Effecten van dualisering in het HBO

The economic recession in the 1980s constituted a reason to revise vocational education\ud in the Netherlands. There was a search for new forms of learning in context, with\ud authentic tasks in the real world, which had the explicit goal of bringing theory and\ud practice closer together. This combination of learning and working was said to better\ud prepare learners for the future and to guarantee effective training and a powerful learning\ud environment. Business and industry would acquire custom-designed people, ‘just in time,\ud just enough’.\ud This combination of learning and working is referred to by the term dualisering, (which is a\ud dual programme of work and study). It was assumed that integration of learning at the\ud workplace and working under an employment contract, with reflective learning moments\ud at school, would provide an effective learning environment for the development of\ud professional skills. Within higher professional education (HPE, in Dutch: HBO) many\ud forms and variants of learning while working and working while learning gradually\ud emerged. A distinction can be drawn, for example, between ‘apprenticeship’ and\ud ‘internship’, in which the student either follows a dual track or undertakes a work\ud placement respectively. The work placement component seems to have increased in size\ud over the past few years to such an extent that it has become comparable with the dual\ud system.\ud Since the 1990s various initiatives have been undertaken in the Netherlands to promote\ud the dual programme of work and study through experiments within higher professional\ud education. Their design has varied from first-year full-time training followed by sixmonthly\ud periods of ‘school’ learning alternated with periods of working (CooP), to the\ud entire training programme of three days a week working and two days undertaking study\ud activities (Gilde-HBO). Currently, colleges of higher professional education are free to\ud design their own dual training programme. However, as part of a dual track, the\ud relationship between student, company and institute must be regulated by means of an\ud employment contract or training-employment contract. This means that dual students are\ud employees at the company, whereas non-dual students come into contact with the world\ud of work through work placements. Dual students were therefore believed to learn more\ud effectively what it takes to work in a specific profession. Furthermore, they would acquire\ud the more generic and specific skills necessary to perform a job and would be better\ud trained in profession-related skills, such as problem-oriented working and flexibility

Workplace Learning in Dual Higher Professional Education

Workplace learning is considered an effective strategy for the development of vocation, career and professional identity. Dual training programs, in which learning at a vocational school and learning at work in a company are combined, are seen as strong carriers for skill formation processes. In this study we explore workplace learning in dual training programs in Dutch higher professional education. To gain an understanding of these learning environments and processes, a qualitative multiple case study was conducted in seven sectors. The findings show substantial differences in learning environments between and within sectors. However, cooperation between school and practice is minimal in all of the cases. Although students develop personal and job-related competencies that are useful for daily work routines, they acquire hardly any profound theoretical knowledge at the workplace. School fails to direct workplace learning. Given the considerable share of workplace learning in dual training programs, and the demands to higher professional education graduates in terms of being able to solve complex problems and develop new knowledge during their career as reflective practitioners, it is important that these shortcomings are resolved. More promising alternatives for workplace learning environments and questions for further research to improve workplace learning in higher professional education are discussed

Nieuwe concepten voor het vormgeven van werkplekleren

Hoewel werkplekleren als essentieel onderdeel van beroepsopleidende leertrajecten wordt beschouwd, blijkt uit onderzoek dat er veel aan te merken is op de effectiviteit van werkplekleren. Onderzoek tot nu toe gaat uitgebreid in op de gebreken in de samenwerking school-praktijk, maar genereert nog geen empirische aanwijzingen over hoe werkplekleren in de beroepsopleiding beter kan worden vormgegeven. De onderzoekstraditie rond werkplekleren in het beroepsonderwijs mist node ontwerponderzoek. Dit was één van de doelen van het doorbraakproject werkplekleren in het mbo. Eén van de studies binnen dit project was een onderzoek naar de meerwaarde van een leerafdeling in de zorg. Dit betreft een innovatieve stagevorm, waarbij een afdeling in een zorginstelling wordt gerund door een team van mbo- en hbo-studenten, met gediplomeerde werkbegeleiders als achterwacht. Aan de hand van deze studie naar de leerafdeling wordt in dit artikel besproken hoe school en praktijk het werkplekleren samen kunnen optimaliseren en welke effecten hiermee in het geval van de leerafdeling worden bereikt

Workplace Learning in Dual Higher Professional Education

Workplace learning is considered an effective strategy for the development of vocation, career and professional identity. Dual training programs, in which learning at a vocational school and learning at work in a company are combined, are seen as strong carriers for skill formation processes. In this study we explore workplace learning in dual training programs in Dutch higher professional education. To gain an understanding of these learning environments and processes, a qualitative multiple case study was conducted in seven sectors. The findings show substantial differences in learning environments between and within sectors. However, cooperation between school and practice is minimal in all of the cases. Although students develop personal and job-related competencies that are useful for daily work routines, they acquire hardly any profound theoretical knowledge at the workplace. School fails to direct workplace learning. Given the considerable share of workplace learning in dual training programs, and the demands to higher professional education graduates in terms of being able to solve complex problems and develop new knowledge during their career as reflective practitioners, it is important that these shortcomings are resolved. More promising alternatives for workplace learning environments and questions for further research to improve workplace learning in higher professional education are discussed