising education must be created to improve educational quality. In addition, participants’ orientations towards adaptive expertise are particularly important for professional learning and for interconnecting academic and workplace expertise. In the future, continuing professional training programmes organised at the interface of education and working 
life could play an especially important role in emerging fields, in which there is lack of certified knowledge and established education programmes for developing expertise.