The symposium focuses on the complexities of work-based learning and explores its different configurations particularly drawing on perspectives from three European countries: Germany, Latvia and the UK. The consideration of the complex interrelationships between work and learning brings attention to the interdependent and embedded processes involved, such as the consolidation of theory and practice, digitalisation, personalised workplace learning patterns and crossing boundaries between different sectors, approaches and learning routes such as work-based and Higher education. Bringing together subject-based and work-based knowledge in ways that meet the requirements and expectations of the learner, the employer and the provider, is considered to be one of the most significant challenges in the area of VET and work-based learning. The issue of how students/learners combine and integrate the various types of knowledge developed in college or the workplace is increasingly attracting more attention from researchers, employers and policy makers. (Guile, 2010; Bakker et al., 2011; Edwards, 2011). Research indicates (Evans et al., 2006; Guile, 2010) that reinforcing the connection between theory and practice and developing closer links between the college and the industry, supports learners in moving between college/university and work in a range of ways, specifically through participating in workplaces cultures that can facilitate learning and appreciating the way in which theory is embedded in practice. This symposium considers the issues of the theory–practice consolidation as a key dimension of learning at work, specifically in relation to opportunities to contextualise and associate the experience of work to theoretical content and vice versa.

The four interrelated papers provide discussion on the complexities of these processes as well as associated factors and challenges, and provide country-specific illustrations. The first paper sets the context of the current challenges and new trends in the area of work based learning, particularly demonstrating the potential of a social ecological approach for exploring the relationships between work and learning through the dynamics of different scales of activity: societal, organisational and personal. Two cases from the UK illustrate a work-based learning approach to undergraduate study, which provide opportunities for the embedded practical experience, enabling higher education students to integrate their theoretical learning in the context ‘real-life workplace settings’. Another example of work-based higher education is explored in the longitudinal case study from Latvia, particularly through employing the evidence-practice of work-based smart human learning facilitation design. The impact of digital change on work-based training has been explored through the German case, which brings attention to the ways digital technologies expand and change the boundaries of work-based learning. Through these three case studies, the symposium aims to facilitate cross-national discussion of the complex nature and changing demands of contemporary work-based learning, particularly highlighting the significance of its inclusive perspective and embedded approaches.

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