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The Government of Canada is adopting the pedagogical practice of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) to help youth develop the career ready skills needed to transition from school to work. As a result, colleges and universities are receiving funding to grow academic programs that link theoretical learning with practical work experience. However, there is limited research about the resources available to students with disabilities who engage in WIL. From an environmental scan of disability supports for WIL on 55 Canadian post-secondary institutions’ websites and survey results from WIL professionals we ask: Do post-secondary institutions in Canada help students with disabilities become career ready? The data reveals that 40% of schools have no reference to disability services for any career related activities and only 18% refer to disability supports for WIL. Survey respondents report they are not being trained nor have access to resources to support students with disabilities in WIL. The authors therefore recommend changes to public policy and resource allocation to ensure colleges and universities provide disability services for all WIL programs, train practitioners about career related disability management, and hire professionals who specialize in supporting students with disabilities in WIL.

The authors conducted an environmental scan of 55 Canadian post-secondary schools with a student population of 10,000 or more and identified services and resources publicly advertised online for students with disabilities in relation to employment and/or WIL activities. From this broad search, codes were developed based on general themes found in the recorded information, such as the location of information and the type of resources and services advertised for students with disabilities. During the environmental scan, the authors also collected names and emails of people listed as working in career and/or WIL departments who received an anonymous survey about their experiences working with students with disabilities.

As the Government of Canada expands WIL to improve labour market outcomes for youth, the research findings of the authors provide valuable evidence that post-secondary institutions are not supporting youth with disabilities to become career ready. Surprisingly, 40% of post-secondary institutions have no reference to disability supports for career related activities and only 18% reference supports available for engaging in WIL on their websites. In addition, WIL practitioners are not receiving the resources nor training to support this demographic to transition from school to work. This research can provide direction on resource allocation; specifically, the need for disability related supports and dedicated professionals for students who engage in WIL programs in higher education.

A limitation of the methodology in scanning public sites is that universities and colleges could have services or supports advertised on sites that can only be viewed by the faculty, staff and students from that school. Thus, it is possible that employment information for students with disabilities is available for those with login privileges. The authors attempted to mitigate this limitation by collecting survey responses about programs and services from WIL practitioners who work at the schools. The authors also did not measure marketing of services on social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram). Another limitation is that the WIL practitioner survey results are based on their perceptions. The sample size was not randomized, nor can the authors confirm it is a representative sample of all WIL practitioners in Canada.

As countries continue to grapple with how to deal with the intersectionality of disability on an already disadvantaged demographic in the labour market, they must ensure that students with disabilities have access to career ready activities while in school. The authors therefore recommend public policy and resource allocation, not only in Canada but at a global level, that ensures post-secondary institutions: (1) create disability management programs and resources for all WIL and career activities; (2) hire dedicated professionals who specialize in working with students with disabilities in WIL; and (3) provide mandatory training for WIL practitioners on how to support students with disabilities in programs that develop their career ready skills.

Preparing students with disabilities to be career ready when they graduate will benefit the Canadian economy. This wasted human capital not only negatively impacts a labour market with an aging demographic, it affects social service programs as Canadians with disabilities are one-third times more likely to live in poverty compared to Canadians without disabilities (Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017). The G20 report also stated that if employment rates for people with disabilities who are able to work were the same as for people without disabilities, economies around the world could increase their GDP by 3–7% (ILO and OECD, 2018).

There is no research in Canada to date that provides a national overview of the services in higher education advertised to support students with disabilities in WIL.

This paper examines how the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital developments in apprenticeship and work-based learning in higher education (HE), focusing on practices that have ongoing value.

A literature review was carried out on the theme of HE work-based and work-integrated learning during the pandemic, followed by minimally-structured interviews with UK university staff responsible for apprenticeship and other work-based programmes.

The pandemic has accelerated adoption of online and digital methods to support work-based and apprenticeship learning. There has been progress from emergency measures to more pedagogically consistent ones. A blended approach is becoming common, with the learning and logistical benefits from digital methods ensuring their continuing use. Progress is uneven and there is still a need for improved digital pedagogy and better integration of theoretical and practical learning.

More attention is needed to digital pedagogy and to effective use of online methods to support work-based learning with corresponding implications for staff development. There are institutional implications in terms of ensuring that systems and structures support what is, particularly for work-based learners, likely to be a permanent move towards digital, blended and online learning.

