Employability and work-related learning activities in higher education: how strategies differ across academic environments

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on how academic staff perceive their roles and responsibilities regarding work-related learning, and how they approach and implement work-related learning activities in curricula across academic environments in higher education. The study is based on case studies, including semi-structured interviews and analyses of course syllabuses in two higher education institutions. The results reveal divergent approaches between environments with limited and extensive work-related learning, and we present four different strategies for including work-related learning in curricula: add-on by someone else, add-on about the profession, integration of teaching and learning activities and integration with additional value. These four strategies represent a very diverse understanding of the role of education, ranging from education for academia to education for work outside academia, and contain various perceptions of the roles, types of work-related learning activities and integration in the ord...