New
Perspectives for Learning - Briefing Paper 3
New Approaches to Work
Experience
Context of the Research
The nature of work is
changing due to the quickening pace of global scientific and technological
innovation and the use of information and communication technologies. The
scale and impact of global multinational activity and the process of
industrial convergence have also exerted pressure for industrial,
organisational and occupational change.
Distinctions between formal
and informal contexts of learning are being challenged and innovative
developments like “learning organisations” have emerged, all of which
has an impact on the future role of work experience. Yet there is evidence
that the true learning potential of work experience is not fully understood.
This research into the work
experience for 16-19 year olds was conducted in six countries – Denmark,
Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It examined the
purpose and assumptions about learning, and the practice and outcomes of
work experience in the light of changes in the European labour market and
trends in workplace requirements and organisation. An intensive exploration
of learning theory has been undertaken and innovative approaches to work
experience have been analysed through a number of case studies.
Key Conclusions
The following conclusions
were reached: -
1.
Five models of work experience were identified which reflect the
different economic, technological and social factors prevailing within
European countries as well as different ideas about learning and
development. These different models can and do co-exist within the same
country: -
a)
Traditional - ‘launching’ students into the world of work.
b)
Experiential - as ‘co-development’.
c)
Generic - as an opportunity for key skill assessment.
d)
Work process - a strategy to assist students in ‘attuning’ to the
context of work.
e) Connective - a form of reflexive learning.
2.
Overall, there is a poor relationship between policy and practice, a
lack of clarity in relation to the aims and objectives of post-16 work
experience, its delivery (in particular, a lack of clarity in relation to
workplace supervision, mentoring and teaching, the availability and quality
of placements), a lack of evidence in relation to learning, the role of
employers (the quality of relationships between employers and education, the
nature of qualifications sought, the degree of attention to changing nature
and modes of work).
3.
There is renewed emphasis upon learning in the workplace, which tends
to be tackled in one of two main ways based upon the following limited
assumptions: -
a)
That the main purpose of work experience is to help young people to
learn how to reproduce pre-existing activities, rather than to encourage
them to learn and develop by ‘putting things’ into different contexts.
b)
That learning in the workplace is best supported through involving
young people in planning a work experience placement and managing and
evaluating the learning through the use of statements about ‘learning
outcomes’.
4.
However, the push to make work experience more widely available to
young people has tended to address new issues about skill development by
relying on old models of learning in the workplace.
5.
Work experience should no longer be viewed as developing a technical
competence in ‘something’ nor as providing an opportunity to use
‘learning outcomes’ as though they capture in some way the authentic
knowledge/skill developed by a young person in a specific situation.
Increasingly, work experience should be viewed as a means of developing an
involved sense of responsibility.
6.
The dominant interpretation of ‘transfer’, which stresses ‘the
degree to which a behaviour will be repeated in a new situation’, is
insufficient. The concept of consequential transitions is necessary, which
recognises an extra dynamic in the process of exploring new territory in
which pre-learned responses and solutions are unavailable. Such transitions
may involve changes in identity as well as changes in knowledge and skill
thus involving the full person and not just learned attributes or
techniques.
7.
Increasingly, workers are expected to act as ‘boundary crossers’
between “activity systems” - to possess the ability to contribute to the
development of new forms of social practice and to produce new forms of
knowledge. This entails learning how to contribute to the transformation of
work contexts.
8.
Therefore, the innovative ‘connective’ model of pedagogy and
learning in work-based contexts should be developed.
9.
Work should not be solely a context which students learn about;
it is a context through which
students can learn and develop. This shift of focus can direct attention to
how individuals learn, grow and develop through the strength and richness of
their interactions and applications within and between different contexts.
10.
As a result of these conclusions there is a need to re-think the
function of work experience in post-16, as well as in higher, education.
Key Recommendations
1.
The current policies on work experience should be informed by what is
known about learning as well as
what is known about changes in work.
2.
Businesses, educational and vocational institutions should
practically respond by using and developing the “connective” model of
learning through work experience. It offers ways of: -
a)
Connecting formal and informal contexts of learning - relevant in
course development.
b)
‘Mediation’ between formal and informal contexts of learning that
are fundamental in achieving an effective relationship between classroom
learning and workplace learning and can be developed by teachers and
workplace educators/trainers in partnership.
c)
Considering quality through the identification, development and
transfer of learning that goes well beyond the ‘checklist’ approach to
quality issues. The framework should be developed in the school/workplace
context and in the context of the connective model.
3.
Change in educational institutions and in businesses in relation to
education-business partnership innovation should also take account of such
innovation – often involving applications of the learning technologies at
the ‘periphery’ –in the knowledge that ‘innovation without change’
is ubiquitous.
Further Information
The full title of the
project and final report is:
“Work Experience as an Education and Training Strategy New Approaches for
the 21st Century” (February 2001). The research project was funded under
the EU Fourth Framework (Targeted Socio-Economic Research).
Full
report,
Abstract,
Summary,
Partner
details, Interim
Results
Contact Person
Toni Griffiths
University College London
Director of Education and Professional Development
1-19 Torrington Place
London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7679 5939
Fax: +44 20 7813 0277
Email: toni.griffiths@ucl.ac.uk
or
contact pjb Associates pjb@pjb.co.uk
Tel +44 1353 667973 for more information about other Briefing Papers on
“New Perspectives for Learning”
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Last updated
28 June 2007