There has been limited research on the impact of the pandemic on work-based learning, with most of the literature focusing on placements and projects. This paper presents findings at a point when universities are considering how technologically-supported methods will be employed on a more permanent basis.

The purpose of this article is to explore how one higher education institution (HEI) has embraced the apprenticeship agenda and is successfully providing an apprenticeship programme for nursing associates (NA) a new profession within health and social care in the United Kingdom.

This is a descriptive case study narrative about one programme from one HEI, selected for its relevance for the subject area of apprenticeships. This descriptive approach allows the provision of apprenticeships within HEI to be explored in depth by one institution.

This case study identifies the considerable value of apprenticeships within HEI for the students, the employers and the HEI. It also identifies that there are challenges within this. These findings will be of interest to those entering into the apprenticeship arena, especially within healthcare, and may inform an academic discourse in this area.

It is acknowledged that this case study does not seek to compare apprenticeships with other programmes. However, there is value in providing an academic narrative around the challenges of this provision which will be informative for others developing higher apprenticeships in the United Kingdom or similar delivery of apprenticeship models internationally.

There is value in providing an academic narrative around the challenges of this provision which will be informative for others developing higher apprenticeships in the UK or similar delivery of apprenticeship models internationally

These findings will be of interest to those entering into the apprenticeship arena, especially within healthcare, and will inform the academic discourse in this area.

This is original work and provides a new body of knowledge to the inform HEIs engaging with the relatively new context of higher and degree apprenticeships, as well as the new role within healthcare of the nursing associate.

The purpose of this paper is to communicate the findings of an empirical research project based on a real world problem that involved the development of a continuous professional development (CPD) framework for a children’s integrated service workforce. In addition, to give attention to the notion that children’s integrated services have not necessarily been viewed from the perspective of conflict management and that this has meant ensuing conflicts that characterise such organisations are more often than not ignored.

A case study approach involving a mixed methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews for senior managers and service leads; a quantitative survey for frontline practitioners and focus groups for service users, carers and children.

Rather than the service being fully integrated, services were aligned, and this was reflected in the conflict between professional cultures, reinforcing an “us and them” culture. This culture had seemingly permeated all aspects of the organisation including the senior management team. It was also noted that certain systems and processes, as well as bureaucracy, within the service were seen as hindering integrated working and was in effect a catalyst for conflict.

What has become evident during the course of this empirical study is the need to further explore the functioning of children’s integrated services using conflict management theories, tools and techniques so as to understand how best to manage conflict to an optimum where an environment of creativity and productiveness is created.

Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation, as it is this level where there is opportunity through a variety of mechanisms, for example formal and non-formal learning, ring-fenced time, attendance at conferences, team away days and shadowing opportunities can be used to achieve a greater understanding of professional roles, improve working relationships and engage in the division of tasks in a fashion that will promote collaborative working.

The extent to which a children’s integrated service can be the harbinger of a range of multi-faceted conflicts that include the jarring of professional cultures, task conflict, inter-personal incompatibilities and competing value bases cannot be underestimated. Therefore, when devising a CPD framework it can be argued that there is a need to address some of the types of conflict at the micro-frontline practitioner level of the organisation.

Through the application of conflict management theory it will be illustrated how conflict could be used to effectively steer children integrated services towards creativity and productivity through an organisational wide framework that not only embraces dissonance, but also promotes a learning environment that takes advantage of such dissonance to incorporate a hybrid of professional practice and expertise.

This article draws on a study of best practices in work-integrated learning (WIL) identified in the Middlesex University Degree Apprenticeships Development Fund (DADF) Project, which examined their application for four public sector degree apprenticeships (DAs). The authors suggest that WIL pedagogical practices deployed to deliver DAs can bridge traditional pedagogical and occupational divisions while building institutional resilience in a post-viral world. The paper is intended to contribute to both practitioner and policy-level discourse regarding the best practice in WIL for DAs.

