Learning for Real: Work-based
Education in Universities
-
David Boud and Colin Symes
Personalities which became effective in action were bred and tested in the
medium of action.
I
(Dewey 1
Introduction
In several countries including Australia and the UK,work-based le
degrees are being established in which learning occun primarily
workplace, with work as the curriculum. These are not extensions of
erative education and sandwich courses but a mdicdly new appro
what constitutes university study. They provide a new framework for
izing and structuring a university award. In this respect, work-based
ing needs to be distinguished from workplace learning, that form of le
that occun on a day-to-day basii at work as employees acquire new sk
No formal educational re
develop new approaches to s o h ~ problems.
g
tion normally accrues to such learning, whether or not it is organiz
tematically. The emergence of work-based learning acknowledges tha
even on a day-to-day basis, is imbued with learning opportunities (G
1998), heretofore not recognized as educationally significant or worth
Work-based learning gives academic recognition to these opportu
when-suitably planned and represented.
In specific tenns work-based learning has come to be used as a d
don of accredited university courses in which a significant proport
study, if not all, is undertaken in the workplace whose issues and chal
form the principal focus of study. At present, the majority of Iea&e
rolled in work-based learning programmes are engaged in full-time em
ment. Work-based learning courses, which have been pioneered a
universities as Portsmouth and Middlesex (Boud 1998). arc typically
new mode of study or a substitute for existing part-time courses, but
approach to higher education which extends its alcessibility and flex
learning, that its current incarnations are a reflection of the c
moment, and that in ditferent circumstances, work-based lea
have a different character altogether.
In this chapter we examine work-based learning in both o
universities in the United Kingdom, where work-based leami
somewhat more elaborated as a practice than, say, in Australia
based learning is still in its infancy. This is in part because the
for Education and Employment (DfEE) in the UK has been
than some other countries' govemmentr in promoting the ~
tion of its system of education. Its recent enthusiasm for the U
Industry - potentially another version of work-based learning
its support for extending the ambit of higher education into th
Work-based learning is beginning to be implemented in som
universities, most notably at the University of Technology, Sy
the authors of this chapter are located.
It is of note that there are similar developments to work-base
the Technical and Further Education (TAFE)sector in Australi
1999). It seems probable that over time there will be a loos
boundaries between higher education and other sectors of pos
education, as well as the boundaries between undergraduate an
ate education.
In this chapter though, the main focus is university educat
challenges that the introduction of work-based learning alon
onhodox forms of study pose to the academic and administra
ment of the university. We describe the way in which working has been accommodated into the higher education system
that this accommodation has not always been a comfortable o
respects its accommodation has been facilitated by the changin
higher education and policies that have fostered more 'realist
university cunicula designed to meet the needs of the changin
'Learning for real' is a now a powerful force in the formation o
sity as has been the force of access. Their combined impact is
style of higher education in which the fulfilment of career as
become an important goal. This will come about as the &ntiall
structural arrangements of institutions are challenged over t
more seamless educational opportunities by learners applying t
of consumer demand.
-
Work-based learning: a new pedagogy for
new times
l
Work-based learning is, in many respects, an idea whose tim
As a new mode of education it epitomizes much of the dram
which has been occurring in and around higher education. F
try and the public sector. This has been part of a broader policy
centring on economic reform that has focused on, amona other m
the ne& if they are to take advantage of the emergent kno\;ledge ec
for nation-states to intellectualize their labour forces. Higher edu
because it is a central player in human capital formation, has b
garded as a vital part of d& reform. Thus a cult of relewce has be
sweep through the sometimes arcane tendencies of the academy, wh
resulted in universities updating their epistemological profiles and
izational structures in line with what they perceive to be the worl
practice. This has not been easy. For example, some of the elite inst
(not all by any means) and some faculties are staggeringly untouc
these developments and have resisted these modernizing trends. Th
badly infected with legacy inertia, which makes it difficult for them t
ate themselves from the stranglehold of their traditions.
