Learning in vivo

What are experiences that combine work experiences with formal education called?

This question is posed and a range of 11 alternative names outlined, as well as six types of delivery programmes, by Gardener and Barkus (2014).

The range of alternative names developed include:

1. Work-integrated learning (WIL)
2. Work-based learning
3. Cooperative and work-integrated education (CWIE)
4. Vocational education and training
5. Career and technical education (CTE)
6. Work placement
7. Project-based learning
8. Experiential education
9. Experiential learning
10. Professional development
11. Community/civic engagement

Range of programmes designed to deliver work-education experiences:

1. Cooperative education
2. Internships
3. Externships
4. Apprenticeships
5. Practicum
6. Service learning

Strange that clinical training is not mentioned?

Gardner, P. & Bartkus, K.R. 2014. What's in a name? A reference guide to work-education experiences. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 15(1), 37-54.

Every workplace a training space versus interns strike back

'Together, Turning Every Workplace into a Training Space' reads the the invitation to the 2013 National Skills Conference. A slogan introduced three months earlier by the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande.

Yet, the November 2013 edition of the Marie Claire (SA) reports on <Download The Interns Strike Back pp 86-87 MarieClaire.co.za November2013> unpaid interners 'striking back' suing companies for not having paid them for internships. The article makes mention of unpaid learnerships, which, according to the SA Governmetn regulations ought not to be. The article further mentions the Intern Magazine, a new puplication by Alec Dudson, to encourage debate around unpaid inernships.

It appears as if there are serious implementation problems regarding the discretionary PIVOTAL funding if the slogan of every workplace a training space cannot materialise.

 

Good cooperative and work-integrated education practice

What constitutes the essence of good CWIE practice? There are different views on this issue, based on what different groupings and individuals value. CWIE in its various forms and modes comprise many different aspects, which is reflected in the image below that consists of several multi-coloured building blocks. My unconscious, having been impressed by the succinct way the work experience group of the UK DfES captured the essence of work-related learning, had been at work. I woke up this morning with a realisation that there are essentially six core dimensions of CWIE, which can be broken down into further parts:

Many stories and sometimes sharing of chapters

Cooperative Work-integrated Education “should provide opportunity for [workplace] engagement
and [contextual learning] rather than relying on lectures and [workshop or laboratory experiences] from” academia (replaced ‘cross-cultural engagement and education’ with [workplace] engagement and [contextual learning]; and ‘lectures and teaching’ with lectures and [workshop or laboratory experiences], Richmond et al, 2010: 66) in my opinion.

The post-title is borrowed from the late at night words of Teacon Simeonoff, a leader from Old Harbor community—the Alutiiq, or southern coastal people of the Native peoples of Alaska—while sitting with ten other people around a campfire on a nearby island, who said: “We all have a story and sometimes we share the same chapters” (abstract Richmond et al, 2010: 63).

Richmond, L.; Di Piero, D.; Espinoza, F.; Simeonoff, T. & Faraday, M. 2010. We Shared the Same
Chapter: Collaboration, Learning, and Transformation from the 2008 Subsistence, the Environment, and Community Well-Being Native Youth Exchange in Old Harbor, Alaska Project. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Volume 14, Number 4, pp. 63-82.

Remnants of CWIE precursor

Remnants of the past, struggling to gain prominance of some kind, is possibly true of the cooperative and work-integrated learning (CWIE) practices of two comprehensive higher education institutions in South Africa, namely the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of South Africa (Unisa).

In 1980, the correspondence department of the then Witwatersrand Technical College became an institution in its own right, later know as Technikon SA, which 24 years later merged with Unisa in January 2004. Unisa originates from the University of the Cape of Good Hope, established in 1873 in Cape Town. In 1918 two universities in addition to Unisa, the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch, stemmed from the aforementioned. Unisa became a fully fledged correspondence university in 1959.

Meanwhile, in 1895 the Kimberley School of Mines, got established and moved to Johannesburg in 1903. From it, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), in 1922, and the University of Pretoria, in 1930, formed. Technikon Witwatersrand merged in Janurary 2005 with the former Rand Afrikaan University to become the University of Johannesburg.

