I
t is a fascinating exercise, for those who work in the education industry, to sit down
with a group of workers – any group of workers – and ask them to list, first, the
most important or useful knowledge and skills they use at work, and second, where
they learned them. Almost without exception one of the most frequent answers
to the second question will be at work, rather than in an educational institution.
Of course in answering this question many people forget that the basic skills of
literacy and numeracy that are the foundations for later formal learning, and the
foundations of much that is learned at work, were acquired largely in the classroom.
But even so, the regularity of this finding is a good reason for being cautious about
any tendency to equate knowledge, skill and competence with formal education, or
to regard educational qualifications as an adequate signal of knowledge, skill and
competence. It is an exercise that gives you a healthy respect for the workplace as a
venue for the acquisition of powerful knowledge and skill.
The first part of this paper looks at some reasons for believing that work-based
learning matters, at some of the reasons that it seems a good idea to try to encourage
it, and at some of its benefits for individuals, enterprises and governments. The second
part of the paper looks at some of the more practical issues that arise when we try
to encourage work-based learning. Do countries need to be wealthy in order to have
well-organized work-based learning systems? How can this learning be stimulated?
What approaches to it are useful? How can its quality be ensured? Should it be linked
to the formal education and training system, and if so how? And what are some of
the particular challenges that arise in trying to extend and improve it in developing
economies? The paper’s approach is largely practical, evidence-based and policyfocused. The theory of work-based learning, on which there is a very large literature,
is not a major focus.