Work-Based Learning

Teacher educators in South Africa face challenges of preparing new teachers for an inclusive education system that has been accepted as policy but is not yet fully realised in school contexts. Pre-service teachers entering initial teacher education programmes are themselves a product of a schooling system in which many inequalities and marginalising practices are still prevalent. In this paper, we present an analysis of the extent to which prospective teachers' personal experiences within the schooling system influences their perceptions about the benefits and drawbacks of two common organisational arrangements made for learners who experience barriers to their learning. The analysis of empirical data from a questionnaire and individual interviews reveals that participants who had personally observed or experienced such arrangements had fixed views about their benefits or drawbacks. We consider the implications of this finding for teacher education programmes that seek to produce teachers who can teach inclusively in the complexities of South African schools.

The paper puts forward a case for broadening the curriculum within Higher Education to incorporate and encourage Group Work-Based Learning (GWBL) experiences for students. Two case studies are described within two universities in terms of organising, monitoring, and assessing group-based work. It is argued that being a part of a ‘consultancy team’ and responding to ‘real clients’ enables students not only to enhance their skills base but also provides them with opportunities for personal and social development both within and outside the world of work. The debate centres upon the concept that Work-Based Learning (WBL) should be more than just ‘economistic’ in the way that emphasis is placed primarily on ‘training for employment’. This central tenet of government policy is considered to be a necessary
but not a sufficient condition for providing for Group Work-Based Learning experiences for students. The concept of ‘social capital’ is explained in terms of how group participation can bring about moral, cognitive and social benefits to its members and to the wider community.
Introduction

The AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, under contract with the U.S. Department of Labor, developed this toolkit to assist companies, unions and other stakeholders to develop, register and implement apprenticeship programs. It includes an overview of the key elements of registered apprenticeship, the relationship with career pathways, and the value of joint labor management partnerships. There are several examples of registered apprenticeship in manufacturing occupations.

In most Western liberal democracies, state economic responses to COVID-19 have done little to protect the incomes of self-employed individuals. The COVID-19 global pandemic has helped provide renewed focus upon the social need, for a minimum income guarantee indemnified by the state. The UK Government's response highlights how large corporations and the financial institutions were prioritised first, followed by established profitable businesses with three years accounts. Self-employed people working in the gig economy, alongside others managing zero hour contracts, finding themselves at the back of the queue. Such people have been largely abandoned by the state, being left to their own devices, having to fend for themselves. Employed people who qualified for 'furlough' schemes found they had little bargaining power, having to take what they were given. Employment Tribunals were largely unable to sit. COVID-19 has provided an impetus for changing solidarity and collective action, providing a foothold for multidisciplinary worker cooperatives movements. COVID-19 will herald fundamental changes in the employment and welfare landscape of many countries globally. Large employers will no longer accept responsibility to provide for as many salaried workers as present. The state's pivotal role of being the guarantor of last resort has become ever more critical.

Si parlava di emergenza educativa alla fine del secolo scorso. Ora, dopo il Covid-19, aumentano le espressioni tipo “catastrofe educativa”. Nonostante la crescita degli investimenti a livello globale in istruzione e il richiamo proveniente da più settori della società a prospettive di life long learning, assistiamo, infatti, al proliferare di situazioni che testimoniano una serie di profondi fallimenti educativi. Dai drop out ai NEET, da fenomeni di intolleranza contro il diverso fino ad atteggiamenti di dipendenza, se non addirittura, nei casi più estremi, episodi autodistruttivi che coinvolgono giovani e adolescenti in misura crescente.
Questo volume propone una serie di percorsi di ricerca pedagogica sul crinale dell’attualità, indagando questioni, temi e contesti in cui si rintraccia la necessità di un riscatto della ragione educativa e di un rilancio della prospettiva pedagogica. Il testo vuole innanzitutto indagare l’identità complessa, multiforme e in evoluzione della pedagogia generale oggi, attraverso le sfide che è chiamata ad accogliere nell’attuale società e nei diversi contesti educativi di istruzione, di formazione e di cura.