Thus the advocacy of work-based learning has tended to be stron
universities which have alwap had more pragmatic outlooks. It is n
dent, for example, that it has been strongest in those institutions
were formerly polytechnics, or institutes of technology as they were
in Australia, and which always championed doser relationships with
uy and commerce than the univenities. Part of the charter of such
tions, as Symes argues in his chapter, involved establishing such lin
foregoing some academic aspirations in favour of more applied appr
to learning. However, work-based learning is not confined to such
tions as can be testified by pioneering work at the universities of Lee
Cambridge (see Boud and Solomon, forthcoming).
But recent shpPrt for work-based learning is also symptomatic of
generalized shift towards to what has been called 'instrumental pro
ism' across the whole spectrum of education which is marked by a n
of features. These include an emphasis on accessibility, transferabl
competency formation, modularized educational programmes, stude
filing and the development of reflective practitioners (Robins and W
1999). In direct contrast to the approaches to learning which emp
inflexibility and the attenuation of capacity, and which were comm
ate with Taylorist patterns ofwork, the new emphasis is on the cul
of the flexible individual, possessing a range of symbolic and num
capacities.
The trend towards 'instrumental progressivism' is driven by radical c
to the nature of work. The move from mass production to flexible
ization has created a labour force in which the major input is inte
rcither than muscular. Whole categories of employment have been
in the last two decades or so, which did not exist before the em of in
tion technology; at the same time, many areas of work have decline
some instances, become extinct There have also been dramatic cha
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- and to the temporalization of work. Individuals work longer an
but also in jobs that are of shorter duration and have a project focu
1999). It is now a case of several careers in a lifetime, not one,
individuals can expect to have to upgrade and extend their c
often through seKfinanced education.
These changes have placed new demands on the nature of
study. Universities were always to a degree vocational institution
larly in terms of the highstatus professions such as law and medic
the last few years this voationalism has become more pronounce
ing the growth in knowledge-based employment, particularly in t
and financial scctors. But these developments have also brought
tion the efficacy and appropriateness of front-end education and
comprising a degree followed by work.
The rise of work-based education emerges from the phalanx
now driving higher education. The reforms of h e 1980s in UK
t d i a acquiesced to these, leading to a questioning of the very nat
university as 'academic'. The term has come to have pejorative
denoting something that is not applicable to the real world. I
recognition of the fact that during the 1960s and 1970s univer
become too ivorytowerish, most have begun to promote themse
longing to the real world, dealing with issues that really matter an
useh1 (Symes 1998).Although much of the language is rhetorical a
to the way institutions are positioning themselves in the new co
has actual substance in the 'real' world (see Robin Usher in this
there are telling points in the rhetoric. Universities are keen to
the point that &dr degrees are useful and will enhance employm
tunities. The fact that work-based learning has caused no obvious
tion, as it might have done in the ivo*ower university, is a m
shift to a more 'realized' university.
But the impetus for work-based education is not just instrume
clarion calls of access and equity arc ones to which higher educ
also had to respond not only on socialjustice grounds. Much of
and equity rationale has a human capital underlay, that of bette
the talent pool of the population and making available the highes
education to the disadvantaged (Taylor and Henry 1994). Thk
the uansfomation of higher education from an elite to a mass
a time when universities have been encouraged to extend their
sections of the community that were under-re~resentedin their ~ o
it has made senk to divekify the ways of uniertaking universi6 A
virtualition of the university is one current version of this diver
Yet it is one which has its liitations and also dangers. Althoug
courses might Facilitate teaching much of the content in a degree
is difficult to see how more personal and social skills can be acq
line. Also, most high school leaven want to experience the un
some real way, if nothiig else for its social life.
