Drawing on three decades of practical investigations, this book establishes new understandings about the importance of learning through work, outlining its purposes, contributions, conceptions and the curriculum, pedagogical and personal practices that shape its effectiveness.Against views proposing it as being informal and leading to concrete outcomes, this volume presents learning through work as being central to human development, informing individual choices and developing one’...

Learning in the workplace has come of age with the publication of this book. It shows the way for a new level of sophistication in the ways learning and work are treated. And it opens new territory for exploration in the world of learning throughout life.David Boud, University of Technology, SydneyStephen Billett provides a comprehensive and practical model, well-grounded in theory and research, to guide learning in the workplace. This is a 'must read' forthose in v...

The concept of mimetic learning at work is outlined and elaborated in this text. That elaboration consists of an account of how securing occupational capacities has been primary associated with learning processes and an explanation of those processes. Much, and probably most, of the learning and development across individuals working lives occurs outside of circumstances of direct guidance or instruction. Yet, recent considerations of individuals’ epistemologies and developments form anthr...

This book advances understandings about and practices for effectively integrating practice-based (e.g. workplace) experiences in higher education programs. This issue is becoming of increasing salient because higher education programs globally are increasingly focussing on preparing students for specific occupations. Such imperatives are reflected in the cooperative education movement in North America, the foundation degree programs of the United Kingdom, the work integrated learning appro...

This book discusses what constitutes vocational education as well as its key purposes, objects, formation and practices. In short, it seeks to outline and elaborate the nature of the project of vocational education. It addresses a significant gap in the available literature by providing a single text that elaborates the scope and diversity of the sector, its key objectives (i.e. vocations and occupations), its formation and development as an education sector, and the scope of its purposes ...

This book elaborates on the project of continuing education and training (CET), its purposes, practices and prospects for future models and approaches. As such, it also seeks to elaborate the needs for a means by which this important educational sector can achieve its goals both now, and in the near future. Often seen as a supplementary or additional educational sector, CET is gaining increased relevance and importance given the need for individuals to remain employable across lengthening ...

This book seeks to advance understandings of and approaches to supporting and sustaining working age adults’ learning across lengthening working lives and inevitable transitions they encounter and are required to negotiate. It is founded on the processes and findings of a three-phase practical inquiry into worklife learning and its implications for workplace and educations’ practice conducted in Australia over a three-year period commencing in 2019. Diverse perspectives and orientations we...

This book discusses how the Dutch vocational education system has undergone significant waves of reform driven by global imperatives, national concerns and governmental policy goals. Like elsewhere, the impetuses for these reforms are directed to generating a more industry-responsive, locally-accountable and competence-based vocational education system. Each wave of reforms, however, has had particular emphases, and directed to achieve particular policy outcomes. Yet, they are more than me...

This edited volume offers a range of insights about, practices of, and findings associated with, enrichening higher education students’ learning by their engagement in educational processes during and after the completion of their work integrated education experiences. That is, using post-practicum intervention to augment and enrich those learning experiences. The collected contributions here draw on the processes of trialling and evaluating educational processes that aimed to enrich the w...

This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across both countries with developed and developing economies.Some of the standing is associated with the occupation it serves and this is highlig...

Leaving school, whether to move on to training, work or education, is a fundamental rite of passage the world over. This volume draws on a wealth of international sources and studies in its analysis of the ‘transitions’ young students make as they move on from their secondary schooling. It identifies how these transitions are planned for by policymakers, enacted by school staff and engaged with by students themselves. With data from a range of nations with advanced industrial economies, th...

This insightful book explores adult learning at the intersection of a rapidly changing world of work and society, and the personal, lived experiences of individuals navigating these shifts. It illuminates the social dimensions of adult learning in the contemporary era, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of being able to thrive in times of change.Each carefully curated chapter presents theoretical insights, empirical findings, and diverse perspectives on adult development...