Work-based learning is Joe Raelin’s unique way of incorporating a number of action strategies―such as action learning, action science, and communities of practice―into a comprehensive framework to help people learn collectively with others. In this thoroughly updated and revised edition, he demonstrates how to engage our reflective powers to challenge those taken-for-granted assumptions that unwittingly hold us back from questioning standard ways of operating. A well-known popular author, Joe is an avid student of the many traditions that support work-based learning, so he presents an inclusive model that has wide appeal across disciplines and occupations. He provides readers with the most recent updates in the field, such as his coverage of virtual team learning, portfolios, multisource feedback, critical and global action learning, and changes in educational policy. Whether you're an organizational or college educator, this book will help you make learning accessible to everyone―and even contagious within your organization.

The introduction of an apprenticeship levy for employers with a payroll above £3m in 2017 has transformed the landscape for higher-level skills in the UK. While there is some evidence of the economic benefits of higher education, it seems to be largely operating to reproduce economic position rather than as an agent of social mobility. At the same time, UK employers have made it clear that graduates do not possess the range of skills that they require and yet have a poor record of investing in the development of their employees. In this problematized context, degree apprenticeships can operate to creatively disrupt our understanding of the relationship between higher education and work. Assumptions about the presumed differences between academic and professional standards, knowledge and competence, on-and-off-the- job learning are all challenged by the introduction of degree apprenticeships. Can universities overcome these challenges to rethink the role of higher education as the worlds of work and learning align?

Στο ευρωπαϊκό πρόγραμμα DESCI όπως ήδη έχουμε αναφέρει έμφαση δίνεται στην Ανάπτυξη και Αξιολόγηση των Δεξιοτήτων Δημιουργικότητας και Καινοτομίας με βασικό άξονα την επίτευξη της διασύνδεσης  του σχολείου με επιχειρήσεις, αλλά και τις ανάγκες της κοινωνίας. Η ανάδραση μεταξύ αυτών των φορέων αυτομάτως θέτει ένα σαφές πλαίσιο για την καλλιέργεια των οριζόντιων και πολυδιάστατων δεξιοτήτων. Μέσω των δραστηριοτήτων και των εργαλείων που αναπτύχθηκαν στο πρόγραμμα επιτυγχάνεται: 1) η Μετατόπιση του κέντρου βάρους της εκπαίδευσης από την επιφάνεια των πραγμάτων (τεχνικές γνώσεις) στην ερμηνεία και την εφαρμογή τους και 2) δίνεται έμφαση στην Προσωπική προσπάθεια για απόκτηση δεξιοτήτων εκτός τυπικής εκπαίδευσης.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

Model pembelajaran adalah rangkaian utuh sebuah kesatuan antara pendekatan pembelajaran, strategi pembelajaran, metode pembelajaran, teknik pembelajaran, dan taktik pembelajaran. Salah satu dari model pembelajaran yang dikembangkan, adalah Work-based Learning atau Pembelajaran berbasis kerja. Dalam kajian civics atau PKn, bidang ini menekankan pada upaya memahami persoalan pekerjaan dalam kaitannya dengan kesejahteraan secara umum serta kajian warga negara yang didasarkan pada dunia kerja warga negara.

Introduction
This study undertakes a critical review of the strategic and operational challenges in service delivery of the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) by an alternative provider of higher education (HE), following the implementation of the Apprenticeship Levy in England. It explores some of the main tensions that are likely to affect the success of establishing an alternative provider of HE and degree apprenticeship delivery, taking account of provider staff, employers and learners.

The subject of study
The intrinsic case study company is the University Centre Quayside (UCQ), a small market disrupting alternative provider of HE delivering the CMDA. UCQ provides adult education predominantly in the North East of England but is increasingly expanding nationwide.
The study explores the evolution of HE, the concept of ‘value’, WBL and the introduction of degree apprenticeships, and how these themes then converge, the resulting tensions and possible impact on success.

