Electronic work-based learning (eWBL): a framework for trainers in companies and higher education

Engineering students graduating from a higher education institution (HEI) are expected to have hands-on experience to be relevance in employment. Work-Based Learning (WBL) is defined as a learning method that engages or includes students in real-world employment so that they may learn the needs of job competencies, experience the job culture first-hand, and uncover career options. Industrial training (IT) is a work-based learning approach required of engineering students as part of their diploma courses. Implementation of IT with duration of 18 weeks was employed for 27 students Diploma in Electrical Engineering students. Students undergo fields rotation with different appointed supervisors throughout the IT period. The IT that was implemented enabled students to obtain important industrial exposure. Industrial visitation at a coal power plant was arranged to give additional industrial exposure to the students. Oral presentation at the end of the course, logbook and final report submission are assessed by assigned supervisors and lecturers for evaluation of each student. The study has offered insights into current IT implementation as well as some suggestions for the future implementation. To track the institution's IT implementation, the study should be applied to the following cohorts.

This paper examines the contribution of work-based learning (WBL) to the education of construction students. The research draws on the experiences of part-time students and students on sandwich courses in a School of the Built Environment. The sandwich courses include a year in industry as the penultimate year of a four-year programme. This WBL component constitutes a valuable link between higher education and industry and provides a mechanism for students to consolidate learning in their final year as well as preparing them to take on responsibility in industry immediately after graduation. The paper also examines the relationship between WBL and institutional learning with a view to determining what academic credit is awarded for and how it is awarded. The authors argue that WBL is an essential component of higher education, and that credit for WBL is desirable in a system that promotes credit accumulation and transfer. There is currently no rational method of awarding credit for work-based learning and this paper proposes that articulations in current frameworks for credit accumulation and transfer schemes for academic learning may provide a substantive and transparent means of attributing academic credit to WBL. They also recommend that such a framework should be developed specifically for work-based learning.

Linda Cooper is based in the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town. She is Associate Professor in Adult Education, and is involved in initiatives to broaden access to higher education by adult learners. Her research interests include: the history and contemporary practice of worker education; the impact of globalisation on workplace learning and knowledge; theorising informal learning in community and work-based contexts; and the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). She works in an educational support capacity with South Africa trade unions, and is involved in the training of trade union educators. Judy Harris is a freelance researcher and Adjunct Professor at Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia, Canada. Her research interests include the recognition of prior learning, work-based learning and widening participation in higher education, particularly their curricular and pedagogic implications using perspectives drawn from the sociology of education and knowledge. Her most recent publications are Re-theorising the recognition of prior learning (co-editor with Per Andersson, NIACE, 2006) and Researching the recognition of prior learning: International perspectives (with Mignonne Breier and Christine Wihak, NIACE, 2011). Judy has acted as consultant to the Ministerial Task Team of the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (2012) and to the Namibian Training Authority (2011). She is a Board Member of the Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC) based at Thompson Rivers University. Correspondence: Judy Harris, Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia, Canada. Email: judithanneharris@yahoo.co.ukIntroductionThis article explores the ‘knowledge question’ in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). It poses the question: To what extent does the nature of the disciplinary or knowledge domain into which RPL candidates seek access determine the feasibility of RPL?1 It starts from an assumption of the differentiation of knowledge, in other words that while knowledge gained from life and work experience may be as valuable as formal, academic knowledge, these two forms of knowledge are not the same. A corollary of this is that experiential knowledge does not necessarily or automatically provide an adequate basis for access into academic study.

Much of the research into higher education and its role in work-based learning, and especially in supporting undergraduate students on placements, has focused on longer-term internships and sandwich courses. Research has also concentrated on subject areas that have traditionally been associated with the above, for example business, health and engineering. By contrast, the aim of this study was to gather data from students on a much shorter period of placement categorised as a ‘short project’. In addition, the data recovered was from students studying within the social sciences paradigm, undertaking an undergraduate degree in education studies (not teacher training). The social sciences and humanities more generally have not been discussed to any great extent within the context of research on placement or work-based learning; the subject area of education studies is not covered by previous research. The results suggest that even a relatively short period of structured placement can be of significant benefit to students and provide them with an opportunity to assess their career direction and gain valuable experience. The article also considers to what extent this type of placement can be applied to other subject areas within higher education.