Brink, E. 2010. University of Johannesburg --the university for a new generation. Auckland Park: Jacanda Media

1925 Mining Industry Cooperative Education

John Orr laid the foundation for cooperative education, according to Jos Lurie (in Brink, 2010: 56).

The University of Johannesburg published a glossy 274 page coffee-table book on, among others, the founding of the university in 2005 and it roots. Cooperative education had been a distinguishing characteristic of the School of Mines of the erstwhile Witwatersrand Technical College from 1925 through to 1960 and beyond. Download Brink_E_2010_UJ_pp56-57_Auckland_Park, which is a one and a half page extract detailing this past.

Download Brink_E_2010_UJ_pp58-59_Auckland_Park further gives a synopsis of the sandwich system of cooperative education at the Witwatersrand Technical College,

Brink, E. 2010. University of Johannesburg --the university for a new generation. Auckland Park: Jacanda Media

Add value through partnerships between HEI and organisations

In order to harness mutual advantages, a need for more creative ways of interacting between organisations and higher education institutions (HEIs) is advocated (Barnes & Phillips 2000). Reduced state funding and increased student numbers place HEIs under strain, especially with regard to staff time. The development of working links with organisations is considered essential to ‘unlock’ professional development of staff, research opportunities and community-service scholarly activity. Partnerships may offer academics the opportunity to access new sources of finance (value for money) and in-kind support for project work, research and other scholarly initiatives. In addition collaboration with voluntary-activity groups offers avenues of opportunity for responsible HEIs.

In practical terms it means that partnerships should be complimentary and result in synergy, which would harness academic interests and add value for the community. HEI involvement in projects proposals/bids could contribute academic rigour. Collaboration with community groupings may result in voluntary input in research and acquisition of local information that is not generally available, as well as local expertise and data. Joint publishing could be mutually beneficial with regard to promoting respective objectives, raising the profile of academics and HEI access to data sets.

Collaboration may involve promoting career advancement of ‘under-employed’ minority groups through tailor-made programmes drawing from HEI counselling and guidance expertise and real-life learning in organisations. Collaboration may result in major cost-savings for organisations and a ‘ripple-effect’ in that other organisations learn about the benefits. HEIs are by definition centres of knowledge and expertise, which are constantly evolving, and which could be applied to the benefit of organisations. Collaborations may further result in jointly winning awards for achievements. Relationships may offer scope for future capacity building.

HEIs' reaching out to organisations, is vital for establishing Cooperative and Work-integrated Education (CWIE) partnership, but also an important step in order to discover other potential areas of mutual benefit.

Barnes, N. J. & Phillips P. S. 2000. Higher education partnerships: creating new value in the environmental sector. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 1 (2): 181-190.

Call for more dialogue between universities and employers

Given the context of the dire need to improve education and to increase job opportunities for youth the, Catherine Wijnberg (2013)—the director and founder of Fetola, urges that the starting point is to collaborate—“to work together”. She specifies two prerequisites:

1. For educational institutions to engage in more dialogue with their ultimate clients, the employers.
2. For graduates to better match the needs of business.

The Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education (ACCE), established in 1998—emphasises employer involvement as an important attribute. Sandra Kerka (1999, p. 3) advocates more than dialogue between, but that partnerships should be grown into supportive relationships where “employer support does not have to be repeatedly obtained and there are clearly understood long-term expectations”. A notion reiterated by Reuss (2001) who declares partnerships are a key component to success. Orrell (2004) differentiates between the typical cottage industry and new managed culture within a community of practice. The latter characterised by partnerships among for example, employers, academia, students, higher education managers, professional bodies and placement agencies or careers offices. She emphasises that continued success is dependent upon recognition of all the involved parties; dependent upon clear agreements between parties; and attainment of explicit mutual benefits for all. She also cautions that if the benefits fail for any one party the overall partnership effectiveness is compromised. Thelme Janse van Rensburg (2012: 25) emphasises networking, and in particular the pursuing of online communication. The metaphor of rhizomatous propagation further serves as inspiration in this regard.

Accreditation Council for Cooperative Education. n.d. College and university program attributes. Retrieved May 6, 2013 from http://www.co-opaccreditation.org/attributes.htm

Janse van Rensburg, T. 2012. Revitalise your business. Professional Beauty, September 2012, 25-28.