Research approach
Following an interpretivist and constructivist philosophy, mixed methods were employed involving questionnaires, then interviews and focus groups for triangulation of data across employers, students and staff. Quantitative data was analysed in Excel, looking for statistical and visual differences, and using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), qualitative results were transcribed and then thematically analysed using NVivo.

Key findings
The key findings are that there is a significant difference of understanding between provider staff, the employers and students as to what a ‘higher’ education should be, especially in terms of civicness. National employers want national, rather than place- based, provision. Programme contextualisation is very important to the employers and the students; but can be challenging for the provider. A majority of apprentices believe that their employer (as the perceived funder) should see a financial return on their investment, equally apprentices felt they should personally achieve a financial benefit from participation.
Employers appear to be formalizing their training needs analysis, perhaps in response to the Levy and the availability of higher level programmes.

Contribution
There is much written about private provision of HE, marketisation and consumerization, but there is little research. There is even less research originating from within a private provider. This study contributes to the HE WBL community and although the main beneficiary is UCQ, the results are intended to be of value to alternative and existing HE providers delivering degree apprenticeships.
Degree apprenticeships are new (in England) and there is little understanding of the tensions between the providers, employers, students and funders, and how they may be overcome. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in this area and is expected to stimulate further debate and study within the community of practice.

Conclusions
This study found that employers, learners and provider staff believe it is important that there should be a return from the degree apprenticeship that should be of value to the employer and the learner, but measuring such value is difficult. The degree apprenticeship should take account of recognition of prior learning, however there is no standardized approach. Assessments need to be heavily contextualized, and staff and students differ in opinion on whether this is the case. There is a suggestion that providers need to deliver nationally and with industry specialism(s), and there is disagreement between provider staff, and employers and their staff, on whether the programme should include civic development. HE work-based learning providers may need to share resources in order to cost effectively deliver nationally. Employers do not see themselves as really being ‘in the driving seat’ because the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Institute for Apprenticeships make and change policy and pricing to suit their political agenda.

In the world of business and management, the practice of workplace learning is deemed important for firms to survive or stay competitive. However, firm characteristics such as business priorities, management styles, and limited internal resources and capabilities are always organizational factors that affect how firms may practice workplace learning. According to organizational life cycle (OLC) theory, during the firm's growth from inception, to high-growth, to maturity, firm characteristics differ and the internal resources and capabilities of the firm develop. The literature has discussed the dynamics of organizational life cycle, but little is known about how it possibly relates to workplace learning. The paper synthesises the OLC literature and draws the characteristics of three common stages for firms (large or small) to conceptualize different patterns of workplace learning practices, promoting a new page of empirical research potential.

This paper identifies the considerable potential for well-designed, effectively implemented, and clearly described qualitative research to enhance understanding and service provision within the caring disciplines. Nevertheless, it also recognises the ever-present risk that bias presents when undertaking any investigation, not least a qualitative research study, and the need to ensure practitioners can have confidence in the results, conclusions, and recommendations of such work. Validity and reliability are defined from a qualitative research perspective and various techniques described which can be utilised to help ensure investigative rigour. As one of the most common qualitative data collection methods, the application of tools to promote validity and reliability in interviews is given particular emphasis. Finally, the article asserts that presenting a qualitative research study with a demonstrably robust design and implementation strategy contributes to the ongoing efforts to raise the status of qualitative research as a legitimate and important approach to developing the body of knowledge on which effective care practice should be founded.

