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Pragmatic partnerships between employers, non-profits and educators can make demand-driven work-based learning a lot faster and more effective.

Shane Sutherland is a Director of PebblePad, an engaging personal learning tool used in a wide variety of institutions and workplaces. PebblePad is the tool of choice for the initiative that he describes.

I think what's particularly interesting at the moment is a project we've just started with the University of Gloucestershire and one of the Lifelong Learning Networks* that we have in the UK which is particularly focused at providing what's called Responsive Curricula.

So employers will go to the University and say "Look, I don't want your three-year degree. What I actually want is some specialist training for this group of employees that I have that are already skilled in their core trade."

One example is the stone masons working on Gloucestershire Cathedral. These stone masons - as well as being stone masons - are also project managers. They're also having to source materials in economically viable and ecologically sustainable ways. They're having to work with tradesmen from other parts of Europe. And so they are asking the University for lots of short courses that deliver very specific skills to enable these stone masons to do their job as well as possible and develop the stone masons at the same time. 

So for each short bite-sized course, a competency framework is generated. It's agreed to by the learner, the employer and the university, so each signs up to what their part of the contract is. And then over time learners add their evidence of achieving these particular skills.

But what's really nice about the system is that for each of these chunks there's some academic credit, because it relates back to academic levels. But all the little skills they evidence, they can choose bits they've already used and re-aggregate them to demonstrate competence in another context or for another unit.

And I think when the project really gets going we will start to see how people start to make sense of learning that takes place in different places and at different times and draw back on it and rethink it, repurpose it, and represent it for credit on the next unit of learning.

* Lifelong Learning Networks are regional vocational education organizations designed to bridge the needs of employers, learners and educational institutions. Find out more here

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