Master Thesis - Benchmarking Professional Education Offerings in Healthcare

Essity – a leading global hygiene and health company and the home of brands like Libero, TENA, Libresse, Tork, Sorbact and JOBST is offering an exciting and challenging master thesis opportunity for you who want to contribute with your expertise, energy and creativity.

About the job

Developing and applying a systematic, efficient and responsible professional education benchmarking framework for TENA Education

Are you interested in how systematic analysis of external professional education offerings can generate strategic insights and support the development of healthcare education?

At Essity, we believe that innovation can emerge from new perspectives and strong collaboration between academia and business. In this Master Thesis project, you will apply your theoretical knowledge and analytical skills to a real strategic challenge within healthcare education and continence management.

You will develop and test a systematic, efficient and responsible approach for benchmarking professional education. You will also analyse and interpret the findings from a pilot benchmark to identify relevant patterns, emerging trends, gaps and opportunities. Your analysis and recommendations will help establish a foundation for how TENA can continue to benchmark external professional education offerings and guide the ongoing development of TENA Education.

Your role

As a Master Thesis student, you will work closely with colleagues involved in TENA Education, customer value propositions, healthcare marketing and continence care. You will receive a thorough introduction to our current educational offering, our different learner audiences and the knowledge already generated through previous internal work.

You will also be supported in connecting with relevant internal stakeholders, potentially including colleagues from:

• Global and local marketing

• Medical and clinical functions

• Market Intelligence

• Legal and Compliance

• Tender and Procurement Excellence

• Digital learning and education

• Selected local markets

You will bring an independent academic perspective to the project. In return, you will gain experience of strategic research in a global healthcare company and insight into how customer education, evidence, digital learning and market intelligence contribute to healthcare value propositions. An important part of your role will be to apply the proposed framework in a limited pilot and independently analyse and interpret the results. You will be expected to identify relevant patterns, emerging trends, gaps and opportunities, assess their implications for TENA Education, and develop actionable recommendations for continued benchmarking and future educational development.

The collaboration is expected to include:

• Regular supervision and project discussions

• Access to relevant internal background material

• Introductions to selected subject-matter experts

• Interviews or workshops with internal stakeholders

• Potential customer or market research, depending on the final scope and feasibility

• Independent analysis and interpretation of pilot findings, strategic synthesis and development of actionable recommendations

Background

Healthcare customers increasingly need solutions that extend beyond individual products. In continence management, healthcare professionals and care organisations also need knowledge, guidance, practical tools and implementation support to help deliver consistent, effective and person-centred care.

TENA Education supports a number of customer groups, including professional caregivers, nurses, prescribers, pharmacists and care managers. Education may help address knowledge gaps, strengthen professional confidence, support appropriate product selection and use, and improve consistency in continence care. However, its customer and strategic value needs to be better understood and demonstrated.

External professional education offerings are challenging to compare systematically. Offers may differ between countries, languages, target audiences, formats and platforms. Some platforms require registration, customer status, professional credentials or payment, while clinical credibility, learning outcomes and evidence of effectiveness may not be publicly available.

Initial internal work has developed an assessment approach covering three principal areas:

• Access and platform

• Content quality

• Learning experience

The framework assesses accessibility, user experience across mobile and desktop devices, clinical and scientific credibility, relevance to target audiences, interactivity, engagement and practical value. It also includes a market-level analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with external professional education offerings.

Further research is needed to determine which dimensions are most relevant to benchmark, which information sources and assessment methods provide a reliable basis for comparison, and how findings should be analysed, interpreted and translated into strategic implications. TENA also needs a repeatable and responsible approach for continuing to benchmark external professional education offerings, recognising emerging trends and using the resulting insights to guide the ongoing development of TENA Education.

Project

The purpose of this Master Thesis is to develop and validate a systematic, efficient and responsible approach for benchmarking professional education offerings in continence care and skin care management. The project will identify the most relevant areas to assess, evaluate practical information sources and access limitations, develop a structured benchmarking methodology, and apply the proposed approach in a limited pilot.

