Abstract
Today's workforce faces a rapidly changing environment. During the last 12 months alone, workers have faced being displaced by collapses in sectors based on changing consumer habits, not to mention those whose roles became redundant overnight by the closure of many companies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A more fragile working environment, the increase in the age of retirement, and rapid changes in economy and consumer habits indicate that it is more important than ever for individuals need to be equipped with skills that enable them to move from one sector to another without necessitating the need for lengthy retraining or upskilling. Moreover, the recent government agenda and growing demand for the integration of learning in a working environment also signals that less time will be spent in classrooms and lecture rooms. This chapter gives insight into which this conundrum can be unpicked and approached through skillful curriculum design and practices needed for the 21st century workforce.
TopWhat Is Work-Based Learning (Wbl)?
Work-Based Learning allows students to learn through work (Helyer, 2015). However, because work- places are so diverse, the methods in which learning activities and learning are implemented are equally so. Students of WBL may attend college or university, be located entirely in work, or experience a mixture of the two. It also encompasses learning that specifically centres on occupations designed to meet the needs and expectations of a specific industry or profession (QAA, 2018). The Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA) asserts that each method has a common ground that pivots around the acquisition of knowledge skills and competences through actions based on reflective learning in a vocational or occupational context. Whereas more traditional programmes focus on more theoretical aspects of work that might occur in a working environment, WBL focusses on practice first and then aligns these with theory (QAA, 2010). Because the nature of WBL can cover any institution or industry, the way that it is understood and practiced can present issues. Some of these are explained in the Literature Review.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Externalise: When an individual has gained expertise from a number of settings and situations and is in a position to gain recognition in their own right as an expert in a new field. For instance, a pianist who has won numerous awards from having worked with esteemed musicians and now releases their own style of music.
Specialist Expertise: The kind of expertise associated with a particular field, for example pastry chefs, a ship’s engineer, an RAF fighter pilot. Most people consider ‘specialists’ to be experts in their field.
Entertainment Management: Similar in content to Event Management but also includes the management of venues, artists and shows such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Tacit Expertise: Expertise that has been acquired but remains unspoken or recognised.
Event Management: A business-based specialism incorporating elements of project management and operations, but which has a focus on how to arrange commercial events such as weddings and conferences as well as large scale and outdoor corporate events.
NVQ: A competency-based qualification completed in the workplace.
Meta-Expertise: The point when an individual has gained substantive insight or experience to choose or make decisions between experts in a field. For example, the dilemma faced when selecting one management consultant rather than another.