Purpose Contemporary organizations face a growing need for innovation while work is becoming increasingly digitalized. In such a context, employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB) is crucial. However, little attention has been given to whether and how human resource management (HRM) practices can sustain IWB in remote work. Thus, this study aims to explore the relationship between performance management (PM) practices and employees’ IWB when job is performed remotely. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on signalling perspective of HRM, this study applies regression analysis on data collected through an online questionnaire administered to a sample of 647 Italian employees testing the moderating role of remote work in the relationship between PM and IWB. Findings The findings show that result- and new-competence-based appraisal promote IWB, regardless of the extent to which work is performed remotely. In contrast, remote work nullifies the role of employee involvement in the goal setting process, as well as the influence of compensation-oriented PM and developmental performance management. Continuous feedback emerges as the key PM practice sustaining IWB among remote employees. Research limitations/implications This study shows that remote work represents a key boundary condition in the relationship between PM and IWB. More specifically, the findings indicate that only certain PM practices − such as result- and competence-based appraisal and continuous feedback sustain IWB when work is extensively performed remotely. However, the reliance on a convenience sample of Italian employees limits the generalizability of the findings, indicating the need for cross-national and longitudinal studies to examine these relationships across different remote and hybrid work settings. Practical implications The findings suggest that organizations seeking to foster employees’ IWB should redesign PM systems by prioritizing results and competence development over task-based control. In remote work contexts, continuous feedback appears particularly critical. In addition, compensation-oriented PM practices do not inhibit IWB, whereas involvement of employees in goal setting becomes non-significant. Social implications This study suggests that some PM practices, particularly continuous feedback, can contribute to mitigate drawbacks of remote work, like for instance social isolation and work-related stress, thus supporting more sustainable and inclusive forms of work. Originality/value This study advances the literature on PM and IWB by identifying remote work as a key boundary condition. It also extends existing research on remote work by showing that practices known to support remote workers’ well-being − such as result-based appraisal, competence-based appraisal and continuous feedback − may likewise foster IWB, basically generating a signalling effect that encourages employees to be proactive and to generate new ideas and ways of working. In doing so, this study also provides guidelines to companies to redesign their PM systems.

Winners and losers of working-from home – The impact of perceived person-environment fit towards continuance intention

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.

In today's evolving job market, internships and work-based learning (WBL) are widely seen as pathways to graduate employment. Yet employers continue to raise concerns about graduates' preparedness and their lack of enterprise competencies. This chapter critically examines this disconnect, exploring the limitations of unstructured WBL and emphasising that employability impact comes from intentional, skills-focused design. Drawing on the EntreComp (Entrepreneurship Competence) Framework, it proposes a three-phase model to embed enterprise capabilities into WBL design, delivery, and assessment. The model aligns with Experiential Learning, Human Capital, Signalling, and Social Capital theories. By adopting this structured approach, higher education can enhance graduates' human and social capital, fostering adaptability, innovation, and career resilience. The chapter also highlights the particular relevance for international students, whose prior experiences and cross-cultural skills can be reframed through EntreComp into competencies valued in UK and global labour markets.

While education levels in the U.S. have risen in recent years, students from disadvantaged backgrounds have fallen behind other Americans in college attainment amid increasing college dropout rates. The causes of this growing gap include weaker academic preparation in their K-12 years (and earlier); lower wealth and liquidity that make it harder to pay tuition and other costs; worse information about and lower familiarity with higher education; and pressure to work full-time while being enrolled to help support their families. In addition, disadvantaged college students are heavily concentrated in weaker and under-resourced institutions such as community colleges, which generate fewer graduates. Even when students gain credentials like associate degrees, the degrees often do not have strong labor market value because of students’ poor labor market information and the weak incentives of public institutions to respond to the labor market by creating more classes in high-demand fields. And high-quality career and technical education opportunities in the U.S., such as “sectoral” training and work-based learning, have not been developed to the extent possible to provide students a wider range of pathways to careers from which to choose. Efforts to improve these outcomes must therefore focus on three goals: (1) improving completion rates at our public colleges by strengthening student supports; (2) expanding postsecondary options, at the bachelor’s level or below, that have labor market value; and (3) developing additional pathways to good-paying jobs through work-based learning and high-quality career and technical education, beginning in secondary schools.