Kerka, S. 1999. New directions for cooperative education. Eric Clearinghouse on adult career and vocational education, Columbus, OH. Eric Digest No 209. Retrieved April 25, 2002 from http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed434245.html

Orrell, J. 2004. Work-integrated learning programmes: Management and educational quality. In the proceedings of the Australian Universities Quality Forum 2004. Retrieved February 10, 2011 from
https://tls.vu.edu.au/vucollege/LiWC/resources/Orrell.pdf

Reuss, P.B. 2001. Students reap the benefits from faculty-employer connection. Journal of Career Planning & Employment, 61(3), 37-39.

Wijnberg, C. 2013. Small business finds Setas wanting [Download Small_business_finds_Setas_wanting_Catherine_Wijnberg_MG_3-9May]. Education column. Mail & Guardian, 3 to 9 May 2013, 36.

Gazetted Terminology for Professional Nurse and Midwife Education and Training

The terminology for cooperative and work-integrated education within the South African nursing education and training sphere is worth noting. It is gazetted that the Minister of Health, after consultation of the South African Nursing Council (SANC)—a statutory body—in accordance to §58(1)(f) of the Nursing Act (Act No 33 of 1995); made regulations pertaining to the education and training of professional nurses and midwives.

Of specific interest are the definitions of:

• Clinical accompaniment, which “means a structured process by a nurse education institution to facilitate assistance and support to the learner by the nurse educator at the clinical facility to ensure the achievement of the programme outcomes;”
• Clinical facility, which “means a continuum of services to promote health and provide care to individuals and groups, used to teach learners;”
• Clinical learning opportunities, which “means the range of learning experiences available in a healthcare setting or other experiential learning sites for a learner to gain the required clinical skills;”
• Clinical placement, which “means the period spent by a learner in clinical and other experiential learning sites to ensure that the purpose of the programme is achieved;”
• Clinical supervision, which “means the assistance and support extended to the learner by the professional nurse or midwife at a clinical facility with an aim of developing a competent, independent practitioner;”

The gazetted regulations further includes several other definitions of terminology such as assessment / assessment method / integrated assessment / assessor / moderation / moderator; competence / learning outcomes / programme outcomes; comprehensive nursing; fundamental learning; programme / qualification; and recognition of prior learning. The regulations further deal with issues such as requirements for registration in the two said nursing categories; accreditation of education institutions; admission criteria; minimum programme requirements; clinical education and training; the assessment and moderation of learning outcomes; transfers; recognition of prior learning; application of these regulations, as well as transitional arrangements.

Nursing Act: Regulations: Approval of and minimum requirements for education and training of learners leading to registration in categories professional nurse and midwife, (G 36235, RG 9927, GoN 174), 8 March 2013

From victim to winner of WIL placements



The offering of cooperative and work-integrated education programmes requires sufficient experiential/work-integrated learning providers (ELPs) in order to place students. Often higher education institutions fall victim to insufficient ELPs, which impacts the throughput of programmes with credit bearing work-integrated learning (WIL).

  

Vaughan Owgan (2012: 39) illuminates the dictionary meaning of victim, namely someone that “has come to feel helpless and passive in the face of events [that] they cannot control”. He indicates that the slowing down of the beauty-salon business is usually accompanied by a feeling of helplessness that turns into passivity—doing nothing. Concomitantly there is a reduction of advertising of beauty services during winter months. His advice in opposition to sitting helplessly, passively hoping, hold true with regard to recruiting and securing ELPS. His first two points—converted to a higher education context—and the fifth apply to academic management:

1. Academic staff members are working themselves to a standstill, but just cannot get on top of matters—perhaps addressing the academic staff numbers is necessary?
2. Evaluate the range of offering—consolidate and/or get rid of programmes with very limited student numbers.

