Work-Based Learning

Work-based learning is a radical approach to the notion of higher education. Students undertake study for a degree or diploma primarily in their workplace and their learning opportunities are not contrived for study purposes but arise from normal work. The role of the university is to equip and qualify people already in employment to develop lifelong learning skills, not through engagement with existing disciplines, bodies of knowledge or courses defined by the university, but through a curriculum unique for each person. The organizations in which students work benefit directly through projects that advance the enterprise as well as contributing to student learning. The arrangement is a three-way partnership - involving organization, learner and university. In this arrangement, individuals' learning is linked to the strategic goals of the organization, together with the knowledge and experience they bring to the learning. The key responsibility at the university is the recognition, assessment and accreditation of the learning. This comprehensive volume: locates work-based learning as part of major changes influencing universities; includes contributions from many of the pioneers of work-based learning; provides accessible accounts of the teaching, learning and assessment practices involved; examines the impact of this innovation on the institutions in which it is introduced; and explores the changes in academic work practices associated with work-based learning.