Despite the increasing rates of unemployment and underemployment, together with the high incidence of dropouts, there are little or no research evidence about entrepreneurial skills and lifelong learning for career self-efficacy among Business Education students. The study therefore aims at determining whether Business Education is capable of developing entrepreneurial skills and lifelong learning for career self-efficacy among students in Federal Universities in south-south Nigeria. A sample of 234 Business Education students in Federal Universities in the three States of south-southern geopolitical zone of Nigeria participated in the research. A four-point scale questionnaire was used for collection of data. The instrument attained a Cronbach alpha value of .91. Data were analyzed using the mean and Standard Deviation calculations and null hypotheses were tested using the t-test statistic. The results show that Business Education do not have the capability of developing entrepreneurial skills and lifelong learning for career self-efficacy among students. There was also no significant difference between the mean responses of male and female students of Business Education regarding the development of entrepreneurial skills and lifelong learning for career self-efficacy. Adequate provision of career development services, adequate supply of manpower in terms of quality and quantity, adequate procurement of instructional facilities and equipment, striking a balance between theory and practice that will help to stimulate student's confidence to engage in entrepreneurial and lifelong learning career activities throughout their lifespan were further recommended for the research.

This case study analyses five alternating school-work projects in the North-West Italian area. The aim is to detect the enabling conditions to the success of these projects. The success is defined as having the characteristics required by the law 107/2015. At the base of the co-configuration of the projects with the external subjects and their significant integration in the standard didactic (characteristics required by the law) there are: good schools' relationship with their local communities; the ability in developing projects relevant to the youth; the presence of some teachers very interested in innovating the traditional didactic; people external to the schools who can see the potential of collaborating with schools. Moreover the case study reveals that that kind of projects is able to support a better understanding of the theoretical knowledge transmitted in the classrooms, showing that alternating school and work has a wider significance than providing orientation to students for their further professional choices. The study also highlights the issue of the soft skills and their assessment.

Given the need to unlock the capacity of everyone in the organization, there is a growing interest in collaborative leadership. But how is such a practice developed? In this article, the author proposes the use of action learning – in its original formulation, namely through reflection on real work experience dealing with unfamiliar problems – as a gateway to collaborative leadership. Action learning is portrayed as growing in acceptance as a management education and learning approach that distills knowledge from a context to be used to provide learning to the practice as well as to the practitioner. The account demonstrates how the operating practices of collaborative leadership are directly affected by action learning and proposes that the two approaches are based on common principles.

In this study, a phenomenological descriptive method was applied to the clarification of the lived-through educationally meaningful experience in student assessment, related to a work-placement and higher educational context. As an
account for an essential structural description in generating scientific knowledge, the study increases understanding of the phenomenon of interest by giving insight into the direct assessment experience and its key constituents, using
verbal expressions and acts of consciousness as the medium for accessing the situation of the other, and describing it exactly as experienced as a presence for the experiencer, from an educational perspective.
At the beginning of the study, the researcher assumed the attitude of phenomenological scientific reduction and an educational perspective, while being mindfully sensitive to the type of phenomenon being researched. By turning to
others, the study began by obtaining concrete descriptions of experiences from those who had lived through situations in which the phenomenon of interest had taken place. The participants of the study were sixteen undergraduate
physiotherapy students from two higher education institutions in Finland. At both schools, periods of work-placement alternated with academic study blocks throughout the problem-based course curriculum, and supervised work-placements
all together formed almost one fourth of the whole study program.
The raw data of the study consisted of audible expressions of the participants’ retrospective descriptions about aspects of living through the work-placement assessment process, as they had experienced it. After transcribing the audible expressions, verbatim, into individually constituted descriptions of the students’ lived-through experiences, the researcher, by maintaining the assumed attitude, then analysed the material
according to the descriptive phenomenological method developed by Amedeo Giorgi on the basis of the phenomenological philosophy and method of Edmund
Husserl. The findings and implications of the study hence account for the results of a second-order description by the researcher, based on the adoption of the phenomenological scientific attitude and reduction, the method of free
imaginative variation, and the use of intentional (signifying-fulfilling-identifying) acts of consciousness.
The applied phenomenological analysis consisted of five steps: (1) going through the concrete descriptions in order to get a sense of the whole, (2) constituting meaning units within the descriptions, (3) transforming the constituted meaning units into phenomenologically and educationally sensitive expressions, (4) synthesizing the transformed meaning units into one unifying structure, and (5) determining variations and dynamics among the key constituents that comprised the structure.
The phenomenological analysis of the data showed that a distinguishable chain of events could be discerned, that the participants of the study identified positively
and/or negatively meaningful experiences in assessment, carrying a great deal of educational significance for the student. What constitutes the most essential aspect of the living through of the educationally meaningful experience
in work-placement assessment, in this study, is the intention of the student to obtain self-knowledge through assessment encounters, and the sense of fulfilment of that subjective self-interest. Once the awareness of the self-interest is awakened in the student, the other necessary constituents become possible.
These were discovered to be: resemblance of assumptions and practice, sense of shared interest/s, reliance on self and others, sense of safety and openness, sense of emotional engagement, sense of enhancement and support, and challenge to
assumptions and self-interest. The thesis concludes by presenting the implications drawn from the findings of the phenomenological empirical investigation.

