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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.

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.

The mapping tool provides a useful approach to evaluating the outcomes for work-based learning activities.

The mapping tool provides tutors with a useful, easily used way to visualise the nature of their work-based learning activities.

This paper presents a novel, practical and useful tool that has wide applicability in the field of work-based learning.

In this paper, the case is made for why learning agreements play an essential role in the work‐based programmes run by the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (NCWBLP) at Middlesex University. Their crucial role is the result of the opportunity afforded students to customise their programme of study around their own and their employer’s work needs. A particular focus of attention is the role of learning agreements in programmes developed with employer partners at under‐ and postgraduate levels. Case studies of partnership programmes developed with three different organisations are discussed – a metropolitan borough council, a multinational company and a college of further education.

The purpose of this paper is to show how work-based and work-applied learning (WAL) can enhance the intellectual capital of organisations.

The paper draws organisational learning- and work-based learning literature and case study illustrations.

To achieve major strategic change in organisations requires working at senior level within the organisation to develop the capability of the organisation to learn and apply that learning strategically. WAL is explicitly geared to bring about change and enhance the learning capability within the organisation.

There is a need for further longitudinal studies of organisations that have used the work-based and WAL approaches.

The conclusions reached have implications for higher education and non-award bearing executive education.

The alignment of individual learning with organisational objectives positions learning as a co-operative part of working life rather than just individual preparation for employment.

The paper positions work-based learning and WAL as appropriate responses to the learning needs of organisations as well as individuals.

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 work‐based learning modules, offered as part of the undergraduate programme. It seeks to examine why the School has taken the approach of embedding work‐based learning into what has traditionally been a purely theoretical programme.

This is a case study which evaluates the decision by the School of Legal Studies to implement a range of work‐based learning modules.

Initial findings suggest that there are clear benefits for students undertaking work‐based learning modules.

Further research is needed to establish whether there is a clear link between students electing the work‐based modules and a positive impact on graduate employability.

Institutions could consider work‐based 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.

This case study will be of value for those institutions which are considering introducing work‐based learning modules for law students.

To explore the conceptualisation and operationalisation of authentic assessment in work-based learning and research.

The relationship between authentic assessment and work-based learning and research is examined using a postgraduate degree program at a regional university in Australia as a case example to identify unique pedagogical features of work-based learning as they are linked to assessment.

A dynamic is created between formative and summative authentic assessment practices and the cross-current nature of learning in work and research, leading to a range of lifelong learning outcomes. A framework for such a dynamic is presented.

The pedagogy informing work-based learning emphasises developing higher-order thinking through reflective practice, developing competencies and capabilities associated with professional practice and developing academic writing and research skills to enhance professional identity at the postgraduate level for mid- to senior-career professionals. However, the relationship of authentic assessment to work-based learning and research has not been explicated in the literature and its application in post-COVID work environments has yet to be fully examined.

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.

This article draws upon work-based learning academic literature and the authors 28 years’ experience of the development and implementation of work-based learning at higher education level in the UK and internationally.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry within the context of higher education work-based learning. The aim of the study is to investigate how reflection on professional practice brings about a review of the values underpinning that practice.

The data were collected from a group of undergraduate students undertaking their studies by work-based learning in the area of management in a Scottish University. An open-ended questionnaire was designed to learn about the participants’ views on their perceived freedom to reflect on their workplace practice in the university, their ability to challenge the organizational values and established practices in the workplace, and on their relationship with the workplace mentor.

Students on work-based learning programmes are subjected to demands from at least three directions: first, their own expectations, in terms of both what they want to achieve by way of their own development, second, the needs of their organization; and third, expectations of the university in ensuring that the work produced meets the standard for an academic award. These interests can sometimes coincide, but they can also conflict, and such a conflict can reveal tensions that run deeper into the culture of the organization.

This study is based on a relatively small sample of learners in one university, hence the findings are of preliminary nature. Despite the small sample size, the conclusions are indicative of a potential problem in the design of work-based learning, and a larger cross-institutional study would allow the validity of these results to be verified.

The findings emerging from this study have implications for the facilitators of work-based learning in higher education. Although university work-based learning programmes differ significantly from corporate learning and development efforts, this paper suggests that work-based learning providers should co-operate more closely with the learners’ employing organizations towards creating an environment for learning at work. More co-operation between the university and the employer might be more beneficial for all stakeholders.

The literature on work-based learning focuses in the main on the use of reflection as a tool of enquiry into workplace practice. Drawing on the study of contemporary work organizations, this paper explores the tensions arising from reflection on the learners’ practice, and possible conflict of values that reflection exposes.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of learning from participation in a group of work‐based learners.

This study relies on qualitative data obtained from a survey of perspectives of students on two work‐based learning programmes. A group of 16 undergraduate and seven postgraduate students participated in a focus group and a number of one‐to‐one interviews.

It was found that work‐based learners learn effectively from both their community of practice in the workplace and their learning group of work‐based learners within the university. The study suggests that a learning group experience is valued highly by work‐based students and that dialogue with other students in the learning group appears to make a significant contribution to enhancing their knowledge.

The findings have implications for the design of work‐based 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.

The paper discusses the relationship between the nature of work‐based learning and the structure and pedagogy underlying such learning. Whilst the paper recognises that there are benefits to the individualised approach to work‐based 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.

In the UK there is currently a national consultation on the structure/adoption of an academic credit framework for higher education. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the principles underlying such a framework, when applied in the context of a workplace research project, can facilitate debate between the academic disciplines and work‐based learning practitioners.

This paper argues that the workplace project, when designed and structured according to credit principles, offers a valuable point at which to interact with academic colleagues from the disciplines, and to engage them in debate regarding the academic validity of work‐based learning. The case made here is that workplace research projects (which will have an element of familiarity to colleagues) and academic credit practice (where learning recognition is not contextualised but level of achievement is fundamental) can offer a way to engender that debate.

The lack of academic confidence in work‐based learning has been consistently experienced by academics introducing work‐based learning in the UK and Australia, and they are very much aware of the need to overcome it. There is a challenge to the structure and basis of higher education is taking place in a sector which, until recently, was functioning effectively in an élite tradition.

The paper indicates a way to address the academic issues raised by full recognition of workplace learning and engage with them by using the “language” of credit practice, which can accommodate both new and established academic practice.