This is the author's pre-print of an article that appeared in Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning. Its reproduction is with the kind permission of Open University Press.This article takes, as its starting-point, the concept of ‘ critical being’ developed by Barnett in Higher Education : A Critical Business (1997). It then examines the potential of Barnett’s position for a philosophy of Work Based Learning in a higher education context, arguing that Work Based Learning, appropriately conceived, combines the three key features of Barnett’s critical being, namely critical reasoning, critical self-reflection and critical action. The article goes on to consider the place of both the ontological and the epistemological dimensions to Work Based Learning, in an attempt to make a case for Work Based Learning as a more holistic way of being and knowing than conventional University education provides for
