Context, Characteristics and Capacity: The 3 Cs for Understanding and Improving Workplace Learning

This chapter argues that in the contemporary, complex and dynamic context of paid work and employment, conceptual and analytical tools are required to understand the relationship between work and learning, skill formation and the development of occupational expertise at all levels, and for both experienced workers and new entrants. In support of this contention, I draw on a social theoretical orientation to learning that views formal and more informal characteristics as ever present and inter-woven in all situations. Qualitative research and case study evidence on workplace learning and on apprenticeship are invoked to illustrate and illuminate the argument throughout. As a contribution to the field, the chapter proposes a holistic framework consisting of the ‘3 Cs’, ‘Context’, ‘Characteristics’, and ‘Capacity’ for understanding and analysing workplace learning/work-related learning, with each ‘C’ discussed in turn. This conceptual and analytical framework is helpful in itself, but additionally it enables implications for improving policy and practice to be identified.