inclusion that have seen minority groups admitted to the univenity. A
this case refen to those at work, who are not disadvantaged in any or
sense but might be disadvantaged in terms of access to higher educa
being at work. This might mean that they are not available for existin
of study or, perhaps, are unable to meet the disciplinary demands
university's knowledge structures. Work-based leaming aims to mitiga
types of disadmntage. First, it recognizes that workplace experien
potentially 'knowledgeable' ones, which contain countless opportuni
learning and development, the acquisition of expertise and so on. T
no reason to suppose that classrooms and lecture theatres are th
venues in which pedagogical experiences may be located. This mea
individuals who are at work and who would not ordinarily have con
going to university are able to do so and, morebver, able to incorpora
aspects of their work experience as part of their study for a degree. S
this makes it easier for those who have been out of the schooling
(often because they were excluded from it) for some time to reemb
study through the 'academintion' of what they know and learn at w
The intensification of work makes time an increasingly preciou
modity, but it also makes its 'academization' one of the more se
features of work-based learning. Accrediting work as a legitimate
learning means reduction of time on-campus; that already 'overtime
dents do not have to leave their workplace o r their home for stud
many work-based students are on-line as part of their normal work
that they can also take advantage of the virtual learning opport
through university study, including open learning.
In many ways work-based learning is adult education in a new gui
that uses work as an alternative point of enuy into the higher edu
grstem. As such, it presents an extremely grounded version of the postm
challenge to higher eduration, which is leading to a more student- a
discipline-centred university. Indeed, this shift from the product
consumer of educational services is svmptomatic of the specializa
services in postmodem culture, which are increasingly mapped arou
particular needs of the individual and desimed accordingly. The dive
Gon of university study has normalized h e notion &;-there sho
different modes and ways of obtaining a degree. The context of flexi
a mark of the more studentcentred univenity. This has meant atten
the needs of the consumerr of education (who after all are paying fo
of their higher education) in a more direct way.
The discoume of free choice that undergirds the marketization of
education has also caused universities to use the market as the place
the viabiiity of their courses. Thii has also meant attempting to determ
logic of the consumer of education services, which is one reason (apa
the obvious pedagogic ones) why there has been an upsurge in inte
.
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makes sense for the employee and the employer alike, who a
sumers, albeit in a more indirect way, of educational sewic
grounds, then, work-based learning satisfies the logic of consu
production: it purports to produce a more productive worker
satisfied educational consumer.
In summary: work-based education is demand-driven, arising
ber of significant imperatives. These include:
who want recognition for what they have already le
Like to develop their emergent interests through study, and re
flexible modes of study to do so, including the opportunity to
the major focus of their study,
mpIogm who want to harness more effectively what they se
considerable under-utilized potential of universities and to
learning as part of new forms of productivity;
gwnnmcnts which want to increase the measure of satisfac
students and employers regarding the outcomes of higher edu
to shift costs away from the public purse;
universities which want to be less dependent on the purse sh
ernment, to provide more relemnt courses of learning for th
and to engage in partnerships with new sites of knowledge p
The problems of implementing work-based
learning
Although there is much that makes pedagogic sense in working, its implementation in universities has been fraught wit
and administlative difficulties. While universities haw had the
corpontized in the last decade or so, their administmtive mec
still highly bureaucratic and are not conducive to pedagogic
such as work-based learning which challenge established proc
variety of ways. Universities are, for example, extremely tenitor
of their faculty operations and epistemological advantages. This
they are often less filvourably disposed to strategies of learning
lenge traditional areas of understanding and knowledge.
For example, at a quite mundane level, work-based learning
into problems with the university Qlendar which, unIike that
fragmented into semesters and contains extended periods of
on the surface at least, no academic action talces place. Work-bas
is often incompatible with the time units of the university, a
these are allocated. Of more significance is the fact that worklems and projects do not correspond to the disciplinary struc
university or even the structures of practice associated with
courses of learning. Learning at work is not necessarily labelle
are far more amorphous than those associated with the uaditional unive
sity, which are often inflexible and not easily abandoned. When learnin
challenges are created from the exigencies of work there is often no pr
existing map that represents the territory of knowledge being explored.
