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1 – 10 of over 7000Tomasz Lemanski and Tina Overton
The purpose of this paper is to describe a new tool that can be used to help in the design and evaluation of work-based elements within programmes or to evaluate whole programmes…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a new tool that can be used to help in the design and evaluation of work-based elements within programmes or to evaluate whole programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes a case study approach to describe the development of the mapping tool. The tool is based on a matrix which enables users to map four variables: teacher-centred delivery, employer-centred delivery and students outcomes in terms of knowledge and skills.
Findings
The mapping tool provides a useful approach to evaluating the outcomes for work-based learning activities.
Practical implications
The mapping tool provides tutors with a useful, easily used way to visualise the nature of their work-based learning activities.
Originality/value
This paper presents a novel, practical and useful tool that has wide applicability in the field of work-based learning.
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Keywords
The article identifies and examines key elements of a work-based learning framework to consider their use as part of the higher education response to the apprenticeship agenda for…
Abstract
Purpose
The article identifies and examines key elements of a work-based learning framework to consider their use as part of the higher education response to the apprenticeship agenda for the public sector in England.
Design/methodology/approach
This article draws upon work-based learning academic literature and the authors 28 yearsâ experience of the development and implementation of work-based learning at higher education level in the UK and internationally.
Findings
The article suggests that while the experience of work-based learning at higher education level appears to offer many ready-made tools and approaches for the development and delivery of higher and degree apprenticeships, these should not be adopted uncritically and in some cases may require significant repurposing.
Research limitations/implications
This article is intended to inform practitioners developing degree apprenticeships. Given the degree apprenticeship is still at a relatively early stage in its implementation, this has limited the extent to which it has been possible to review entire degree implementation to the point of participant graduation.
Practical implications
The article draws upon real-life implementation of innovative curriculum design and is of direct practical relevance to the design and operation of work-based learning for degree apprenticeships.
Social implications
Degree apprenticeships have the potential to increase productivity and enhance social mobility. Effective design and implementation of degree apprenticeships in the public sector has the potential to make a significant impact on the quality of public services.
Originality/value
The article provides an informed and sustained examination of how degree apprenticeships, especially those designed for public sector employees, might build upon previous higher education experience in work-based learning.
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Sabina Siebert, Vince Mills and Caroline Tuff
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of learning from participation in a group of workâbased learners.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of learning from participation in a group of workâbased learners.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on qualitative data obtained from a survey of perspectives of students on two workâbased learning programmes. A group of 16 undergraduate and seven postgraduate students participated in a focus group and a number of oneâtoâone interviews.
Findings
It was found that workâbased learners learn effectively from both their community of practice in the workplace and their learning group of workâbased learners within the university. The study suggests that a learning group experience is valued highly by workâbased students and that dialogue with other students in the learning group appears to make a significant contribution to enhancing their knowledge.
Practical implications
The findings have implications for the design of workâbased learning programmes. The approach which integrates learning from the students' workplace community of practice and learning from the learning group at the university appears to be most effective.
Originality/value
The paper discusses the relationship between the nature of workâbased learning and the structure and pedagogy underlying such learning. Whilst the paper recognises that there are benefits to the individualised approach to workâbased learning, it nevertheless argues for more focus on the social aspect of learning, and emphasises the role of interaction with other learners in the learning group.
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Keywords
This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of web 2.0 tools in the online support of workâbased learners.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of web 2.0 tools in the online support of workâbased learners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview of the current use and benefits of web 2.0 tools in the support of workâbased learners. It includes two case studies that demonstrate, first, how action research is testing the boundaries of online technologies as new tools and functionality emerge and, second, how workâbased learning support staff are being trained to use such tools. These case studies are illustrations of how institutions in South Wales, UK are seeking to exploit the benefits of web 2.0 technologies in their drive to improve the support of workâbased learners.
Findings
The outcomes of the work described in this paper showed that the use of web 2.0 tools enabled online support of workâbased learners to include remote access to practical work. It also describes how workâbased learning support staff are being trained in the use of the new technologies.
Practical implications
There are significant practical implications in this paper. It shows how online distance learning support for workâbased learners can include remote access to practical work through the use of web 2.0 tools. This has always been a problem for the distance learning support of vocational subjects and indicates that such support will continue to improve as new web 2.0 functionality emerges.
Originality/value
The original value in the paper is: the remote access to practical work for workâbased learners using web 2.0 tools; and the online support of WBL trainers in their use of web 2.0 tools
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Emma Nicholls and Margaret Walsh
This case study aims to provide a critical evaluation of the decision by the University of Wolverhampton's School of Legal Studies to develop a number of workâbased learning…
Abstract
Purpose
This case study aims to provide a critical evaluation of the decision by the University of Wolverhampton's School of Legal Studies to develop a number of workâbased learning modules, offered as part of the undergraduate programme. It seeks to examine why the School has taken the approach of embedding workâbased learning into what has traditionally been a purely theoretical programme.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study which evaluates the decision by the School of Legal Studies to implement a range of workâbased learning modules.
Findings
Initial findings suggest that there are clear benefits for students undertaking workâbased learning modules.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is needed to establish whether there is a clear link between students electing the workâbased modules and a positive impact on graduate employability.
