Facilitating Work-Based Learning

A Handbook for Tutors

Ruth Helyer

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781350306233
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Work-based learning routes are a versatile and innovative way to gain higher education qualifications. This book reflects that flexibility and prepares tutors for helping work-based students learn in a variety of ways at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Offering practical information and advice, the book covers the major aspects of work-based learning, which include: - Accreditation of prior learning (APL)
- Work-based projects
- Learning agreements
- Relevant innovative assessment methods
- Quality assurance and enhancement mechanisms
- How technology can be utilised as a learning tool. Featuring activities, case studies and useful hints and tips informed by a range of international scholars, it's the ideal companion for tutors of work-based learning students.

1 How does work-based learning fit into higher education?

Ruth Helyer and Jonathan Garnett

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL:

Look at the key characteristics of work-based learning

Be introduced to the importance of experiential learning

Be given an overview of some learning theories of particular significance for work-based learning

Be introduced to Mode 2 knowledge and transdisciplinary learning

See that both individual and organisational development arise from work-based learning

Compare the similarities between work-based learning and other flexible pedagogies

Work-based learning as an educational device

Work-based learning (WBL) is learning which takes place primarily at and through work and is for the purposes of work, although it is mediated through a higher education institution (HEI). Gibbs and Garnett define WBL as:

A learning process which focuses university level critical thinking upon work (paid or unpaid), in order to facilitate the recognition, acquisition and application of individual and collective knowledge, skills and abilities, to achieve specific outcomes of significance to the learner, their work and the university.

(Gibbs and Garnett, 2007, p. 411)

In the UK, WBL as an educational device is often associated with lower levels, but it can be at any level from 1 to 8 on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) (see Chapter 3). WBL at higher education (HE) level can range from a component of a course unit to entire qualifications at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels; it can be used to help young people integrate work and learning to help them enter employment, or it can be the vehicle that mature students choose to facilitate part of their continuing professional development (Garnett, 2012). WBL focuses on the benefits of real learning from real work.

A work-based learner can be in paid or significant unpaid (for example, voluntary) work. The key defining feature for work-based learners who are studying with an HEI is that the work they are engaged in requires the development and application of high-level learning (levels 4–8) in order for them to be effective in their work. Some of this learning requirement might come from formal learning, but, in most cases, the main source of learning will be the experience of work. Many work-based learners will already be well established in their professional area and are likely to be engaged with HE-level WBL for continuing professional development. Such learners are prone to having considerable knowledge and skills relevant to their work, and so a HEI work-based programme that allows for this pre-understanding to be formally recognised and become part of an integrated programme of personal and professional development is very attractive. This is demonstrated by the following Case study 1.1, where a work-based learner uses his existing expertise to make HE work for him:

Case study 1.1 Work-based learner profile (A): Andrew, a project manager

Andrew is in his mid-forties and has been a project manager for a multinational information technology company for the last 15 years. He chooses an HEI’s work-based learning programme as it enables him to gain recognition for his project management and technical abilities and to plan a programme which focuses upon real-life projects of interest to him and of potential value to his employer and does not require large elements of formal classroom attendance.

Andrew does not have a first degree, but, on the basis of his extensive work history, it has been suggested to him that he could benefit from undertaking a university module designed to facilitate the development of a claim for RPL (recognition of prior experiential learning). The module takes Andrew through a process of guided reflection upon his experience and helps him identify his prior learning in the areas of project management and construction quality assurance. Andrew is required to articulate his learning achievement and supply evidence of it, drawing upon real-life documents and artefacts. The learning described is measured against HE learning outcomes and shows that he is already demonstrating learning achievement beyond that normally expected at undergraduate degree level. As a consequence of this evaluation Andrew is able to gain direct entry with advanced standing to a master’s programme.

The next stage is Andrew to negotiate with the HEI and his employer a work-based programme of study that takes into account his own academic starting point and his personal and professional needs and aspirations. The programme is attractive to Andrew’s employer as it does not require time away from work and provides HE-level support for Andrew to address a project of direct relevance to the company. The agreed focus of the programme is a review of the processes for project managers to report construction defects to the company. The aim of the project is to improve reporting so that the same mistakes can be avoided in the future.

This case study illustrates how RPL can provide the basis for a negotiated work-based programme that takes as its starting point the knowledge and capabilities of the individual learners and their employers, rather than being rooted in a rigid, prescribed programme of study.

Higher-level WBL in the UK developed from a range of initiatives funded by the Employment Department in the early 1990s ( Brennan and Little, 1996) and benefited from a favourable policy context which valued graduate employability and sought to extend participation in HE (Mumford and Rood-house, 2010). The employability and skills agendas have remained key to successive governments; their overlaps with WBL drivers are debated further in Chapter 10, ‘Learning in the workplace globally’, and Chapter 11, ‘Learning to learn’. Although a small number of UK HEIs (notably Chester, Derby, Middlesex, Northumbria, Portsmouth and Teesside universities) have longstanding experience in delivering programmes created around work-based learners, it is still regarded as an innovative area of practice. Case study 1.2 illustrates the new and developing areas where WBL provides an ideal route for an innovative SME (small and medium-sized enterprises, with less than 250 employees) due to its flexibility, relevance and origin in the real-world workplace:

Case study 1.2 Innovative WBL routes: NAK Australia

NAK Australia is a wholesale distribution company that supplies hair care products. The company’s mission is ‘to supply hairdressers with an Australian-made range of hair care that exceeds the expectations of themselves, their staff and their clients in quality, value and service’.

The work environment is entrepreneurial, non-formal, non-bureaucratic and very fast. NAK management identified that their staff are a critical resource. The concept of learning to learn continuously and rapidly so as to keep abreast of continual change in the sector is a key driver of the organisation. The most pressing problem was how and where did NAK Australia and its people acquire these ongoing skills without each member of staff undertaking many years of personal study within formal courses?

Over a number of years NAK staff had undertaken a range of vocational educational programmes, including a Diploma of Business and a Diploma of Management within a workplace environment. After completing these programmes some of their people decided to enrol on HEI business degrees; however, they found this more traditional education sometimes far too theoretical, removed from the workplace, irrelevant to NAK’s needs and developed by academics not at the workface. They found methods of delivery inflexible in terms of learning styles and participants’ previous skill levels.

They were introduced to the Middlesex University ‘WBL’ model by a consultant to the business; this programme was different, with learning focused on learning at work, learning through work and learning for the purpose of work. Through a Review of Learning module the programme recognised and awarded academic credit for previous learning and work-developed capabilities. Through NAK the Review of Learning module found recognition as a unique learning concept within the Australian HE system.

After taking part in the Review of Learning module, participants took part in further modules: Self-development Plan, Professional Practitioner Inquiry and the Work-Based Project.

The NAK students’ success on the programme was related to several factors:

The programme used ‘WBL’ methodology.

The organisation was in support of developing its people.

The HEI provided excellent resource materials to support the students.

The students were mentored and guided by a professional academic mentor who offered a combination of academic and practitioner credibility, together with a passion for developing people within a work-based environment.

The cohort all successfully completed the BA (Hons) (Professional Practice) and the general manager developed an Organisatio...