Context and background to work-based learning

The literature reviewed in this section looks at work-based learning programmes that deliberately use the workplace as a site for student learning. The purpose of this review is to draw together literature on work-based learning from many educational sectors, industry sectors, and stakeholders. Although vocational education has

traditionally had closer ties with the workplaces than either schools or universities, the literature on work placements in vocational education is curiously thin. It is essential that our students are conversant with the current standards of the workplace, which are demanding increasingly higher competencies.

Our enquiry was concerned with giving students better preparation for the workplace with a work-based learning programme, to provide a pivotal bridge between school and work and essential for getting young people to see the relevance of school and work.

Before launching into a discussion of the issues addressed in this study we begin by clarifying some of the terms that will be used throughout the enquiry. A review of relevant literature shows a lack of a consistent definition of work-based learning. The two-sided aspect to work-based learning can cause confusion. Work-based learning can convey the notions both of learning that takes place in the workplace, and learning that takes place for the workplace, or the employer more specifically (Glass, Higgins and McGregor, 2002).

Work-based learning is learning that takes place in a social context, in school, industry, office, or agency. Work-based learning is formal, structured, and

strategically organised by instructional staff, employers, and sometimes, other groups to link learning in the workplace to students’ work-based learning activities to their career goals. It is an umbrella term to explain a selection of student activities to learn about the world of work. These activities embrace structured work experiences, internships, mentorships, and community service learning occasions. Its prime purpose is to combine learning with practical, real life activities in the community, and to encourage students to commence lifelong career development.

An essential part of our work-based learning programme, and process was to create the right environment to enable students to understand the relationship, and link between school and work, so that they were able to better acclimatise and make the transition to the workplace. There are numerous definitions and descriptions and the following are relevant and apposite to this inquiry. Trigwell and Reid (1998) offer a definition developed at the University of Technology Sydney as follows:

A range of educational practices which involves students in authentic work settings. The curriculum is significantly influenced by issues and challenges which emerge from the exigencies of work rather than predetermined academic content driven requirements.

Hoerner and Wehrley (1995) support a broader view of work-based learning and link education and work in one over-arching theme:

The knowledge learning imparted to every student from the beginning of schooling that maintains a theme or focus that people work to live and that there is a positive connectedness between the schooling process and living productive lives.

This definition is sympathetic and compatible with the changes and philosophy we are striving to achieve through the work-based learning programme in Thailand.

Work-based learning should combine theory and practice. A significant component in our programme was a school-to-work transition programme which was designed to orientate and simulate work experiences in the working environment. It was

important to fuse and correlate theoretical and contextual learning to give students a comprehensive foundation in the topic under study (Guile and Griffiths, 2001). Moreover, the workplace can support learners in combining various types of

knowledge, skill and experience, and can embrace apprenticeship, and school-based education (Guile and Griffiths, 2003). They describe the bridge between school and work as ‘connectivity’, and which educators explain as the relationships and contexts between school and work and the symbiosis between theory and practical knowledge (Guile and Griffiths, 2001).

In the United States work-based learning has been an accepted method to prepare students for the work site for twenty years, and it came to prominence in the 1980s with the low skill levels of entry-level workers and the demands of the rapidly

developing economy (Lankard, 1995). Our experience in Thailand accords with the definition from the US linking school to work, where the School-to-work

Opportunities Act (1994) defines work-based learning as planned programmes of work experience linked to school curricula. It further specifies that work-based learning includes training on-the-job, supervision by workplace mentors, and instruction in general workplace competencies and all aspects of the world of work (Stasz and Kaganoff, 1997).

These work-based learning experiences are usually but not always school-credit generating. Hoerner and Wehrley (1995) describe work-based learning strategies that fall into two main categories: job-based and school-based. Work-based learning strategies, whether school-based or job-based, provide the school process with creative methods for delivering hands-on experience for all students; however, the importance of systemically reforming the total curriculum and educational system in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century should not be overlooked. Further studies refer to a wide spectrum of workplace activities including: formal training; competence development based on a formal programme or more informal experiential learning; work experience placements; secondments; unstructured self- study/development; and informal learning (HMIE, 2001), youth apprenticeships, job- shadowing, school-based enterprises, simulated work tasks, visiting work sites and service learning (Poczik, 1995); corporations helping teachers develop authentic problem-solving activities for the classroom; opportunities for work site visits by educators ( Hoerner and Wehrley, 1995).

The focus of school-based learning is on individual performance, whereas in the workplace shared learning is emphasised. Schools focus on abstract concepts and symbol manipulation, whilst the workplace requires reasoning related to real events and objects. Linking and integrating school activities to workplace practices and conventions is a vital component of work-based learning (Resnick, 1987).

Resnick (1987) also emphasises connecting the classroom to work and with adults in the workplace, helping students to see the relevance of what they are learning in school with skills and responsibilities in the workplace. Raelin (2000) proposed three

collective types of work-based learning: action learning, community of practice and action science. Work-based learning integrates theory with practice and knowledge with experience. It acknowledges that the workplace offers as many learning opportunities as the classroom.

Raelin (2000) endorses the view that work-based learning uses many varied techniques, but foremost is the deployment of action projects, learning teams, and other interpersonal experiences, such as mentorships, that permit and foster learning opportunities. Work-based learning differs from conventional training because it features conscious reflection on actual experience. Fundamental to the process is the notion of meta-cognition (Meisel and Fearon, 1996), which means that the researcher consistently thinks about the problem-solving processes. Peters and Smith (1997) refer to programmes of work-based learning as “throwing a net around slippery experience and capturing it as learning”.

Certainly, a key aspect of work-based learning is the direct involvement of employers (Boyer, 2000). Work-based learning is regarded as particularly effective as it gives trainees realistic, hands-on experience and develops skills relevant to employer needs. Furthermore, to prepare individuals for work that demands autonomy and continual learning, many employers now call for education that promotes high-level thinking skills for all students, not just for the elite as in the past. Vocational education, which traditionally has offered practical training for students who were considered to possess relatively low academic ability, is now being reformed and in some places radically reconstituted (Boyer, 2000).

It is usually accepted as good practice for a preparation period to precede the practical experience and work-based learning usually takes place once you have participated in career awareness activities and exploration. These may include field trips, listening to classroom speakers, research, career assessments, and general work experiences (Sargent, 2002).

Work-based learning has to depend on individual needs. The form of flexibility is promoted by the learner’s preference. They can choose their own area of study (Trigwell and Reid, 1998). In order to install a work-based learning programme in a vocational school, the school should be aware of the nature of the student, the workplace and the environment. The key to overcome weaknesses in student competency is in the construction of the course activities (Kazis and Goldberger, 1995).

Furthermore, the work-based learning curriculum is particularly influenced by the pressing need of what issues and priorities need to be addressed. It is not governed by prescribed academia-governed imperatives (University of Technology, Sydney, 1997).