This study understands workplace learning as a social phenomenon and explores ways of how to successfully respond to industrial transformation out of a role-related perspective. The focus is on interactions of social actors in the process of structural change and economic adaptation. The goal of this inductive case study is to explore how 26…

We examine the challenges and emergent nature of learning during undergraduate internships. Much scholarly inquiry on the latter focuses on internship experiences within traditional professional domains such as medicine, teacher education, and other fields. There is less knowledge about undergraduate interns entering more fluid and recent work…

The transition from engineering student to early career engineer is often difficult as not all skills that constitute effective engineering practice are formally taught. Work placements are suggested as a solution by providing opportunities to learn skills that academia is unable to teach. However, academic requirements for skills such as research…

Context: Sense-making, understood as meaning making or giving meaning to experience, is an integral part of everyday life, work and learning, and is a process critical in enabling people to recognise how and when to respond to situations appropriately so that they can resolve problems effectively. Earlier studies on sense-making in educational or…

This joint OECD-ILO publication provides guidance on how local and regional governments can foster business-education partnerships in apprenticeship programmes and other types of work-based learning, drawing on case studies across nine countries. There has been increasing interest in apprenticeships which combine on the job training with…

Employers interested in working with young people are often concerned about possible barriers that may limit youth's access to workplaces, such as labor laws and liability issues. Employers who eagerly partner with educators to provide guest speakers and company tours might nonetheless be hesitant to invite students into workplaces for experiences…

Fundamental to cooperative education is a philosophical commitment to learning through the experience of work. The workplace can be viewed as a social environment and provides a context for learning that is very different from that provided within a university. The aim of this research was, through an interpretive case study, to explore the…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has been identified as a way of equipping graduates with attributes that make them work-ready. Many higher education institutions (HEIs) require their students to go through a compulsory work place learning form (WPL) of WIL. The complications of WPL can affect HEIs' student throughput. To address this challenge, a…

In British social science degree programmes, methods courses have a bad press, and statistics courses in particular are not well-liked by most students. A nationally-coordinated, strategic investment in quantitative skills training, Q-Step, is an attempt to address the issues affecting the shortage of quantitatively trained humanities and social…

The question addressed in this paper is: what does a knowledge claim consist of in the context of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)? The research comprises a case study of RPL applicants' entry into a postgraduate diploma (a fourth-year programme) in project management. The focus is on the knowledge claims made as part of the RPL application…

This paper discusses a pilot project held at Middlesex University to enhance students' writing skills through literature teaching. It argues that literature teaching can offer a profound contribution to work-based learning and lifelong education: first, by showing students how effective arguments are constructed; second, by inspiring students to…

The Department of Electronics of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete (DoE/TEI Crete) enjoys good approval ratings from the market and its graduates have a high rate of employability. However, survey data collected over the last ten years from graduates and from the enterprises in which they have been employed, or have carried out…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to look at workplace learning through research into sociology of work. It explores the "learning discourse" at work place level looking for possibilities to oppose learning. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on case studies conducted at six workplaces. The data on the cases include…

Governments across Europe have been encouraged by the European Union (EU) to take measures to upskill their workforce to ensure growth and social inclusion. Low-skilled workers are particular targets and learning providers and employers are expected to provide learning opportunities for them. However, research shows that those with low skills…

Part-time employment among university students has become commonplace internationally. Research has largely focused on the impact of part-time employment on academic performance. This research takes an original approach in that it poses the question whether students can acquire core skills relevant to teaching from their part-time employment. The…