Workplace learning is a critical tool for both employees and organisations in their continuous adjustment to various global trends reshaping our workplaces, economies and societies. Workers learn most when engaging in new and challenging activities in which they are granted sufficient autonomy to solve issues themselves or in collaboration with their colleagues or mentors. Findings based on the data from the 2019 European Company Survey indicate that informal learning is the key aspect of workplaces in terms of company performance and employee wellbeing. Such results call for more attention from policy-makers and organisations’ management to various forms of informal learning at the workplace. This is particularly the case when considering the apparent lack of beneficial effects of formal and non-formal learning on employee wellbeing and company performance. These findings illustrate the overwhelming prominence of informal learning at the workplace compared to formal and non-formal learning forms. They also indicate the often untapped learning potential that exists at workplaces. However, analyses show that most companies are still not offering optimal learning environments and opportunities to their workers. Such a situation hurts both employees and companies but also presents an opportunity for action at organisational, national and international levels. Such an action would aim to create institutional conditions, legal frameworks, learning resources, and incentives for companies to start organising their workplaces in a way that will facilitate workplace learning, especially its various informal forms.

This paper explores the ways in which student assessment can be developed in higher
education and work-related contexts to form a strong bridge between practice and
improvement. Our aim is to provide a starting point for evaluation and improvement of
assessment practices, which benefits the learners, instructors, and designers of the
curricula, as well as developers of educational organisations. Empirical explorations in
the article draw on interview data gathered from physiotherapy students, teachers, and
workplace supervisors, on their experiences of student assessment, in two higher
education and work-related contexts. Although the actual empirical study is not the focus
of this paper, short descriptions of the participants’ lived-through experiences are used to
illustrate the explicit theoretical purpose of the discussion. In particular, we outline a
theoretical model of ‘zones and mirrors’ that provides a compelling link between student
assessment and learning, by exploring the stages and elements that can join the two, in
dialogue with the empirical data.

In this chapter I will provide a brief overview of Middlesex University’s approach to the
accreditation of ‘in-house’ organisational training and will describe how this, together
with the UniversityWork Based Learning Framework and organisational development
consultancy services, have provided an effective model for developing employerresponsive
provision. I will also describe how this approach has provided a means of
establishing ‘in-kind’ employer contributions that lower the cost of delivery of higher
education in the context of the HEFCE co-funding initiative. I will primarily be focusing
on a case study example of collaborative organisational development between Middlesex
University and Halifax Community Bank (part of the Lloyds Banking Group)

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is regarded as an important vehicle to assist students' development of relevant professional skills, knowledge and attributes that can enhance their employability. WIL arrangement for international students is a challenging issue for institutions, international students themselves as well as other related stakeholders. While there is an emerging body of literature that examines WIL for international students, how the value of WIL is perceived by this cohort is little known. This paper responds to this dearth of the literature by exploring the different meanings that international students in the vocational education and training sector attach to WIL. Using Bourdieu's thinking tools of capitals and habitus to interpret interview data from 105 international students, this paper shows that WIL is seen to not only add value to student learning, career aspiration and employability but also transform and enhance their symbolic and social capitals. The paper underscores the instrumental, symbolic and developmental meanings that international students associate with WIL. In particular , it highlights the reciprocal relationship between students' development of vocational 'being' and personal 'being' through WIL.