The student or students will be responsible not only for developing and testing the methodology, but also for analysing and interpreting the pilot findings. The analysis should identify material patterns, emerging trends, gaps and opportunities, assess their implications for TENA Education, and provide actionable recommendations for how TENA can continue to benchmark external professional education offerings and use the resulting insights to support ongoing educational development.

The work must be conducted in a legally, ethically and methodologically responsible manner. The report should clearly distinguish verified observations from interpretations and recommendations and transparently document source reliability, access limitations, unavailable information and areas of uncertainty.

Main research question

How can TENA systematically, efficiently and responsibly benchmark professional education offerings and translate the findings into strategic decisions and the ongoing development of TENA Education?

Possible supporting research questions

Depending on the final project scope, the thesis could investigate:

• Which characteristics and dimensions of external professional education offerings are most relevant to benchmark for strategic decision-making?

• Which information sources, collection methods and assessment criteria provide the most reliable and practical basis for external professional education benchmarking?

• How can professional education benchmarking be conducted consistently while respecting applicable legal requirements, ethical standards, access restrictions and company policies?

• How should pilot findings be analysed, interpreted, communicated and translated into priorities for future professional education benchmarking and the development of TENA Education?

The thesis should not begin with the assumption that TENA Education is superior. Students will be expected to undertake an independent and critical analysis of external professional education offerings and the available evidence. They should distinguish between verified observations, interpretations, recommendations and areas where the available information is insufficient, while avoiding unsupported conclusions about unavailable external professional education offerings.

Possible methodology

A case-study approach is proposed. Depending on the students’ academic programme, interests and available data, the methodology may include:

• A focused academic and professional literature review

• Interviews with selected internal stakeholders to understand decision needs, current challenges and governance expectations

• Critical review and refinement of the existing benchmark approach

• Development of benchmarking dimensions, indicators, source classifications and confidence grading

• Structured benchmarking of a manageable selection of external professional education offerings across selected markets

• Analysis and interpretation of findings from the pilot benchmark

• Validation with relevant business, medical, legal, compliance and market intelligence stakeholders

• Development of recommendations for future external professional education benchmarking, reporting, ownership and review

The existing professional education benchmarking framework provides a starting point rather than a predetermined methodology. Students will be encouraged to critically evaluate its assessment dimensions, weightings, scoring logic, consistency and potential sources of bias. Students will also be expected to assess how the resulting information can be analysed over time to identify meaningful changes, recurring patterns and emerging trends.

The internal template currently assesses external professional education offerings across access and platform, content quality and learning experience, using a structured scoring scale and comparison matrix. The wider process concept proposes standardised documentation, consistent scoring and centralised storage so that findings from different markets can be compared.

Potential project outcomes

Depending on the agreed scope, expected outputs may include:

• A completed academic Master Thesis

• A prioritised external professional education benchmarking framework

• A pilot benchmark covering a manageable selection of external professional education offerings across selected markets

• An analysis and interpretation of the pilot findings, including relevant patterns, emerging trends, gaps and opportunities

• An assessment of the implications for TENA Education

• A responsible market intelligence guide covering sources, access, documentation, verification and internal use

• A practical benchmarking playbook with recommendations for ownership, update frequency, storage, reporting and review

• Prioritised recommendations for continued assessment of external professional education offerings and the ongoing development of TENA Education

The students’ analysis and recommendations should provide a foundation for how TENA can continue to benchmark professional education in healthcare after the thesis has been completed. The proposed approach should support the identification of relevant developments and emerging trends while enabling information about external professional education offerings to be handled, interpreted and communicated responsibly.

Throughout the report, the students should clearly distinguish between:

• Verified observations

• Stakeholder-reported or otherwise unverified information

• The students’ interpretations

• Strategic implications and recommendations

• Unavailable information and access limitations

• Areas requiring further validation

Your profile

We are looking for one or preferably two Master’s students who are curious, analytical and comfortable working across academic and business perspectives.

