Work-based Learning and Personal Development Planning: integration or separation within the UK Foundation Degree curriculum?

摘要

In his article2 on the story of work-based learning in the Higher Education sector in the UK, Norman Evans draws on metaphors from story telling. Taking this analogy further, and in relation to the connection between work-based learning and personal development planning, the question may be, is the story of this relationship a modern partnership of equal and complementary heroes and heroines, a latter day Prince Charming and Cinderella, a fairy tale or a masquerade? So, once upon a time …in 2006, we were busy working with university students to enhance their employability, to ensure that their learning went beyond the confines of their classroom and out into workplace beyond. Barriers in the corridors of academe had to be broken down to acknowledge fully that equal but different learning could and did occur in the workplace and that employers could be involved in both the design and delivery of an academic programme. In addition, rather than just studying for academic interest, students needed to prepare for an increasingly cut-throat and international world of work and to plan for a career span that might well be multifaceted during their lifetimes.