Owgan’s (2012) next three points—also converted to a higher education context—relates to lecturing staff:

1. Maintain an accurate database of the community of practice—it has been found that a struggling beauty salon quite often has a lousy client database.
   • Implement an accurate standardise database—not random lists of pockets of stake holders and/or members of the community of practice.
   • Continuously grow the database and keep it accurate.
2. Increase the frequency of contact with the community of practice (stake holders)—remember the slogan “out of sight equals out of mind”.
   • Keep the community of practice informed about what is happening at the university. It need not be substantial glossy publications—short, but regular bite-size information morsels that add value to members of the community of practice.
   • Keep in mind the notion: “the right message to the right person at the right time”—make use of email and/or SMS packages and put the database in 3 to work.
3. Revisit ELPs that a Memorandum of Undertaking/understanding and/or Memorandum of Agreement have been entered into. Do not take those previously for granted. Show secured ELPs that they matter.

Owgan, V. 2012. Jump start your business for spring. Professional Beauty, September 2012, 39-42.

Networking for experiential learning providers

Cooperative and work-integrated education (CWIE) in higher education is about the institution and industry collaborating in offering educational programmes. The occupational field plays a key role in curriculum design, during which it is determined if work-integrated learning is the appropriate teaching and learning method and what part of the curriculum should be taught/learned this way. It follows that employers in industry should then serve as experiential/work-integrated learning providers (ELPs).

Take note of what Thelme Janse van Rensburg (2012: 25) accentuates:

Online marketing is the fastest growing branch of marketing today. As the world becomes ever more connected, keeping up with development and trends is vital for marketers trying to reach new audiences — who are more discerning, fragmented and cynical than ever.

You may ask what does this have to do with cooperative and work-integrated education. Allow me to explain. “Effective communication with your target market is key to business success” states (Janse van Rensburg, 2012: 25). Translated into higher education it means: effective communication with the key stakeholders employing the graduates of your qualification is key to success in teaching and learning.

Online communication with members of the community of practice provides an affordable means to attract potential experiential/work-integrated learning providers (ELPs). Janse van Rensburg (2012) emphasises that successful marketing (read communication) is about reaching the right people, in the right places at the right time. Knowing online avenues and selecting the most appropriate one/s to reach the target market/s is not only becoming a vital soft skill for marketers, but also vitally important for CWIE-practitioners.

• Online marketing (communication) extends beyond advertising on Internet to include target-market email communication; social media utilisation; search engine optimisation; and online public relations.
• Where to start, says Janse van Rensburg (2012), is at the programme’s webpage/s—a “front desk” where you can direct targeted people for qualification information and what the work-integrated learning (WIL) entail.
• Search engine optimisation (SEO) includes ‘tricks’ to increase the visibility of webpages through search engines—in effect to improve the ranking by enhancing the popularity.
• The social media, says Janse van Rensburg (2012), “provides a significant window of opportunity for getting in touch with” the community of practice:
  • Facebook, Twitter and Mxit present opportunities to inform and stay in touch through both an online profile and interaction. Twitter is an excellent means to keep in touch with the community of practice. Key players can further attract interest by liking Facebook entries.
  • LinkedIn allows for ‘business-to-business’ networking within the community of practice.
  • A blog serves as excellent facility to publish regular updates and snippets of information. Members in the community of practice may, as readers, subscribe to feeds to inform them about new posts. Previous posts are searchable through categories and sequential history. Readers may participate through comments and even as guest authors (if permitted by the blog provider).
  • YouTube enables the sharing of online videos about, for example, developments in the field; and the mentoring of students.

The ‘Big Five’ in social media in South Africa are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and YouTube.

Janse van Rensburg (2012) likens an email campaign to the historical method of distributing pamphlets; but with the added advantage that it allows for responses and online conversations. The lists of addresses of the members of professional, vocational and/or statutory bodies can be obtained in order to generate a range of persuasive messages to generate interest and recruit ELPs.

Janse van Rensburg (2012) further mentions online marketing. Adverts on the webpages of professional, vocational and/or statutory bodies; the webpages of journals relevant to the community of practice; etc, could be used cost-effectively.

Janse van Rensburg, T. 2012. Revitalise your business. Professional Beauty, September 2012, 25-28.

Rhizomatous propagation of Co-op & Work-integrated Ed support

Propagating involves the breeding of specimens by natural processes from the parent stock. Rhizomes are creeping plant rootstalks or rootstocks that send out shoots and roots from its nodes. The word rhizome originates from New Latin rhizoma, meaning a "mass of roots"; which stems from Ancient Greek rhizóō, meaning "cause to strike root"; and rhiza, meaning "a root".

