Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors that influence vocational students' development of professional skills during workplace learning and to examine the effects and relationships of these factors. Design/methodology/approach: The results were based on the responses of 285 gradua…
Purpose: This paper aims to extend the workplace learning literature by conceptualising the relationship between college-based and workplace learning, through critically examining how trainee teachers learn when they enter an initial teacher training programme. Design/methodology/approach: This pape…
Purpose: This paper aims to consider and appraise current developments and emerging perspectives on learning in the circumstances of work, to propose how some of the challenges for securing effective workplace learning may be redressed. Design/methodology/approach: First, new challenges and perspect…
Purpose - The use of e-portfolios in recognition of prior learning (RPL) processes in workplace and professional practice contexts has attracted little attention in the literature due to its emergent nature. This study seeks to explore the growing incidence of e-portfolio-based RPL (e-RPL) and profe…
This paper aims to identify methods of guidance and supervision used in air traffic control training. It also aims to show how these methods facilitate trainee participation in core work activities. The paper applies the tools of conversation analysis and ethnomethodology to explore the ways in whic…
Purpose: This paper problematises the experience of trainee teachers in further education (FE) colleges in England. It focuses on colleges as employers and developers of their own teaching staff, 90 per cent of whom are trained "in-service", while in paid employment. The paper aims to explore how a …
Purpose: This paper aims to report on the second half of a two-part study that identified relevant content for safety audit training in small businesses. The specific aim of the paper is to determine the preferred learning styles and approaches of managers in these businesses in order to identify so…
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of a newcomer to the practice of policing to explore conceptualisations of learning through practice. It aims to position learning as the intersections of trajectories of being and becoming within a community of practice. The paper seeks …
Purpose - The overall aim of this research is to investigate how aspects of organizational culture enable or constrain the facilitation of learning in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative design was used involving 100 semi-structured interviews conducted with air traffic contro…
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer. Design/methodology/approach - The claims about the importance of addressing processes of collaborative activities and learni…
Purpose - This paper aims to examine the nature of learning discovered by recent graduates participating in a symphony orchestra-initiated development program that is designed to nurture them through the transition to becoming professional orchestral musicians. Design/methodology/approach - Using a …
Purpose - In the UK there is currently a national consultation on the structure/adoption of an academic credit framework for higher education. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the principles underlying such a framework, when applied in the context of a workplace research project, can facil…
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the assessment practices reported by Canadian educators and workplace supervisors involved in exemplary work-based education (WBE) programs for high-school students. Design/methodology/approach Six focus groups were conducted, four with teachers and c…
Purpose - This paper aims to analyse, through the lens of learning network theory, ways in which external VET practitioners work within private enterprises to promote learning within these organizations. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on analyses of six case studies in two Australi…
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to situate the concept of gendered learning in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents the results of two closely related, qualitative studies of apprenticeship learning in two major industrial companies in Denmark. Findings - The paper …
Purpose - This study considers the recently established higher vocational education reforms with Swedish advanced vocational education (AVE) and Finnish polytechnics in terms of organisational structure, the design of workplace learning, and furthermore, what kind of practical implications these new…
Arguing against a concept of learning as only a formal process occurring in explicitly educational settings like schools, the paper proposes a conception of the workplace as a learning environment focusing on the interaction between the affordances and constraints of the social setting, on the one h…
In the 1990s, one of Australia's police services moved from a centralised, academy-based system of training towards a more integrated model of professional development. As a consequence, probationary constables spent reduced time in the police academy (6 months) before moving into the workplace for …
The part played by tacit skills and knowledge in work performance is well recognised but not well understood. These implicit or hidden dimensions of knowledge and skill are key elements of “mastery”, which experienced workers draw upon in everyday activities and continuously expand in tackling new o…
Recent years have seen significantly increased interest in learning at the workplace as partial or full compensation for vocationally-oriented education and training in schools and educational institutions. In this general enthusiasm, former scepticism about workplace learning would seem to be burie…