This study presents a theoretical perspective on organizing learning networks in relation to work processes within organizations. Despite the potential wealth in combining various learning and work arrangements, the field seems to be characterized by a single-minded pursuit of highly uniform ways to organize learning and work. The learning-network perspective rejects both a functionalist tool of management approach and a context-independent organizational learning view. Instead, it demonstrates how learning networks are (re-)produced by interactions among employees, managers, training consultants, and other actors, who each have their own theories and strategies in organizing work-related learning. Learning networks can take various shapes depending both on actor dynamics and on work characteristics. The learning-network theory is a descriptive theory that allows employees, managers, training consultants, and other learning actors to understand and develop alternative ways of organizing employee learning in relation to work. An indicative rationale for the key differences between the learning-network perspective and some rival approaches is provided

Purpose This case study presents an overview of the development process and outcomes from a six-year collaboration between Halifax Bank (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) and Middlesex University between 2010 and 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK). The collaboration involved the construction of work-integrated higher education programmes that were, from the outset, predicated on clear return on investment criteria for the Bank. One unexpected outcome from the collaboration was the emergence of critical reflection as a valued business benefit that, it is argued, has the potential for significant cultural change within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach This case study discuses how 'productive reflection' can lead to an integrated approach to organisational learning. The study is located in the context of Halifax's specific organisational objectives established following the banking crash of 2008. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is considered to illustrate the extent to which the 'return on investment' criteria established by Halifax have been achieved. Findings The case study indicates that the challenging business context of the financial crash of 2008 provided the impetus for a sustained collaborative development that allowed the potential pitfalls of restricted learning opportunities to be addressed resulting in an integrated approach to organisational learning. In addition to the organisation's return on investment criteria being met, there is evidence that the work-integrated approach has raised the productive reflection becoming part of an emerging the learning culture. Originality/value The scale and sustained period of the university-business collaboration is unique and provides valuable insight into how an organisation's learning culture can be affected by a work-integrated approach. In demonstrating the perceived business value of productive reflection, the case presented illustrates how learning can start to become considered as a normal aspect of working life.

This chapter presents Middlesex University's transdisciplinary work-based learning curriculum framework as a coherent and innovative means to provide flexible and open learning opportunities for those in work. The framework presented is concerned with open learning in three key ways: as a means to open opportunities and widen access to higher education for those in work by credentialing work-based learning; by promoting learning beyond the limitations of traditional academic disciplines to confer university awards in a transdisciplinary field of study designed to enhance professional practice; and lastly, as a vehicle for open learning opportunities through flexible, learner-centred, negotiated approaches supported by online technologies and blended learning strategies. The chapter describes the underpinning theory that constitutes the work-based learning field of study as well as the structure and components of the curriculum framework. Through illustrative case studies the chapter demonstrates how the Middlesex transdisciplinary framework has provided opportunities for a variety of working learners to gain access to higher education qualifications that would otherwise have been closed. Each case study illustrates a different aspect of the framework and how it has operated to create opportunities for open learning and credentialing at the level of the individual, the organisation and lastly within an industry sector. This demonstrates the potential for transferability of some of the principles and approaches to other higher education curricular settings

This report analyses work-based and part-time routes to professionally endorsed qualifications in the field of Community Learning and Development (CLD) in Scotland.The different modes of training have significant strengths and there are interesting developments in areas such as academy-workplace relationships and teaching and learning processes. It is clear that training in CLD reflects the Scottish Government’s commitment to lifelong learning
and social inclusion.To make the most of this training, however, innovative practice must become part of a national strategy to support progression in and between the programmes of study. Across the sector it is necessary, for example, to utilise prior experience and learning more effectively.The central challenge is to maximise the educational potential in work-based learning...

