Work-based Learning for Enhanced Employee Skills: Lessons from the Literature and Practice in the UK.

The paper examines briefly the context within which WBL in general has developed in the UK and discusses some of the factors that have influenced WBL in the UK particularly in UK Government initiatives and legislation. It then reviews some prominent examples of WBL programmes in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that have been developed as a response to such initiatives. A more detailed description on one of these successful programmes in a UK HEI is offered and an analysis is made of some of the factors which have contributed to its success. Finally, conclusions are drawn and suggestions are made for further improvements in practice that can be applied generally to improve the ‘learner journey’ through WBL in other centres and other EU countries.

The paper belongs to a series of publications regarding tripartite view on WBL. It is based on investigations reported in [22] and together with [23], [24], [25], [26], and [28] forms the conference section ‘WBLQUAL’ devoted to the results of the project ‘An Approach to Qualifications through Negotiated Work Based Learning for the EU – WBLQUAL’ [22], project Number: 510022-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-ERASMUS-ECUE.
The Project WBLQUAL, its aim, objectives, and methodology are described in [2] while the rest of the ‘WBLQUAL’ section papers focus on particular aspects of tripartite view on WBL.
The main objective of the research presented in this paper is to answer the question “Can lessons be learned for the EU WBL community from practice in UK HEIs?”