COOPERATION IN WORK-ORIENTED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Authors

  • Muir Houston College of Social Sciences, School of Education, Social Justice Place Lifelong Ed, University of Glasgow, R223 Level 2, St Andrews Building, United Kingdom
  • Karsten Krüger Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo, Pl. Francesc Macià, 4, 08021 Barcelona, Spain.
  • Alba Molas Departament d’Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans, 26, 43006-Tarragona, Spain
  • Mike Osborne College of Social Sciences, School of Education, Social Justice Place Lifelong Ed, University of Glasgow, R223 Level 2, St Andrews Building, United Kingdom
  • Laureano Jiménez Departament d’Enginyeria Química, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans, 26, 43006-Tarragona, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2016.s21.685705

Keywords:

Work-Related Learning, Higher Education, VET, Permeability, External Stakeholders, EU, Attainment, Labour Markets, Partnership

Abstract

The paper reports on preliminary findings from an EU funded project on collaboration and partnership between external stakeholders and universities to deliver work-related learning to adults with existing labour market experience in order to increase skills and competences for the knowledge economy as envisaged in Agenda 2020. The paper engages with debates on the professionalization of vocational education and consequently the vocationalisation of university education. It reports relevant data for the six partner countries of the LETAE project and EU averages to provide some context to debates about relative levels of attainment and labour market position. It briefly introduces some data drawn from cases studies of work-related learning in higher education delivered in partnership or collaboration with external stakeholders including local authorities, trade unions, and individual enterprises. Finally, it compares in detail the cases from the UK and Spain as illustrative of specific national responses to work-related learning initiatives.

References

Bartlett, W. (2013) Skill Mismatch, Education Systems, and Labour Markets in EU Neighbourhood Policy Countries, WP5/20 Search working paper, http://goo.gl/1ZjnTd (accessed: November 2016).

Bell, D.N.F. and Blanchflower, D.G. (2013) Underemployment in the UK Revisited, National Institute Economic Review 224: F8-F22.

Buhr, R., Freitag, W., Hartmann, E. A., Loroff, C., Minks, K.-H. & Stamm-Riemer, I. (Eds.) (2008) Durchlässigkeit gestalten! Wege zwischen beruflicher und hochschulischer Bildung.

CEDEFOP (2012) Permeable education and training systems: reducing barriers and increasing opportunity, Briefing Note November 2012. http://goo.gl/wlzQGh (accessed: November 2016).

Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) (2008) Higher Education at Work – High Skills: High Value. Sheffield: DIUS.

Flisi, S., Goglio, V., Meroni, E, Rodrigues, M., Vera-Toscano, E. (2014) Occupational mismatch in Europe: Understanding overeducation and overskilling for policy making. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen. https://goo.gl/Ok7OVn (accessed: November 2016).

Harwood, J. (2010) Understanding Academic Drift: On the Institutional Dynamics of Higher Technical and Professional Education, Minerva, 48, pp.413-427.

Hippach-Schneider, U. (2014) Academisation or vocational drift: International developments in the tertiary sector of education. Bonn: BIBB. http://goo.gl/ujrJ2D (accessed: November 2016).

ILO (2014) Skills Mismatch in Europe, ILO Dept. of Statistics, http://goo.gl/EEG5P5 (accessed: November 2016).

Jung, D. B. (2015) Effectiveness of higher education to labor productivity. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 1, No.1, pp. 11-22, July 2015.

Kitching, C. (2015) Effective Teaching for New tertiar6y Students. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences. Special Issue, Volume 1; Issue:1, 2015, pp. 1-10

Krüger, K. (2014) Social Effectiveness of Tertiary Education for Adults in Mid-life. Barcelona/Oldenburg. 2014.

Krüger, K. & Jiménez, L. (2008) The social function of higher education in the social models of the European knowledge society. Barcelona, Budapest, Lódz, Modena, Nijmegen, Wien. 2008.

Kuhn, H.-J., Baethge, M., Hinz, P., Löhrmann, S., Poltermann, A., Stern, C., Tenorth, H.-E. & Volkholz, S. (2009) Bildungsgerechtigkeit im Lebenslauf – Damit Bildungsarmut nicht weiter vererbt wird. Berlin, Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Kyvik, S. (2004). Structural changes in higher education systems in Western Europe. Higher Education in Europe, 29(3), 393-409.

Kyvik, S. (2009) The Dynamics of Change in Higher Education Expansion and Contraction in an Organisational Field, Higher Education Dynamics Series, Volume 27, Springer.

Lafont, P. and Pariat, M (2012) Review of the recognition of prior learning in member states in Europe. University Recognition of Prior Learning Centers. http://goo.gl/La2mqY (accessed: November 2016).

Mayer, K. U. and Solga, H. (Eds.) (2008) Skill Formation: Interdisciplinary and Cross- National Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ramage, C. (2014), Learning to learn through university accredited work-based learning: a threshold conception, Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 26 (8) pp. 488 – 510.

Skorstad, E. J. and Ramsdal, H. (Eds.) (2009) Flexible Organizations and the New Working Life – A European Perspective, Surrey: Ashgate.

Smeby, J-C. (2015) Academic drift in vocational qualifications, in From Vocational to Professional Education: Educating for Social Welfare in (eds) Jens-Christian Smeby and Molly Sutphen, ch2 London: Routledge.

Standing, G. (2011) The Precariat: the New Dangerous Class, London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Streeck, W. (2011) Skills and Politics: General and Specific, Ch7 in The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, edited by Marius R. Busemeyer and Christine Trampusch. New York: Oxford University Press.

Trow, M. (1974) Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Higher Education. Berkeley: Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.

UNESCO (2011) International Standard Classification of education. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. http://goo.gl/DXSRzt (accessed: November 2016).

UnionLearn (2013) Building trade union support for workplace learning throughout Europe. London: TUC. https://goo.gl/qjt5K7 (accessed: November 2016).

UVAC (2005) Integrating Work-based Learning into Higher Education A report by the University Vocational Awards Council, http://goo.gl/542hD9 (accessed: November 2016).

UVAC (2009) Funding Higher-Level Work-based Learning; A paper prepared for HE@Work by the University Vocational Awards Council June 2009. UVAC. http://goo.gl/Qp3Va5 (accessed: November 2016).

Yin, R.K. (2014) Case Study Research: Designs and Methods, (5th Edition) London: Sage.

Yorke, M. and Knight, P. (2006) Embedding employability into the curriculum, York: HEA. https://goo.gl/LUJ14S (accessed: November 2016).

Downloads

Published

2016-12-15

How to Cite

Houston, M., Krüger, K., Molas, A., Osborne, M., & Jiménez, L. (2016). COOPERATION IN WORK-ORIENTED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 685–705. https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2016.s21.685705

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2016): Special Issue

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2016 Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.