‘Crossing boundaries: from classroom to industry/’world’: Challenges of professional and vocational qualifications’

Date: Tuesday 10 November 2015
Location: Senate Hall, First Floor, Administration Building, Bellville Campus
Time: 09:00 -13:00

This session will consider what ‘knowledge-rich’ vocationally oriented higher education qualifications would look like. It will contrast this approach to the ‘skills talk’ that characterises policy that seeks to respond to globalisation and the knowledge economy. Transitioning from the formal classroom to the world of work is not seamless, nor is it merely a transfer of theoretical knowledge to workplace practice. Fuller, et al (2007: 743) capture this succinctly by claiming that ‘the productive systems of contemporary workplaces give rise to many different forms of knowledge creation and use, and as a consequence to different forms of learning and pedagogical approaches.’ The different kinds of learning opportunities that workplaces present impact on how knowledge is constructed and enacted in practice, engaging with both epistemological and ontological perspectives of WIL.

This session will consider:

• The nature of theoretical knowledge, how theoretical knowledge and everyday knowledge differ, the relationship between the two, and the special problems that are posed for vocationally oriented higher education qualifications
• The way in which vocational and professional qualifications differ from academic qualifications, including differences in the forms of knowledge underpinning each
• Differences between different types of vocational and professional qualifications, links to fields of practice, and the implications for curriculum
• The nature of ‘powerful knowledge’ in vocationally oriented higher education qualifications and the role this plays in forming students’ identities in their projected field of practice
• Debates about work integrated learning, the nature of knowledge, and the ‘problem’ of boundary crossing and the challenges for curriculum development
• The debates to be raised would include aspects of the different knowledge structures of classroom and workplace learning; the learning opportunities that workplaces should present; how workplace learning could contribute to developing professionals for public good, and developing graduates for employability and developing requisite capabilities.

Reference:

Fuller, A., Unwin, L., Felstead, A., Jewson, N. and Kakavelakis,K. 2007. Creating and using knowledge: an analysis of the differentiated nature of workplace learning environments. British Educational Research Journal. 33(5): 743-759.