Cooperative and Work-integrated Education qualifications/programmes are distinguished by two characteristics, namely:

• Credit bearing work-experience forms an important part/s of the curriculum that is aimed at producing work-ready graduates.
• The curriculum is designed in conjunction with, supported by, and retained relevant by representation from the occupational-field that the programme is intended for.

Good Cooperative and Work-integrated Education practice is characterised by:

• An appropriate advisory system ensuring the retained relevance of the programme through providing regular updating input and critique about the existing curriculum.
• Continuous propagating and cultivating activities to retain and expand a supportive occupational community which is vital for (a) providing real-life work experience opportunities; as well as (b) mentoring of students by workplace supervisors during period of experience; and (c) evaluative input about the competence acquisition of students for graduation purposes.

The metaphor (rhizomatous propagation) suggests:

• Starting of a new garden from good quality rhizomes (irises, cannas and asparagus) — curriculum design in close collaboration with the vocational community and/or professional/statutory body.
• Keep the programme flavour just right by cooking/brewing with good quality rhizomes (ginger, hops and turmeric) — frequently consult the community of practice.
• The underground rhizome is crucial to longevity — foragers, insects, fungus, and fires may attempt to damage the qualification (the above-ground portion of an aspen colony), but a supportive group of practitioners will keep the qualification healthy and protected against threats.
• Rhizomes send out internodes that form roots from the bottom of the nodes and new upward-growing shoots from the top of the nodes — the members of the programme’s advisory system are instrumental in expanding the network of supportive organisations.
• Similar to a rhizome, a stolon (e.g. strawberry plants) grow long internodes that generates new shoots at the end — active marketing interventions takes place to generate wider support.
• A rhizome (also stem tuber or enlarged stolon) serves as storage organ that is often high in starch (e.g. common potatoes) — enabling survival during winter or drought.
• The rhizomes of some species grow above ground, e.g. iris species lie at the soil surface; whereas other are underground, e.g. bamboo — some members of the community of practice render explicit support whereas the contributions of other are equivocal.
• Generally rhizomes form a single layer, but some form a multi-tiered mass — in some communities of practice a qualification may lead to a variety of career paths, whereas in other it is limited.

Work-integrated learning as method of structured distance learning

The South African Ministry of Higher Education and Training (MHET) published the draft Policy Framework for the Provision of Distance Higher Education in the Government Gazette on 29 May 2012.

Based on the MHET Policy’s glossary (p. 4) definition of distance education work-integrated learning (WIL) can be regarded as a method of structured distance learning:

... a set of teaching and learning strategies (or educational methods) that can be used to overcome spatial and/or temporal separation between educators and students. However, it is not a single mode of delivery. It is a collection of methods for the provision of structured learning. It avoids the need for students to discover the curriculum by attending classes frequently and for long periods. Rather, it aims to create a quality learning environment using an appropriate combination of different media, tutorial support, peer group discussion, and practical sessions (emphasis added).

This is emphasised on page 8 of the draft MHET Policy that states: "Distance education proceeds from the belief that learning can be nurtured without necessarily requiring teachers and learners to be in the same place at the same time, and that the resource based nature of distance education allows for the possibility to achieve economies of scale" (emphasis added).

Page 8 of the draft MHET Policy also points out that distance education 'requires substantial up-front investment in curriculum design and materials development, including attention to issues of structure, pacing and meaningful formative assessment, as well as considerable investment in decentralised student support' (emphasis added), which is also true about WIL. Page 12 of the draft MHET Policy continues to state: 'Online communication allows students and academics to remain separated by space and time (although some forms of communication assume people congregating at a common time), but to sustain an ongoing dialogue. Online asynchronous discussion forums, for example, reflect an instance where the spatial separation between educator and learners is removed by the ‘virtual’ space of the Internet, but where there remains temporal separation' (emphasis added). The facilitation of reflection among students during and after stints of WIL has been emphasised.