Purpose – In the UK, universities are coming under increasing pressure from government to strengthen university-employer co-operation and engagement in areas such as student placements, graduate internships, knowledge exchange, enterprise and work-based learning. Both the Higher Education (HE) White Paper (BIS, 2011) and the Wilson Review (BIS, 2012) encourage universities to focus on this agenda, putting businesses at the heart of the system alongside students to maximise innovation, promote growth and “ensure students come out of universities equipped to excel in the workforce”. (BIS, 2011, p. 39). The need for universities to engage with employers and build strong relationships to maximise mutual partnership value is integral to this work. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the application of win-win principles (Covey, 1989) to employer engagement activities in HE via two case studies. Following an analysis of the results in each case study, they show that the adoption of such approaches has enhanced employer engagement, consolidated existing employer relationships and led to tangible outcomes such as new student placement opportunities. Findings – The paper suggests that HE employer engagement activities grounded in Covey's win-win principles are likely to enhance results and relationships with employers than those that omit such principles. The paper concludes by encouraging the utilisation of such principles across the spectrum of HE employer engagement activities. Originality value – The authors believe this is the first time this method of analysis has been applied to university-employer relationships.

This study aims to promote the development of vocational education in our country energetically. The analysis is followed by introducing the course of development on vocational and technical education in Britain and summarizing the successful experience of vocation in our country with strengthening the funding and legislation for the state of vocational education as well as putting forward suggestions for reform and innovation of education to improve the system of certificates.

Reviewed by: Acting in the Academy: The History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education by Peter Zazzali Chase Bringardner Acting in the Academy: The History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education. By Peter Zazzali. New York: Routledge, 2016; pp. 236. In Acting in the Academy: The History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education, Peter Zazzali offers a critical contribution to ongoing discourse on the role, structure, and purpose of acting training programs located within US academic institutions. Relying upon an extensive archive of materials, he traces the rise and significance of the League of Professional Theatre Training Programs, and uses this rich historical context to argue for curricular change. Specifically, Zazzali calls on contemporary acting programs to embrace a different, more entrepreneurial model that empowers actors within the “given circumstances” of this particular contemporary moment. Zazzali’s book is both a groundbreaking historical work and a future-looking treatise that will be an invaluable resource for professors and acting students alike as they seek to determine the trajectories of acting training for the next fifty years. As the author states in his introduction, this book is primarily a history of the “‘professional’ training of actors in US higher education,” an underrepresented chapter in the larger history of acting technique in the United States (5). Throughout the work Zazzali strengthens his argument by consistently reminding his readers of the parameters of his study. He asserts the league’s legacy as the most important to the development of acting technique in the country since the Group Theatre of the 1930s. He thus places the league and its professional training programs within the larger narrative both of acting training in higher education and the development of US acting technique in general. Zazzali bookends the core of his historical analysis with more polemic chapters. His opening chapter on the challenges facing actor training today establishes the stakes for his examination, while his concluding chapter suggests a pathway forward for acting programs to consider for the future. While he is careful to note that his work does not “substantially address important issues regarding race, gender, age, social class, disabilities, and sexual identity relative to American acting training” (5), he does couch his assessment of contemporary actor training and call for change within some economic and social systems. For example, he discusses the impact of celebrity on standards or measures of actor success. Zazzali skillfully positions these concerns as a result of a continued reliance upon a league-training approach that fails to take into account the realities or “given circumstances” of the contemporary performance landscape. These concerns lead him ultimately to argue for an emphasis on entrepreneurship as a way of cultivating skills in young actors to empower them to create their own opportunities, defy the celebrity system, and redefine the very measures of a successful career. To arrive at these conclusions, Zazzali investigates US actor training from various angles. In the second chapter he examines the creation of the league out of the seeds of the Stanislavski system. The league focused on a psychophysical approach that combined the psychological approaches of Stanislavski with the physical training found in Barba or Growtowski. The newly formed league schools of the early 1970s became crucibles for the teaching of these techniques and the creation of a generation of actors prepared for work in regional theatres. Yet, as Zazzali importantly reminds us, this relationship between the league and regional theatres was often not simpatico. To illustrate this uneasy relationship, he uses chapter 3 to place the league within the sociohistorical context of the 1960s in order to provide the groundwork for the fraught relationship between professional training programs and the US university system. Specifically, he details specific moments, such as conferences, speeches, and grants awarded, to show the incremental steps that led to the standards and practices established for these emerging programs. After establishing that the newly formed league (in 1971) created eleven programs in its first year as an incorporated body, Zazzali transitions in chapter 4 to specific case studies of three disparate representative models of the league: Carnegie Mellon, Julliard, and American Conservatory Theater. These case studies represent an appropriate...

