Learningful Work: How Can the Workplace Foster Affordances for Learning?

Victoria University has recently nominated workplac\ud e learning as a universal feature\ud of all its courses. It has also established the Wor\ud k-based Education Research Centre\ud (WERC) to provide the research and development unde\ud rpinnings needed to build\ud world class innovation in vocational and work-based\ud education at Victoria University\ud and to contribute more generally to knowledge and p\ud olicy development in these areas.\ud As a contribution to the work of grounding these de\ud velopments in current experience,\ud theories and research, this paper will probe curren\ud t literature around work-based\ud education through the question: How can workplaces\ud be places of learning? That is,\ud how can they be sites that help produce graduates w\ud ith learning attributes that are\ud attuned and responsive to a flexible world of chang\ud e, complexity and contingency? ---AVETRA 12th Annual conference held: 15–17 April 2009 at the Crowne Plaza, Coogee Beach, Sydne