Item 4.2.2 (h), pp. 22-23 of the draft MHET Policy giving the example of teacher education should enjoy appropriate attention:

Teacher education is a good example here: it remains in the lowest CESM funding category even though new accreditation requirements require investment in a robust teaching practice placement, mentoring and supervision system. While teaching practice has been funded as a full course at funding level 1, the issue now is to define it as an experiential learning component through the funding review process and thus fund it accordingly. Similar concerns arise regarding any programmes of study that require substantive work-integrated-learning and/or practical components and/or substantial online engagement between teachers and students in synchronous and asynchronous fora. Such requirements militate against the potential of achieving economies of scale.

It needs to be pointed out that the statement above does not mention the role of the teaching community of practice, which is a very important oversight. The collaborative notion in Cooperative and Work-integrated Education is not mentioned in the draft policy. The establishment of a supportive community of practice is crucial with regard to curriculum design, especially if work-integrated learning is decided upon as most appropriate method.

Practitioners, serving as mentors for learners, are the third key players in programmes that include work-integrated learning as preferred method. The up-front investment in for quality work-integrated learning includes appropriate materials development that would structure and pace learning as well as empower workplace mentors to offer meaningful formative assessment. This is where the investment of decentralised student support of quality work-integrated learning should focus. (Page 8 of the draft MHET Policy)

Although improvement of the quality of distance education is mentioned in section 4.3 (p. 23); concern about quality and of “inadequate practical work or exposure to work integrated learning” is highlighted.

Republic of South Africa. 2012. Department of Higher Education and Training. Draft Policy Framework for the Provision of Distance Higher Education in South African Universities. Retrieved online from: http://www.dhet.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ZgZKPb1fM38%3D&tabid=36

Work experience could lead to clear and realistic career ambitions and reducing 'NEET'

NEET means “not in education, employment or training”

To showcase new understanding of the value of work experience within the (UK school) education system; for young adults in particular; and how it can best be delivered the UK Commission for Employment and Skills; the Chartered Institute for Personal and Development (CIPD); and charity the Education and Employers Taskforce jointly held a special event on Thursday afternoon 19 April 2012 at Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster, SW1P 3NZ.

The speakers on the topic ‘Work Experience: a new approach’ include:

• Brian Lightman—General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders—said: "There is no doubt in my mind that work experience can make a significant difference to the motivation, attainment and progression of students. As a head teacher I have seen attitudes to school of many young people completely transformed as a result of their highly positive experience on a placement."
• James Wates, UKCES Commissioner and CEO Wates Construction
• Katerina Rudiger, Skills Policy Adviser, CIPD
• Dr Anthony Mann, Director of Policy and Research, Education and Employers Taskforce

Attendees would each have received a printed copy of the full research report Work Experience: Impact and Delivery – insights from the evidence and a copy of the “Employers and schools working together – employers perceptions” report.

Barnardo's Deputy Chief Executive, Jane Stacey, says: “It gives young people, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, an invaluable opportunity to gain confidence and skills as they prepare to enter the toughest labour market since the 1980's.”

The UK Press Association reports that according to the study “there is a clear link between work experience at school and job prospects in later life”. The UK Press Association further reports that “a group of experts and policy makers have called for an increase in the quality and quantity of placements”.

The UK employment minister Chris Grayling, highlighted the different benefits of work experience, based on the report by the Education and Employers Taskforce charity and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). He also said: "I strongly support the concept of work experience because of the significant impact it can have on job prospects for young people through giving them an insight into the world of work, together with practical skills and knowledge based in a real world environment”.

A whopping 68% of teachers are of opinion that learners “returned from work experience more motivated to try harder at school”. Work placements helped 66% of learners to “how to go about achieving their career goals”.

In the light of the aforesaid it is of concern to note “that changes to work experience entitlement mean that many schools are considering moving away from organising work experience for some teenagers”. The changes are being driven by the UK government that is repealing the statutory requirement to work-related learning for 14-16 old learners resulting in schools having to bear the full costs of organising work-placements. Government is encouraging work experience for 16-19 year olds instead.

Nick Chambers, director of the Education and Employers Taskforce, states that traditionally more than ½million 15 year olds return after their Easter holidays intending to do two-weeks of work- placement with an employer.

Half (or a ¼million) of these placements are found by young people themselves or their families by making use of existing social networks. This may result in an unfair advantage to the children of well connected families. Relying on informal networks questions how children growing up in workless families are going to gain work experience, if the work experience depends on the family links with workplaces. “Those arguing for an improved system say they want to make sure work experience opens new doors rather than reinforces old divisions.” says Sean Coughlan, BBC News education correspondent. A more systematic approach, which does not rely on the networking skills of parents and friends, is argued for. If not, the potential value and benefits of work experience, among others in improving social mobility, can be lost.