Other problems are posed by learners who do not want to study wh
they have already learned. Therefore genuine recognition of prior learnin
is needed: not just a process ofjumping through the criteria referencing
acquired competencies to demonstrate equidence with particular unive
sity courses, but providing real credit for learning gained at work. This ma
not relate to an existing university course but it must relate to a programm
of work-based learning. As we have already argued, work is a potentially ric
environment of learning. But what in the world of work can really be equiva
ent to Psychology l?
W o r k - k d learners may not be very interested in cc&ig their emplo
ment and studying full-time. This is understandable given thatjobs may b
few and far betwecn; but they are also not even interested in weekly attend
ance at lectures in the part-time mode, which is increasingly impracti
given the time-intensification of contemporary work.
Moreover, many work-based learners are not thrilled to study conte
packaged in a way to suit disciplinary or professional knowledge interest
Work-based learning challenges the existing categories of knowledge th
underline the organization of content These are inappropriate to the need
of the workplace. Thus universities need to offer courses that are no
attendancedependent, that measure course participation in some other wa
Indeed, the whole notion of a course of study linked to semesters and pr
requisites is anachronistic, and out of step with the temporal revolution th
has occurred in the post-Fordist workplace (Symes 1999). It is ironic th
the regime of diversity and access has done little to change the basic par
meters of university education, which are much the same, notwithstandin
the addition of summer and winter schools, as they were two decades ago
This also extends to assessment Work-based learners typically want t
be assessed in ways and on matters that are related to their work need
and interests; they want to demonstrate their competencies and have tha
recognized and legitimated in an academic form. Therefore new form
of assessment need to be devised that are tailored to these new work-relate
modes of learning but yet at the same time preserve the integrity of th
university qualification.
There is thus much involved in work-based learning that challenges th
whole framework of university learning. That these issues are not wide
canmssed in relation to such learning is, perhaps, a reflection of the Fa
that the numbers of students involved are relatively small. Yet the question
that work-based learning poses could easily be transposed to the universit
as whole, which needs a thorough educational reappraisal, particularly a
it faces competition from the virtual or corporate university and othe
univerarning
10 prered.
.y what
:aming
cing of
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,
t
the
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;(estions
'&enity
I
l a y as
: other
$,
elsewhere without compromise or degradation. Is it, as Barn
recently suggested, the critical life? Unless universities can ide
acteristic features of B~eireducation that are not readily repli
institutions then there is no reason why they should continue
autonomy or their control over the provision of higher leam
These are not matters for armchair speculation. Already one
versity has been approached by one of the largest engineering
organizations in the world and by one of Australia's largest
financial institutions to provide courses of learning for their
The university could not accommodate the first and so the co
approached one of the oldest and most traditional universit
do so. Plainly, such overtures are becoming more common and
of fiscal restrajnt, universities cannot afford to reject them. Ind
towards work-based education is beginning to develop a mo
own and what appears to be a small experiment at the mom
quickly grow into something much larger. The challenge t
based educators in the university is to develop a framework
compromises academic standards nor preserves them in such
way-as to make -the .potentid of work-based learning hard to
Work-based learning in the best possible of
worlds
As has been discussed, work-bascd learning is a radicaI approac
education in which students undertake studyfora deg& br dip
activities conducted primarily in their workplace and in topic ar
have no immediate kquidknce to univekity subjects. The le
tunities found in work-based leamine vmmammes are not cont
purposes, but arise from the normal workuJituation. The role of
is to equip 'unqualified' individuals already in employment t
long learning skills, not through engagement with existing disc
grammes of study defined by hiversity teachers, but through
which is customized for each individual and each context. Th
pedagogic form from the independent studies programmes
valent in the 1970s at several UK mhtechnics ( P e w and R
Stephenson 1988). What is signifkh<though, in these appro
based learninn is that work is not a diirete and limited eleme
is familiar in sandwich courses and internships - the immedia
work-based learning. Neither are issues arising from problem
in work used merely as subjects of assignments as is common
forms of flexible provision which use learning contracts. In wo
ing degrees, work is quite literally the foundation of the curr
1998); the activity from which leaming arises and by which learn
".
