Work-based higher education and skill utilisation

In this paper we look at the role that a particular ‘learning provider’, that is higher education, can play not only in increasing the level of knowledge and skills in the workforce but also enabling and facilitating the deployment of knowledge in skills in the workplace. We review current debates that suggest that skill utilisation depends not on the ‘possession’ of skills, which are then simply applied in practice, but on the dynamic interaction through social practices between individual factors and social context. Drawing on examples from foundation degree programmes we suggest that work-based learning activities may reshape context, and provide opportunities and the confidence for new skills use to emerge