Educationally effective work experience placements need proper planning and need to be matched to the needs of learners.

CWIE assessment should take into account the socially mediated and participatory nature of learning

The above is agued by Eames (2003, in Hodges 2011: 53) because individual students rarely work alone in the workplace, which are “inherently interactive, collegial and interdependent”. The learning of students and their performance are influence by a variety of factors beyond the control of the student. Assessment that “take[s] into account the socially mediated and participatory nature of learning” requires “boundary crossing into communities of work practice” by, for example, “involving students is critically reflecting on their workplace experiences” (Hodges 2011: 55). The incorporation of critical reflection into a range of assessable learning evidence “enables students to justify and validate their claims for learning”. Substantial and important learning in the workplace occurs spontaneously and informally by shear engagement in daily work, observation and interaction with other.

Hodges (2011: 54) points out that assessment is usually “framed within the” curriculum (the pre-determined learning outcomes), which often ignores the setting of learning. Instead, pre-set learning outcomes should be considered “broad intentions and directions for learning that allow for unanticipated, emergent learning …” (p. 56). He argues (p. 54) for “sustainable assessment”, which considers both the immediate and the future abilities of students—that help “develop knowledge, skills, and abilities” which can be transferred to future contexts and challenges.

Hodges, D. 2011. The assessment of student learning in cooperative and work integrated education (pp. 52-61). In R.K. Coll & K.E. Zegwaard (Eds.). International handbook for cooperative and work-integrated education (2^nd ed.). World Association for Cooperative Education Inc.

It is important that learning on work experience placement is understood

Eames and Cates (2011: 41) point out that there is a scarcity of research concerning cooperative and work-integrated education about “the educational outcomes from, and processes in, work placements”; as well as “understanding about learning in the work placement”. They argue (p. 42) that “understanding how learning occurs” during work-integrated learning placements would help legitimise workplace experience as legitimate aspect of cooperative programmes as educative. There is way too much emphasis on employer ratings and student papers concerning their work-integrated learning placements “in order to award credit”. Too little effort is devoted to “finding out what the students are really learning” from workplace experiences—“credit is not simply given for work experience” but should be given for the “learning [that is] resulting from work experience”. Eames and Cates (2011: 42) therefore consider it important that learning on “work experience [placement] is understood” in order “that appropriate curricula, pedagogy, and assessment can be designed and implemented”.

Eames and Cates (2011: 41) remark that research and development has mainly been pragmatically applied-descriptive and evaluative—what constitutes the successful operation; the outcomes of work placements; career clarification for students; enabling recruitment of candidates perceived suitable; collaboration with work-integrated learning hosts; completion of study-related projects; and attraction of students to programmes.

Eames, C. & Cates, C. 2011. Theories of learning in cooperative and work-integrated education (pp. 41-52). In R.K. Coll & K.E. Zegwaard (Eds.). International handbook for cooperative and work-integrated education (2^nd ed.). World Association for Cooperative Education Inc.

Download EamesC+CatesC_Theories_of_learning_in_cooperative+work-integrated_Education

http://www.waceinc.org/handbook_orderform.html

Practicals are experiential learning not CWIL

Laboratory (or other) practicals serve a very important complementory purpose in that it gives learners/students experiential learning application of theory opportunities to better understand and internalise. However, by definition it is most likely not cooperative work-integrated learning (CWIL). Unless, industry provides the real-life application opportunities, for example the Statler Hotel at Cornell University. Then obviously practicals are CWIL (or an aspect thereof).

Then again, students often refer to a lab practical when they mean a practical exam taking place in a laboratory. Language and terminology are used democratically and people assign meaning as they see fit. This emphasises the importance of specifying or defining in order to make sure you are correctly understood.

International Handbook for Cooperative and Work-integrated Education

 
I am proud to have been a contributor with Maureen Drysdale, Caitlin Chiupka, Nancy Johnston to the 2nd edition of this publication as authors of chapter 2: Towards a definition and models of practice for cooperative and work-integrated education. Click here for the table of contents and here for an online order form.