Relevant academic backgrounds may include:

• Business Administration

• Marketing

• International Business

• Innovation Management

• Strategy or Management

• Health Economics

• Public Health

• Healthcare Management

• Digital Learning or Educational Technology

• Service Design

• Behavioural Science

• Industrial Engineering and Management

• Procurement or Supply Chain Management

We believe you have:

• Strong qualitative and analytical research skills

• Experience of literature reviews, interviews or case-study research

• The ability to structure and analyse complex information

• An interest in healthcare, education, customer value or digital services

• Strong written and spoken English

• The ability to work independently while collaborating with multiple stakeholders

• A critical and objective approach to evaluating company and external professional education information

• The ability to move from data collection to independent analysis, interpretation and strategic recommendations

• The ability to communicate uncertainty, limitations and source reliability transparently

Experiences or knowledge that would be meriting include:

• Healthcare or medical education

• B2B value propositions

• Digital learning or learning-experience design

• Procurement and tender processes

• Market intelligence or market analysis

• Qualitative research and thematic analysis

• Survey design or quantitative analysis

• Legal, ethical or compliance aspects of business research

Previous knowledge of continence care is not required. A thorough introduction to continence care, TENA Education, the existing educational offer, target audiences and previous external education benchmarking work will be provided.

The thesis can be conducted through a hybrid working arrangement. The students should be able to work from our Gothenburg office at agreed intervals for onboarding, supervision, stakeholder interviews and workshops. A substantial part of the literature review, analysis and writing may be conducted remotely. The final office-presence arrangement will be agreed with the selected students and their university.

Approximately 20 to 40 per cent of the project time is expected to be carried out from the Gothenburg office.

What you will be a part of

You will become part of a global organisation working to improve hygiene and health through innovative products, services, digital support and education.

Within TENA, education is intended to support healthcare professionals and caregivers at different levels of experience. The offer includes learning for professional caregivers, nurses, prescribers, pharmacists and care organisations, with content covering continence care, skin health, product use and related healthcare topics.

You will work in an international and cross-functional environment where different perspectives are valued. You will have opportunities to learn from colleagues with experience in healthcare, medical affairs, marketing, digital learning, market intelligence and customer value propositions.

Your work will contribute to a broader ambition to understand how education can create meaningful customer value and how TENA can continue developing relevant, credible and evidence-based educational support.

Application

Interested? If you are up for the challenge and think this sounds like you, apply online today! Kindly note that due to GDPR we will not accept applications via mail.

N.B.If you apply as a pair of students, send in one application each but make sure to clearly state in the application which person you intend to do the master thesis with.

Application End Date:

08 nov. 2026

Job Requisition ID:

Essity266353

About Us

Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company. Our expertise began with the acquisition of the Swedish company Mölnlycke in 1975, through which our roots stretch back to 1849. Today, our sustainable innovations from globally trusted brands, designed for everybody and every body, care for the well-being of 1 billion people in 150 countries every day.

Working at Essity is not just a career but a chance to make the world healthier, safer, and more hygienic. We innovate for good to break barriers and contribute to shaping a healthier future. At Essity, we have a people-first approach where every career is as unique as the individual. We empower employees to excel together and reach their full potential through a winning culture driven by a powerful purpose. Our performance-orientated environment motivates employees to think differently and embrace challenges so we can continue improving lives, every day through better hygiene and health. We provide a sustainable work-life based on flexibility for both employees and employers. We are committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in everything we do. It is the key to our success in creating an inclusive, collaborative, and caring company culture where you can be you with us. Our purpose of Breaking Barriers to Well-being, enables customers and consumers to lead fuller lives at all stages of life.

Our leading global brands include TENA and Tork, and other strong brands such as Actimove, Cutimed, JOBST, Knix, Leukoplast, Libero, Libresse, Lotus, Modibodi, Nosotras, Saba, Tempo, TOM Organic and Zewa are sold in 150 countries. I In 2024, Essity had net sales of approximately SEK 146bn (EUR 13bn) and employed 36,000 people. We are headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and Essity is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. If you want to join a company where dedication to people is powered by innovation, welcome to Essity!