Educational orientation and employer influenced pedagogy: Practice and policy insights from three programmes in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between educational orientation and employer influenced pedagogy and to consider some implications for work-based learning (WBL) higher education (HE) policy and practice in Europe.

The paper draws on purposefully selected case studies to describe the key attributes of WBL related pedagogy associated with three HE programmes in Finland, Spain and the UK.

The national regulatory environment has a key role to play in issues associated with WBL pedagogy. The case studies also demonstrate a pluralistic approach to pedagogy and the key role that employers play in both providing regular intelligence to inform curriculum design and contributing to pedagogy.

The small number of case studies limits the opportunity for generalisation and the level of analysis masks subtle and interesting differentiations in pedagogy worthy of further exploration.

The paper highlights implications for government to provide the vision and regulatory environment to encourage WBL and for universities and academics to design and implement innovative, pluralist pedagogies.

The paper provides a new framework and a unique analysis of programme level case studies from three European countries.