A literature review of key texts was used to identify “success characteristics” in WIL “signature” pedagogies, with potential applicability for DA design and delivery. These characteristics were used to frame interrogation of best pedagogical practices, using the best practice matrix developed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with selected expert practitioners to examine their matrix responses and to discuss the researcher's initial “read-across” analysis of best practices and possible implications for pedagogical practice in WIL for DAs across other sectors. This paper also draws on feedback from employer groups who were consulted on the project report recommendations and further feedback from a national project dissemination conference in 2018. The findings from the research project have also been re-evaluated with reference to further literature in the context of the challenges presented by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The findings from the study indicate that pedagogical best practices were to a significant degree transferable across professions and sectors; success characteristics in one pedagogical area (for example, mentoring/practice education) underpin success in another (recognition of prior learning [RPL] and practice-based assessment of achievement); success characteristics in WIL can also be applied and operated across professions and sectors to demonstrate how the best practice in WIL should be applied in the design of DAs more generally.

The original project research study focussed on WIL pedagogical practices in four specified professions across four public sectors within one institution. This approach, though limited, enabled the research study to focus on in-depth qualitative interactions with practitioners from different sectors rather than institutional differences. As a consequence, the research study was able to focus on in-depth and dynamic interrelationships in pedagogical practice from the perspective of the professions, which facilitated productive examination of similarities and differences across these professions.

The research study provided evidence of the potential value of a more explicit recognition of WIL practice in the higher education sector and how consistent approaches to WIL should inform programme design. This has potential to improve the quality of curriculum design and pedagogy across DA programmes and provide a valuable reference point for quality assuring this provision.

Videoconferencing between general practitioners and hospitals has been developed to provide higher quality health care services in Norway by promoting interaction between levels of care. This article aims to explore the use of videoconferencing for information exchange and consultation throughout the patient trajectory and to investigate how collaboration affects learning and the patient's treatment.

The approach was interaction analysis supplemented by interviews. Medical discussions concerning the patient were observed for 15 days, creating a trajectory of seven videoconferences. Interviews were conducted to examine the collaboration.

General practitioners and specialists use a different repertoire of knowledge and experiences to report and consult throughout the course of treatment. Over time, new medical problems arose, and the treatment had to be adjusted. The activity remained continuous and contributed to an integrated knowledge and information exchange. Collaboration using videoconferencing across levels of care created opportunities for workplace learning in health services and can lead to continuity, improved coordination, and a higher quality of care.

In contrast to other studies, which state effects, the need for continuity and cooperation in health care, and the ways in which individual differences make it difficult to achieve seamless health care services, this study offers insight into how continuity and cooperation can be achieved. It includes both observations of interactions and interviews of the participants, providing analysis of collaborative work in situ. This provides insight into the content of the interaction over time as a resource for understanding the outcome of the use of technology and improving health care.

The modernisation agenda in health and social care is concerned with providing an integrated service for patients/clients and their carers. This paper focuses on the nature of practice‐based learning environments that support the development of students as effective interprofessional practitioners for the modernised health and social care services.

The purpose of this paper is to look beyond the data and findings of a joint practitioner-research project to illustrate how joint practitioner-research can influence practice and stimulate meaningful partnership working from the bottom up within a social care setting. The impact of this integrated approach to practice and learning can enable improved outcomes for people.

The authors outline the research and explore the reflective process underlying the project including the subsequent phase of implementation. This examines what the authors, as practitioner-researchers, understood from the practice, heard from carers and fellow workers, and learnt from each other.

The authors consider the project in the wider context of evidence-based practice. Key enablers and challenges are identified to the production of joint practitioner-research and more broadly to outcomes for carers. The authors also examine the reflective process of joint working between individuals and the impact this can have on facilitating integrated working, at both a practice and service level.

The learning from this project evidences the value of meaningful joint working between practitioners and the impact this can have at different levels of integration. It also looks beyond the practitioner-research project to the stages of implementing findings and planning for ongoing joint working. It is therefore pertinent to many organisations looking to integrate and orientate towards a focus on outcomes for people.

Within the developing exploration of the role of the scholar-practitioner, the situation in which scholar-practitioners engage in the scholarship of practice in their own organizational systems has not received much attention. This chapter adopts the position that scholar-practitioners are not merely practitioners who do research but rather that they integrate scholarship in their practice and generate actionable knowledge, that is, knowledge that is robust for scholars and actionable for practitioners. This chapter explores the phenomenon of scholar-practitioners engaging in the scholarship of practice in their own organizational systems as inside change agents. It discusses how scholar-practitioners engage in inquiry-in-action in first-, second-, and third-person modes of inquiry and practice in the present tense and provides a methodology and methods for such engagement that it be rigorous, reflective, and relevant.