A Case Study in the Development of a Work-Based Learning and the Possibility of Transfer to Continental European Universities: The WBIS program at the University of Chester, England

Authors

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of a highly flexible program for work-based learning developed in one university in North West England. The paper demonstrates how pedagogic practices originally developed in the U.S. crossed the Atlantic and enabled the creation of a distinct program – Work Based and Integrative Studies (WBIS) – in response to the requirements of students, businesses and policymakers, incorporating many developments in learning theory and pedagogic practices. WBIS is a robust, academically rigorous program that offers a precise alignment of the learning needs of individuals within a coherent curriculum of accredited academic study. An academic microculture has developed to facilitate the program that is transdisciplinary, focused upon student learning and entrepreneurial. Having developed from U.S. practices, the program is now at the point at which there is the possibility of transference to other European nations.

Keywords: work-based learning, experiential learning, nonformal and informal learning

Author Biography

  • Jon Talbot, University of Chester

    Senior Lecturer in work based learning

    After completing a doctorate in the 1980s l worked as a city planner before re-entering higher education in 1993. For a decade l taught students in the landed professions before moving to the Centre for Work Related Studies (CWRS) at the University of Chester in the North West of England. CWRS is one the largest centers of its kind in the UK where we use a pre-validated work based learning framework which enables adults in work to obtain wholly negotiated higher education qualifications. The framework enables students to bring in past experiential and certificated (including non-accredtied) learning, obtain credit through current experiential learning as well as complete conventional subject modules as the basis for future experiential learning.

    Along with my colleague Professor David Major I am participating in a European Union funded project (VALERU) designed to introduce such practices into universities in the Russian Federation. I am also involved in a project to bring Work based learning to Danube University in Austria.

Photo of Jon Talbot

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Published

2014-09-24

Issue

No. 4 (2014): PLA and Workplace Learning

Section

Inquiry (Peer-Reviewed)

License

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How to Cite

A Case Study in the Development of a Work-Based Learning and the Possibility of Transfer to Continental European Universities: The WBIS program at the University of Chester, England. (2014). PLA Inside Out: An International Journal on Theory, Research and Practice in Prior Learning Assessment, 4(4). https://plaio.org/index.php/home/article/view/71