Embracing Innovation – Work Based Learning
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
“Embrace” http://www.flickr.com/photos/margarida/235087949/
Our first RSC Wales Work Based Learning Conference “Embracing Innovation“ organised by Russell Symmons and Alyson Dacey, took place today. It was designed for WBL staff from DCELLS-funded FE and private training providers, but there was some interesting content for HE delegates too. We had a very good opening keynote from “Social Media and Learning Consultant” Jane Hart who has a great website full of interesting tools and resources. Jane highlighted the Open University’s SocialLearn project which, according to its blog, aims “to combine the best of the values and approaches found in the new social web technologies with those of higher education”.
It was also interesting to find out a bit about WBL engagement with e-portfolios as we had exhibitors from four leading suppliers. It was good to be able to share with some FE delegates the free support material and case studies available in JISC’s Effective Practice with E-portfolios and JISC InfoNet’s E-portfolios Infokit.
As our (DCELLS-funded) Work Based Learning service develops, it will be interesting to see what synergies there might be with Higher Education, where Work Based Learning can range from work experience through to higher-level workforce development, as well as employer engagement. Reading up on WBL by way of preparation for the conference, I saw that Academy Wales mentions a number of WBL initiatives in its March newsletter, including some in Engineering. There’s also a set of HE WBL resources on the main Academy website. JISC also has a new blog which focusses on the use of technology to support Business and Community Engagement (formerly known as Third Mission). Glancing through the blog I saw the following quote, which echoes nicely the theme of our WBL conference:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” (Charles Darwin)