of their enterprises, is expressed to the extent of granting financial s
to work-based students and entering into formal partnerships with
sities. Nonetheless, the university continues to enforce its controls ove
based programmes through determining what is ultimately accepta
the way of a work-based award. But this does not mean that the con
courses is ever f i e d and absolute. Each work-based programme is de
to suit a particular work situation. Students are expected to take a
active role in negotiating their learning than is the case in conve
courses. This negotiation usually involves three parties: student, aca
adviser and workplace supervisor, the last of whom provides specifi
ance on learning how to learn and work-based learning skills. Th
such negotiations entry requirements into courses can be adjusted a
ing to the prior qualifications and current competencies of the stu
Learning outcomes are performancerelated, not time-related, which
students can exit courses whenever they have reached or demonstm
appropriate level of learning.
In order to do this, it is necessary to have an explicit framewo
assessment and the determination of what constitutes a given level of a
ment, including generic learning outcomes. Thus in many rcspects
based learning is not less regulated than a conventional university co
anything, because it involves more variables and unexpected conting
it is subject to more regulation, more accountability and scrutiny (see
and Solomon 1999). Typically] in a work-based learning course ther
amalgam of the following educational elements:
units from existing university courses and those specially designed f
programme;
recognition of current competencies to establish how much needs
studied for a particular c o w ;
accredited subjects offered by the employing or any other organit
work-based learning studies;
a learning agreement or contract which specifies the above and e
that the various partners involved adhere to i t
Throwing down the gauntlet to the
mainstream university
Work-based learning, by its very nature, throws down the gauntlet
mainstream university, many of whose pedagogic practices such as the l
were originally developed during the Middle Ages. These practices se
culture in which books were few and far between, and have hardly a
much in spite of the fact that books are no longer a rare commodi
have already mentioned that universities have undergone massificatio
their
cause
'PP*
~niver,workble in
ent of
signed
more
~tional
.demic
:guidrough
ccord!dents.
means
.ted an
~ r kfor
chime
workurse; if
:endes,
: Usher
.e is an
S
for the
ration;
.
l
catering to the intellectual 'aristocracy' of the nation, This said, w
learning is still undergoing evdution. Indeed, in many respects, w
learning is still an idea in search of a practice, a pedagogy that h
ing development as it accommodates itself to the exigencies of the
and the university. We want to discuss some of the ways in wh
occurring and how work-based learning is mounting a challeng
ing conceptions of university education. In doing so, we will fo
Limited number of examples which exemplify work-based learning
advanced. We will ignore those approaches which are essential
venions of existing courses with a small component of workplace
Instead we will focus on some of the challenges to conventional
education which are posed by those forms of work-based learning
the majority of study takes place at work and does not involv
course -hits.
One of the more important of these chall+gcs is that of ac
of establishing the credentials of work-based learning and g
legitimacy in the university setting. Unless a work-based award I
sense equivalent to other qualifications and accepted as such, the r
having the university involved lessens, and other institutions will b
take its place without, perhaps, its ethical and critical concerns. T
raises the question, what is required for any programme of work-b
to meet the requirements of a university degree? Ultimately, this
linked to the question of assessment. Obviously, in a programme
solidly based in work, assessment needs to be related to practice.
ence frameworks, though far from infallible, are well developed in
assessing opacity in professional domains (Goncd 1994), and man
sities experimenting with work-based learning have turned to the
A more holistic approach to assessment is that developed by
Winter at the Anglia Polytechnic Univenity in Cambridge. Origin
lished for work-hased learning in s o d work, the generic featur
approach enabled it to be translated with relative case into an au
engineedng course used with the Ford Motor Company. The
adopted a set of seven Core Assessment Criteria that are in effe
sions of a model of professionalism. The uiteria involved includ
ive grasp of professi&l knowledge, intellectual rigour and flexi
continuous professional learning. These were then matched aga
specific ~lementsof competen& for each course modde whose
ment had to be demonstrated (Winter and Maisch 1996). .