 

Where to start procedures for cooperative and work-integrated education?

At collaboration! CWIE is about cooperative education and about integrating work in education. An educational institution cannot offer CWIE programmes in isolation. Partnerships/collaboration is essential.

Internationally, it is considered essential to work according to unambiguous standard operating procedures (SOPs) to maintain quality. A SOP is a “written procedure prescribed for repetitive use as a practice, in accordance with agreed upon specifications aimed at obtaining a desired outcome”.

Why integrate work experience in a learning programme? The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) defines a learning programme as “the sequential learning activities, associated with curriculum implementation, leading to the achievement of a particular qualification or part qualification”. The decision to include work experience in a learning programme is a curriculum decision—where curriculum “refers to all of the teaching and learning opportunities that take place in learning institutions including:

• purpose and values of the learning
• learning outcomes
• content, activities, methods, media
• teaching, learning strategies
• forms of assessment
• evaluation of delivery, moderation”

If workplace experience is considered necessary it is included. But who decided? Stakeholder representation in the decision making is essential for determining fitness of purpose. However, unless the perceived relevant workplace experience can be adequately replicated within the teaching delivery, partnerships with sufficient stakeholder hosts are an undeniable necessity.

The starting point for any qualification therefore is adequate stakeholder representation. If during such stakeholder deliberations about the curriculum of the qualification indicate that inclusion workplace learning is regarded necessary, then shared responsibility and stakeholder partnerships become a condition of the learning programme. This is how cooperative work-integrated education become part of the teaching strategy.

It is further important that the educational institution nurture and expand the stakeholder involvement and establish sufficient partnerships to have sufficient hosting opportunities for the credit-bearing curriculum part work experience.

The nature of the work experience; the learning content thereof; how the learning would be acquired; the methods of accumulation of evidence of such learning; and the assessment thereof forms part of the teaching and learning development that flows from the curriculum decision.

The methods of maintaining communication with stakeholders; the identification of students in need of placement; the facilitation of the selection by organisations as to which student/s will be hosted; the preparation of students for such selection; the placement procedures and contracting with host organisations; the monitoring of the required workplace experience and monitoring of the mentoring of the learning; the monitoring of formative assessment and the summative assessment of accomplishment; would all form part of the SOPs.

The experience of learning from a live person

The words of the post title is taken from the first line of page 277 of 'Poser, my life in twenty-three yoga poses'. Claire Dederer (2011), in my opinion, captured here what true learning-in-experience is about.

A colleague asked me today about terms in use for various kinds of learning from real-life experiences. People assign meaning to terms they embrace or they use terms as vessels to convey meaning they assign. Terms get politised. Terms belong to certain followings or communities of practice (I've used used such).

Imagine the medieval guilds. A master teaching apprentices.

Claire got an assignment to write a piece for The New York Times on the way the Naropa University 'integrated contemplative practice into its coursework' (p. 266). The PR office of the university arranged that she spent a week visiting classes experiencing. Claire took up yoga and meditation several years before. Her experiences at Naropa, however, made a deep impression on her. Synchronistically she enrolled for a beginning class at the Yoga Workshop by the ashtanga yoga master Richard Freeman. Claire watched him performing the jump-through and got so inspired she believed deep in her heart that she can do it (p. 276) and remark: "Yoga is the closest thing many of us will ever encounter to a pure oral tradition. No substitutions, so far, have even come close to approximating the experience of learning from a live person. As I discovered early in my practice, learning from a video doesn't quite work, nor does a book ..."

If a learning enviroment can be created to let students experience this kind of grasp and mastery, then true cooperative & work-integrated education (or whatever terminology is prefered) takes place. In Claire Dederer's words (277) "Many writers have talked about the mystery of transmission. ... Maybe it's simply seeing the [yoga] poses done in three dimensions. But it feels like something more than that. When your teacher [mentor/workplace supervisor] shows you how something is done, there is a feeling of possibility, a transmittal of something like faith. Yes, this can be done [or, oh that is how it is done correctly]. I'm seeing it right before my eyes."

 
Dederer, C. 2011. Poser, my life in twenty-three yoga poses. London: Bloomsbury.