Constructing Online Work-Based Learning Placements offers a step-by-step approach to understanding and applying the principles of design and delivery in online work-based learning (WBL) placements for students. A crucial component of employability strategies for higher education students, WBL placements are increasingly in need of adaptation to respond to today’s rapidly expanding online work environments. This evidence-based book explores the emergent properties and additional value that online WBL placements provide to student learning and employability prospects, focusing on effective pedagogy, design, planning and implementation. The book also presents the Peer Enhanced e-Placement (PEEP), a pioneering, positively evaluated and award-winning online WBL placement model that is underpinned by pedagogical research and theory. The PEEP has been adapted and adopted by numerous higher education teams organising online WBL placements, and the case example included in these pages will guide readers through their own implementation and collaborations.

With the emerging of apprenticeship (work-based learning form) in Lithuania, an important role is played by professional masters, who are monitoring young specialists' professional practice, form their professional skills, develop a well-oriented and skillful specialist. The main aim of this research is to analyze the development of pedagogical competencies of professional masters during work-based learning process. The qualitative research data were gathered during semi-structured interview. Twelve professional vocational masters from different Lithuanian vocational schools participated in the research. The performed thematic content analysis findings showed that the competencies of the professional vocational masters actively develop, grow, and change mainly through interaction with students in the process of work-based learning, when supervising practice masters become counselors, guardians, consultants, and inspirers. The most significant challenges include transferring subject knowledge to students, their motivation, and work with students with special needs. The results reveal that vocational practice masters need to improve their pedagogical competencies and psychological knowledge, which would help students to convey knowledge of the profession and motivate them to learn.

This paper covers an insight on how EU students specifically ‘Czech students’ would behave after Brexit, i.e. how Brexit would affect their selection of the UK higher education. Further, this study also examines why Czech students would choose UK over other EU and English speaking countries. In particular, this study examines three objectives: (i) to examine why Czech students would choose the UK over other European countries, (ii) to examine what are the value-added features that UK higher education would provide to students from the Czech Republic, and (iii) to examine how Brexit would affect Czech students’ selection of the UK’s higher education. A qualitative study was conducted with students based in universities in North-East. The findings suggest that Czech students choose UK because of its language, global recognition, job prospects, work-based learning, innovative teaching methods, quality of teaching, less distance between UK and Czech Republic, culture, and international environment are some of the reasons to choose UK as destination. Further, they have suggested that coming UK was their and their families’ dream. They have also explained that after Brexit, UK would not be as attractive as the current time. They mentioned that limitations in students’ loans, financial help, internships, NHS facilities, increase in prices, racial abuses, and fees would be few of the reasons to stop them to choose UK for higher educations. Implications and limitations are discussed in the study.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0942/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>