L .
i to the
~Iecture
,:wed a
$ltered
ig We
m, and
Work-based leaming and the new knowledge
production
One of the ongoing problems relating to work-based learning con
matter of proprietorship and ownership. In the haditional universi
of course materials. In work-based learning these issues are more amo
and therefore more subject to contestation and debate.
In fact, many of these concerns are not peculiar to work-based l
courses. Earlier it was argued that the emergence of such learning epi
many of the issues and problems experienced by the univelsity at a
ofits operation. The mechanisms ofknowledge production, which ar
going radical change, are just another of them. Knowledge pro
for example, is obviously no longer monopolized by the university but
produced in other sites such as corporations and by industry in
In the context of product and service development characteristic
post-Fordist economy, knowledge and information have become incr
valued commodities. They have become valued assets in most wor
nature of kno
not just academic ones. Recognition of the chan
production has been the subject of much recent CO mentary (e.g. G
ed aL 1994), and is discussed more fully by other contributors to this
Gibbons and his 'globalized' team of academics have argued tha
ledge practices are increasingly tmnsdisciplinary ones, which have
out of the boundaries of the academy and are employed across a v
social and economic contexts. For example, much ofthis new knowle
duction occurs in think tanks such as the Friends of the Earth or t
Foundation. They argue too that the scientific frameworks of kno
which gave rise to the disciplinary categories of the modern univer
also fast being abandoned. They are being replaced by more per
boundaries of knowledge production, in which teams of experts
enting a d e t y of dkiplinary backgrounds pool their wisdom and
This is because many of the problems that society now confronts a
plex, and involve empirical as well as ethical issues. Gene technol
case in point and is typical of the new epistemological conditions
make demands on molecular biologists and ethicists who must
the pursuit of biological understanding against the possible abuse
undemanding. Hence, Gibbons d d (1994) differentiate two modes o
ledge production. The first they call Mode 1,which they typify as disc
knowledge and which is culturally concenmted and institutionalize
universities. The second they call Mode 2, which is knowledge that i
to governments, industry and society. They see it as involving f
understanding rather than disciplines. It is typically communicated t
professional networks rather than academic journals and mono
This means that it is more accessible and socially distributed than
knowledge.
In terms of this differentiation, work-based learning exemplifies
type knowledge. It acknowledges that the workplace is a site of kno
production knowledge that is diacult to compartmentalize in t
the traditional epistemological frameworks associated with universit
This is one of the reasons that it poses so many dimculties for the un
7r-
-
,phous,
.riming
pmized
L; levels
'underxtion,
being
teneral.
\of the
,ashgly
places,
jwledge
,ibbons
'o~ume.
? know,>roken
dety of
; ;gepro. le E ~ a t t
dedge.
I ity, are
,
. 'neable
t :repree
?sights.
, ;e comi ;W is a
,, : which
dance
,,
pf. such
f know
ipliw
,
i ,,+hiin
iuseful.
'elds of
hrough
~PP~S.
rlae l
Mode 2
~wledge
:rms of
y study.
~ivenity
displaying Newtonian features. Moreover, academics for the
although this is beginning to change -are socialized into Mod
knowledge production, and much of their academic identity is
maintaining the values and protocols of such production. H
academics remain rightfully perturbed about the directions of
as it embarks on mercantile ventures, sometimes at the expense
freedom (Buchbiider 1993).