Work-based learning deliberately merges theory with practice and acknowledges the intersection of explicit and tacit forms of knowing at both individual and collective levels.  It recognizes that learning is acquired in the midst of practice and can occur while working on the tasks and relationships at hand.

The issues underpinning the transition from school to work are more complex than the ‘one size fits all’ policy agenda in Australia.  This paper will discuss the conflicts within the national training agenda and its push towards industry centred training against the requirements of school leavers and other less experienced students undertaking post-secondary education in TAFE NSW, a government funded vocational education provider in Australia.  A case study will be used to highlight these conflicts and suggest a potential work based learning solution.

In the summer of 2014 Ravensbourne, a UK university sector institution specialising in the fields of design and digital media, was invited by Creative Skillset, industry skills body for the Creative Industries, to explore the development of a work-based learning (WBL) degree through the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Catalyst Fund. Requirements of the funding stipulated that, in addition to WBL provision, the course should be offered as a two-year fast-track degree. This
was required to help reduce the increased financial burden placed on students, which arose from the substantial rise in HE tuition fees sanctioned by the UK coalition government in 2010. Subsequently, the newly elected Conservative government have pledged to substantially increase the number of apprenticeships in the UK through funding initiatives. This has placed a greater emphasis on the Higher
Apprenticeship programme and need to develop WBL programmes.
The development and composition of Ravensbourne’s WBL model was adapted from an existing and successful three-year, traditionally structured, BA (Hons.) Web Media Production course. The new course adopts a model whereby partnerships between external organisations and educational institutions are established through a contractual agreement (Boud and Solomon, 2001). Throughout the development process this WBL model of learning was revealed to be appealing to both employers and students within this sector. From the employers’ perspective, it provides them
with an appropriately skilled workforce that addresses the technical and digital skills gap, one of the most challenging areas of recruitment, enabling them to use “workbased degrees to ‘upskill’ and meet shortages in [their] companies and/or sectors” (Guile and Evans, 2010:15). From a students’ standpoint the advantages are clear; they learn their chosen subject while gaining industry experience in the workplace and earn a salary. It also enables them to produce a graduation portfolio of work that includes ‘real life’ projects.
However, while these responses were encouraging, a number of practical issues and academic challenges occurred that need careful scrutiny. The growth of the web industry, while rapid, is still embryonic. Consequently many employers, particularly in social media, remain small or micro businesses, capable of only employing one student. This caused several accumulative and administrative issues along with funding implications.
Therefore, this article presents a case study detailing the insight and knowledge gained throughout this process of exploration. Alongside the advantages and pitfalls of integrating WBL into sometimes fledgling but rapidly expanding creative industries, such as web media production and social media, it provides insight into the development of WBL in creative and vocationally orientated subjects relating to content creation and digital media practices. These are crucial areas for expansion as higher-level degree apprenticeships are rolled out in the UK.

This document refers to a team consulting project assignment given to MBA executive Ed groups. They are tasked to form consulting teams and to compile a reflective log and diary of their progress on their semester long live consulting projects in diverse organisations. The teams and individuals have to record their expectations and key points and learning garnered during the course of these projects using the structured format of the event log and reflective diary. The individuals and teams are often able to make connections between the classroom ´theory´ or tools and techniques they are instructed in and how things do(or don´t) turn out in their projects. Critically constructive cognition and comment is encouraged.