Practical implications
Institutions could consider workâbased learning as part of the response to the employability agenda, in a climate where competition for jobs is fierce, particularly in the area of law.
Originality/value
This case study will be of value for those institutions which are considering introducing workâbased learning modules for law students.
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Carol Costley and Abdulai Abukari
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of work-based research projects at postgraduate level. The focus of this paper is to measure the impact of masters- and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of work-based research projects at postgraduate level. The focus of this paper is to measure the impact of masters- and doctoral-level work-based projects which was the specific contribution of one group of researchers to the Nixon et al.âs (2008) study.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on data generated as part of a wider study that examines the impact of work-based learning projects across undergraduate through to doctoral level from the perspective of employers and from the employees perspective. The research study is based on a sample of alumni who had graduated from work-based masters and professional doctorate programmes and their corresponding employers in a UK higher education institution.
Findings
At masters and doctorate level the work-based project can often make an impact on the work context and also have a developmental effect on the employee who becomes a practitioner-researcher to undertake the project.
Originality/value
This paper finds that work-based projects are often an investment that companies make that have the propensity to yield tangible business success as well as providing an incentive for key staff to remain in the company and achieve university recognition.
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Shayne D. Baker, Neil Peach and Malcolm Cathcart
The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which work-based learning could potentially improve education and training pathways in Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which work-based learning could potentially improve education and training pathways in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews education and training provision in Australia through a contextualisation of the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) with work-based learning pedagogy to determine the extent to which it might contribute to improved outcomes for learners.
Findings
People seeking to advance their career aspirations can consider the application of work-based learning to support lifelong learning pathways through the AQF.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for further longitudinal studies on the outcomes of work-based learning for organisations, individual learners and education and training institutions.
Practical implications
The application of effective WBL approaches has the potential to create a much larger flow of learners from experiential and vocational backgrounds into undergraduate programmes and onto higher education programmes using a consistent and effective pedagogy.
Social implications
By actively considering the opportunities for learning at work and through work learners, educators and business managers may recognise that there would be more demand for work-based learning.
Originality/value
This paper represents an initial action research study which examines the role WBL can provide for life-long learning.
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Victoria Stewart, Matthew Campbell, Sara S. McMillan and Amanda J. Wheeler
The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of students and teachers who had participated in a postgraduate work-based praxis course within a Master of mental health…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of students and teachers who had participated in a postgraduate work-based praxis course within a Master of mental health practice qualification.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study used an interpretative phenomenological approach to understand the lived experience of students and course convenors participating in a work-based praxis course. Seven students and two convenors were recruited. Interview and reflective portfolio data were analysed thematically.
Findings
The main themes identified were the importance of planning, the value of partnerships, the significance of learning in the workplace and how the facilitation of work-based learning differs from coursework.
Originality/value
Work-based learning within postgraduate coursework qualifications can support higher-level learning, knowledge and skills has received limited attention in the literature. This study supported the value of providing postgraduate students with work-based learning opportunities, resulting in the application of new or advanced skills, within their existing work roles. This study is important, because it provides insights into the student experience of postgraduate work-based learning and the impact of this learning on professional practice.
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This paper draws upon the extensive operating experience of work based learning programmes by the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (NCWBLP) at Middlesex…
Abstract
This paper draws upon the extensive operating experience of work based learning programmes by the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (NCWBLP) at Middlesex University to identify the potential for work based learning to contribute to the intellectual capital not only of employer partners but also to the university. The paper argues that work based learning has the potential to provide the university with a unique opportunity to develop a new kind of knowledge based partnership. The characteristics of such partnerships are discussed with reference to the description of intellectual capital advanced by Stewart and the typology of work based learning put forward by Portwood.
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Tony Wall, Ann Hindley, Tamara Hunt, Jeremy Peach, Martin Preston, Courtney Hartley and Amy Fairbank
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the continuing dearth of scholarship about the role of work-based learning in education for sustainable development, and particularly the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the continuing dearth of scholarship about the role of work-based learning in education for sustainable development, and particularly the urgent demands of climate literacy. It is proposed that forms of work-based learning can act as catalysts for wider cultural change, towards embedding climate literacy in higher education institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws data from action research to present a case study of a Climate Change Project conducted through a work-based learning module at a mid-sized university in the UK.
Findings
Contrary to the predominantly fragmented and disciplinary bounded approaches to sustainability and climate literacy, the case study demonstrates how a form of work-based learning can create a unifying vision for action, and do so across multiple disciplinary, professional service, and identity boundaries. In addition, the project-generated indicators of cultural change including extensive faculty-level climate change resources, creative ideas for an innovative mobile application, and new infrastructural arrangements to further develop practice and research in climate change.
Practical implications
This paper provides an illustrative example of how a pan-faculty work-based learning module can act as a catalyst for change at a higher education institution.
Originality/value
This paper is a contemporary call for action to stimulate and expedite climate literacy in higher education, and is the first to propose that certain forms of work-based learning curricula can be a route to combating highly bounded and fragmented approaches, towards a unified and boundary-crossing approach.
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