This study examines Finnish apprenticeship training stakeholders' perceptions of vocational expertise and experiences of workplace learning and guidance. The semi-structured interview data was collected in 2015 in two vocational fields: the social and health care services sector (five workplaces) and the technology sector (five workplaces). The…

A competence-oriented approach has recently emerged in higher education and thus far, not much attention has been paid to how "competence" itself is understood in education. The purpose of this study was to examine how graduating physiotherapy students perceive their competence at the end of their studies. The data comprised interviews…

The aim of this article is to investigate how the formal competence development activities provided by the Production Leap, a workplace development programme (WPDP), were interwoven with everyday work activities and to identify the conditions that enabled learning and employee-driven innovation that contributed to production improvement, in small…

Contemporary accounts of learning emphasise the importance of immediate social partners such as teachers and co-workers. Yet, much of our learning for work occurs without such experts. This paper provides an understanding of how and why new home care workers use scaffolding to learn and enact safe manual handling techniques in their workplaces,…

Over 25 years ago, Brown and Duguid ("Organisation Science," 2(1), 40-57, 1991) highlighted the differences between the way organisations formally describe and delineate jobs and the actual practices of their employees. This paper combines ideas from their seminal contribution with theories of "job crafting" and identity to…

Professional learning is a critical component of ongoing improvement and innovation and the adoption of new practices in the workplace. Professional learning is often achieved through learning embedded in everyday work tasks. However, little is known about how professionals self-regulate their learning through regular work activities. This paper…

This paper attempts to explore an analogy between individual and organizational learning within experiential learning theory (ELT). The focus is on both the possibility of identifying a learning subject that learns in action, and on the genesis process behind the learning of a suggested learning subject at organizational level. The exploration…

The paper investigates how learning and processes of becoming are shaped and enacted in retail apprenticeship in Norway. The analysis draws upon a qualitative study of managers and apprentices in different retail sub-sectors. The empirical point of departure is managers who, more or less deliberately, throw apprentices into tasks from day one.…

Modern vocational education is increasingly taking place in new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) settings. On the one hand, vocational education can benefit from the opportunities of technological development. On the other hand, such technologies may create new challenges for teachers. Therefore, there is a particular need to pay more attention…

Vocational education, as part of the Norwegian upper secondary education, includes both school-based learning and workplace learning. While school-based learning is characterized by formal structures and guided by aims in the curricula, workplace learning is often informal, incidental and directed by the daily work-tasks. Assessment in workplace…

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…

The classical music academy is a site dominated by traditional meanings of creative practice and an image of the professional creative career as solo performer that is fully available to only a very few students after graduating. The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to explore career-young professional pianists' talk about the…

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine young diplomats' socialization to the professional expert culture of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland over a six-month on-job training period, as part of their preparation for service in the diplomatic corps. Using social network analysis, we analyzed departments' internal social…

To prepare students for effective workplace learning, it is necessary to have insight into the contextual characteristics that affect students' developing interest. Aiming at students to become self-regulated learners, teachers should act as mindful coaches, encouraging their students to monitor the quality of collaborative group work. A field…

The research discussed in this article focuses on workplace learning in industrial manufacturing work. Everyday work episodes contributing to workplace learning are investigated in four companies operating in the Finnish and Swedish package-supplier sectors. The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach. Interviews with employees and…