Chair: Marja-Leena Stenstrom, University of Jyvaskyla

Discussant: Fernando Marhuenda, University of Valencia, Spain

Introduction

Recent macro-level trends, such as economic globalisation, the emergence of the information society, changes in methods of production and the organisation of work, and the growing significance of knowledge as a production factor, have created a context of a new kind for the relationship between education and working life. In this new context, using work experience as an educational and learning strategy has become one of the most important developments both in vocational education and training (VET) and in higher education. Although traditions of making work an integral part of education have varied at different levels of the educational system, the challenges that systems of education are facing at the moment are very similar in many respects. These include the challenge of equivalent academic standards, the challenge of developing pedagogical practices for work-based and work-related learning (WBL), and the impact that WBL has on the identity of the educational organisation, the teacher and the learner. The diversity of the systems through which work experience is implemented, workplace supervisors’ varying levels of training and school teachers’ lack of industrial experience have aroused discussion about how to guarantee and assess the quality of the learning taking place at different workplaces and of the WBL system as a whole. (See, for example, WEX21C, 2000; Boud & Solomon, 2001, p. 27.)

The proposed symposium is intended to tackle problems that are related to these challenges facing work-based and work-related learning. As they represent phenomena and problems at different levels, they call for a multi-level analysis and a multidisciplinary approach. The challenge of equivalence or quality assurance requires a system-level analysis and evaluation of the implementation of the given WBL system and of how its general aims have been achieved, while the challenge of developing appropriate pedagogical practices demands an in-depth analysis of both individual-level and organisational learning processes in educational and work organisations alike.

The key pedagogical question regarding collaboration between education and work is how to build a firm link between theory and practice or abstract thinking and practical action – or between the development of general skills and specific vocational skills. We do not see learning at work only as the acquisition of specific skills and knowledge by the learners but also - and more importantly – as a vehicle for the development of work and the work organisation, which may lead to transformations not only at the level of individual learners’ knowledge and practices but also at the level of the social structures that they form and at the level of the organisation as a whole.

Contributors to the Symposium

References

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Possible Intended and Unintended Effects of European VET Policies - the Case of Integrating Work and Learning

Philipp Grollmann, & Roland Tutschner, University of Bremen

Vocational Education Institutions Creating Innovative Networks

Pentti Nikkanen & Paivi Tynjala, University of Jyvaskyla

Connecting Work and Learning in Finnish VET: a Case of Practice-Oriented Learning

Marja-Leena Stenstrom, University of Jyvaskyla

Learning for Work and Adaptation of Mid-Level Workers

Krista Loogma, Tallinn Pedagogical University

Learning by Making and Philotekhne as an Idea of Bildung

Matti Vesa Volanen, University of Jyvaskyla