This thesis presents the outcomes of a five-year ethnographic research project of a work-based learning programme, the BA in Social Pedagogy (hereafter, the BA), which was provided in partnership with a university by a residential school for vulnerable children and young people (hereafter, the School) to its workers. The aim of the research was to develop an understanding of how the organisational fields of the School influenced learning practices and identities of workers undertaking the BA (hereafter, students). Two theoretical frameworks, of Pierre Bourdieu and Margaret Archer, were applied consecutively in the analysis of collected data.
Bourdieu’s theory of practice, applied first, allowed an investigation of the conditioning by the School’s organisational fields of students’ dispositions and actions, as well as of a function of the BA in the mechanism of social reproduction of the School’s communities. Limitations of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework in examining students’ personal transformations in the course of their work and studies prompted a turn to Archer’s Morphogenetic Approach and theories of reflexivity and personal development. Re-analysis of collected data indicated that the expansion of the BA curriculum triggered and then sustained cultural and structural changes in the School. Such changes created enabling conditions for the process of maturation of students, with the BA educational practices and School work practices facilitating this process.
This research project contributes to the field of applied sociological studies. Firstly, it develops an explanatory theory of processes at a work-based learning programme and its hosting institution. Secondly, it demonstrates that Archer’s theoretical framework presents methodological and analytical advantages, compared to Bourdieu’s theory of practice, for the investigation of social phenomena both on the level of an institution and on the level of individual actors, in particular when the institution undergoes cultural and structural changes and the individuals are progressing in their maturational development.

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are renowned for their extensive systems of collective vocational skill formation, which, however, have developed largely in separation from higher education. This divide has become increasingly contested as a result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that have led to an increasing demand for higher level skills. Do the three countries deal with these challenges in similar ways? The comparative analysis is based on process tracing from the 1960s to 2013 and builds on historical institutionalism as well as several dozen expert interviews with key stakeholders. A key finding is that all three countries have developed hybrid forms of work-based academic education that combine elements of vocational training and higher education. However, in Austria and Switzerland, these hybrids have been integrated into the traditional model of collective governance, whereas the German case signifies a departure from this model.

In this second edition of the already invaluable Work-Based Learning Student Handbook, Ruth Helyer and her team have brought the philosophy of work-based learning down to earth to explain its principles and practices not only for students but for anyone who wants to know how work-based learning really works. There are many interconnecting features in work-based learning, but among my nominations for the most critical would be: the deployment of action projects with reflection, reliance on social learning through the assistance of peer learning teams and coaches, learning contracts and assessment, accreditation of prior learning, and the deployment of virtual tools to facilitate learning across space and time. All of these features are covered extensively in this book.

The present contribution takes into consideration a specific aspect of learning in the workplace, with regard to the close interaction between skills development , talent valorisation, flexibility of organizational forms and methods of work governance. The transformations taking place in the productive world require a different consideration of management practices for which, at present, the preconditions are recognized, together with several experiences of revision of the forms of work organization. This implies an overall review of the business strategies, with particular reference to the models of human resources development, able to take into account the new complexities that the transformation poses, not only in terms of production practices but also new social issues and the new relationship between human prerogatives and technology. Il presente contributo prende in considerazione uno specifico aspetto dell'apprendimento nei luoghi di lavoro, relativamente alla stretta interazio-ne che intercorre tra sviluppo delle competenze, valorizzazione del talento, flessibilizzazione delle forme organizzative e modalità di governo del lavo-ro. Le trasformazioni in atto nel mondo produttivo richiedono una lettura diversa delle pratiche di management per le quali si ravvisano, allo stato at-tuale, le precondizioni, unitamente a numerose esperienze di revisione del-le forme di organizzazione del lavoro. Ciò implica una riconfigurazione complessiva delle strategie di impresa, con particolare riferimento ai mo-delli di sviluppo delle risorse umane, capace di tenere conto delle nuove complessità che la trasformazione pone, non solo sul piano delle pratiche produttive ma anche delle nuove istanze sociali e della nuova relazione tra prerogative umane e tecnologia.