Academic identity is particularly threatened by work-based lea
academic knowledge has to be tested in the workplace and w
be made to look vulnerable and non-viable. In such a scenario
find their academic and professional identities challenged. The
capacity to be useful is reduced when supervising a work-based
is often more in command of the knowledge environment o
an academic can ever hope to be. The new work situation, whi
reconfigured in ways which the academy has yet to come to te
much less subject to control than the professional or disciplin
Work-based learning challenges the traditional codifications of
for working knowledge is often unbounded, unruly, and much
to disciplinary control (an issue explored by Solomon and
Chapter 8). This means that those who advise work-based lear
have to have more affinity with the 'practising epistemologists
' gent categoty of academics who are more 'in-theworld and o
than the Mode 1academics who have tended to pride themselv
outsf-theworld' (Barnett 1997: 148).
The challenge to identity is not just that of the teacher. Le
work context takes the learning interactions from the private
public domain. No longer is it something that is apart from n
intenctions, but it is a potentially significant part of them. The
potential for examining and questioning relationships and assum
work. There is also the question of who are one's peers. There
a need to establish peer learners in a work context as a neces
work-based learning rather than assume that learning at work ca
add-on and not be disruotive.
The challenge to acadkmic identity can easily become a chall
demic ~rofessionaIism.Some of the people with whom we have
been & more relaxed than we would-be about the supe~vis
ing projects being undertaken by staff not employed as academ
in some cases not qualified to do so. We d o not mean here in
with technical expe-hise these certainly have a role -but nonand often part-time employees of universities. Lfwe are deman
professionalism of academics in teachkg and learning for c
courses which is certainly required -we should demand at le
from those who have not even been socialized into their role
learning.
-
-
'
I
If work becomes the curriculum, how do we think about it and nego
our way through it? What must necessarily be induded, what is of l
significance? Does it involve workplace research or workplace learning?
do we ensure that students are equipped as broad, lifelong learners w
the cuniculum is potentially narrow? In sorting through these dilem
the academy needs to maintain control over the educational qualiti
work-based learning otherwise it risks becoming a debasement of the
cational process, conducted on the job with only a minimal convibu
from the university.
Although work-based learning offers opportunities for those who
various reasons, might not otherwise be able to take advantage of te
study, and thus assists to improve the inclusiveness of the university, th
a need to be cautious about some aspects of its provision. One area of
tion relates to the knowledge frameworks within which work-based lear
are located. Wlthout careful consideration Lhi can tend towards a na
ness of specialization that flies in the face of the traditional functio
the university, which is to expose individuals CO an environment in w
many disciplinaxy 'conversations' are taking place (see Oakeshott 1
Universities are sites where a number of communities of inquiry exist a
side one another. Work-based learning can be remote from these com
nities and through its focus on individualized and localized inquiry
create the impression that knowledge is a thoroughly individualistic cre
with only local and very specific features. Yet more than ever enquir
was argued earlier, is txandisciplinq and involves conversations betw
diierent specialists and communities. Universities have always been p
where the aspiration was that knowledge experiences were generaliie
rather than specific, which is when most of their value has been der
that the skills acquired in doing philosophy and history, fo? example
be transferred to other domains. Although the issue of msfuability
hotly debated one, there are still good reasons for ensuring that stud
encounter a Mliety of ways of understanding which can help them i
rogate their work experience. For example, work-based learning may inc
if appropriate, general studies of the contemporary workplace as an in
ingly complex organizational unit, involving organizational theory, e
and access policies, ethical decision making, health and safety issues. A
atively, work-based learning studies may necessarily need to encom
studies of multiple sites of activity using d i e r e n t perspectives if the
of the individual and the local are to be avoided.
