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1 – 10 of over 5000Tomasz 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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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 years’ 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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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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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 work‐based 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 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.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study which evaluates the decision by the School of Legal Studies to implement a range of work‐based learning modules.
Findings
Initial findings suggest that there are clear benefits for students undertaking work‐based learning modules.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
This case study will be of value for those institutions which are considering introducing work‐based learning modules for law students.
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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 work‐based learners.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of learning from participation in a group of work‐based learners.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Although readers of this journal are familiar with work‐based learning and with leadership, they may not have entertained the link between them. The paper aims to contend that the…
Abstract
Purpose
Although readers of this journal are familiar with work‐based learning and with leadership, they may not have entertained the link between them. The paper aims to contend that the link is that the former changes the latter. The authentic practice of work‐based learning produces a more collective form of leadership, matching the former's founding principles and practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Guided by the author's long‐standing research of both work‐based learning and leadership, he searches for commonalities in their underlying conditions, proposing a means to identify their relationship. The author's model invites both further study by researchers and field replication by practitioners.
Findings
A number of compatible principles and practices undergird the fields of work‐based learning and collective leadership; namely, their mutual commitment to dialogic processes based on nonjudgmental inquiry; their accentuation of the state of genuine curiosity – even doubt; their acceptance of critical challenge; and their willingness to disturb preconceived world views on behalf of a common good.
Practical implications
Managers and executives taking advantage of work‐based learning, when offered as an authentic practice, may acknowledge its powerful impact on leadership, but as in the case of learning, they must be willing to sustain its collaborative nature to release its potential.
Social implications
When people in a community or organization authentically share leadership, it ignites their natural talent to contribute to the growth of that community and it also elevates the value of trust by bringing genuineness to the community.
Originality/value
Practitioners in the development and learning field already know the value of work‐based learning for learning purposes, but in this article, it is shown to impact leadership in a profound way – it changes it. As a collective and reflective practice, it responds to contemporary needs to find ways to release people to contribute their natural talents on behalf of mutual action.
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Jonathan Garnett, Selva Abraham and Param Abraham
The purpose of this paper is to show how work-based and work-applied learning (WAL) can enhance the intellectual capital of organisations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how work-based and work-applied learning (WAL) can enhance the intellectual capital of organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws organisational learning- and work-based learning literature and case study illustrations.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for further longitudinal studies of organisations that have used the work-based and WAL approaches.
Practical implications
The conclusions reached have implications for higher education and non-award bearing executive education.
Social implications
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.
Originality/value
The paper positions work-based learning and WAL as appropriate responses to the learning needs of organisations as well as individuals.
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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…
Abstract
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.
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This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of web 2.0 tools in the online support of work‐based learners.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of web 2.0 tools in the online support of work‐based learners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an overview of the current use and benefits of web 2.0 tools in the support of work‐based 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 work‐based 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 work‐based learners.
Findings
The outcomes of the work described in this paper showed that the use of web 2.0 tools enabled online support of work‐based learners to include remote access to practical work. It also describes how work‐based 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 work‐based 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 work‐based 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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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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