There is much more to work than simply being productive, and w
based learning, if it is to be authentic and useful in the fullest sense,
encompass these areas. One of the major pidalls for work-based lear
is that it could degenerate into short-term q i n g or the fixing of imm
ate probIems. This means that the skills that are acquired in a work-b
degree are so narrow that once the job associated with them d i p p e a
and we live in fast-changing working environment the student will ha
embark on another work-based degree, and so on, ad nauseam.
-
:lesser
4 How
:when
:inmas
lies of
edubtion
?I, for
:!:G
here is
'T mul rning
rmowPjon of
hlwhich
S',,
.
"11L967).
,
Z;;ilbng1,rnmua'!ycan
'1:ation
stake n more manifest interest in the learning of the university in su
chat its benefits are directed entirely at the workplace. Work-based
thereby becomes a way of underwriting the efficiency and produ
the workplace, which reduces the cogency of courses of learning
not obviously do this or that, worse still, begin to raise di%cult q
about the practices inherent in a workplace. Here, then, matter
demic freedom are being compromised, and the whole conditio
stemological conduct, which requires openness and untrammelled
sensitive issues, is being threatened. This is because the value system
academy and workplaces are not always in accord. Here again the u
needs to operate with responsibility to ensure that work-based leam
place in workplaces that are suitable for learning and contain app
ethical measures designed to protect the worker/student from
tion. Universities need to vet partnerships carefully to ensure that m
standards can be met in iostcring learning in tlfe workplace and t
that partnels are aware of the potential cl~allengesof work-bared
studies in the organization.
The way forward
In this chapter WC have argued that work-based learning poses ch
for contemporary universities challenges which they have no op
to embrace if they are not to decline in influence. Work-based le
perhaps a greater test than that of reduced funding because it tou
very heart of what a university represents.
Innovation in work-based learning involves balancing the often
ing forces involved in its realization. So far educational strategies h
assembled from well-tried approaches in the adult learning area (
tion of prior learning, negotiated learning contracts, action leam
and so on), and have built on the practices in independent studies
major challenge involves appreciating the consuaints and limita
these approaches and making them work in a context where ther
siderably less direct influence over learning than exists in a conv
university course. It is likely that new pedagogic innovations will
required to deal w i h the epistemological conundrums of Mode
ledge and new ways of thinking about 'criticality' developed in the
OF work.
Work-based learning puts an important new focus on leaming as
from teaching. it is called work-based learning nor teaching. Ultim
that counts is h e learning outcome. How this is achieved is not im
and protecting cherished disciplinary territory is in these circum
now less meaningful. This offers the potential for new l i b betwee
ing and research through the common ground of learning. Cou
becoming more like investigations and the activities in which staf
-
i:rived:
je, can
jtyis a
idents
interclude,
1aea.5-
equity
Jtm-
mi'ass
='PS
workmu'st
rning
nedimed
.ve to
'm
costconscious university administrators: work-based learning
terms of the cost of its supervisory arrangements. Unless c
rethinking the role of the academic adviser, making good u
supervision and peer learning, the costs can r i d those o f s u p
students. Work-based learning is certainly not, as many adm
employers often see it, a way of realizing human capital on
An obvious trap is applying existing pedagogies to the
work-based learning. It is possible that some of the ways
research students might be translated unthinkingly to work
pushing work-based learning in the direction of work-bas
itself this is no bad thing and research courses of this kind a
own terms. However, the full xange and potential of work
may bc lost if the research model becomes too dominant
While some of the dilemmas and chalIenges are apparen
what the political and social circumstances will be in which
them. Will the momentum towards work-based learning b
there w
ill be an unholy rush to offer such progmnmes?
learning (the current 'unholy rush'), this couId result in pro
are poorly conceptualized and formulated by staff who hav
educational challenges which are presented. The alternativ
cautious in the development of work-based programmes an
and effort to produce frameworks and processes of learnin
cogency and potency and lead to goodquality programmes o
be proud. Anjthing less and we risk abandoning the visio
work-based learning to the academic opportunists.
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