David Guile
Alison and Lorna (2011) have made a compelling argument that apprenticeship a vehicle for learning with four inter-connected dimensions; occupational pedagogical social locational Four dimensions should be used as an analytical device for formulating questions to interrogate: extent to which contemporary forms of apprenticeship are sustainable
Is a response to that challenge My specific interests are: work in industries characterized by freelance employment how apprenticeship does/could prepare people for that future (hence the title ‘liquid life’) Implications of this development for research & policy
Using A & L’s four dimensions to consider what has to be taken into consideration if designing an apprenticeship for ‘liquid life’ by: outlining the context the UK’s Broadcast Industry (BI) outlining a pilot apprenticeship framework that was designed to diversify the intake into Media Production & prepare apprentices for ‘liquid life’ identifying the model of learning underpinning the apprenticeship for ‘liquid life’ concluding with some comments about research & policy implications of my analysis
internal to external labour markets (freelance work) large divisions/departments (Entertainment) to project teams assembled for programmes (MasterMind/Jools Holland) Implications new twist to core (production management) and peripheral (creative & technical) workforce New principle of securing work – ‘relational contracting’ ‘if you are a production assistant you look for an Assistant Director to hang onto. The as you move up the ladder you become the person whose team people are looking to join’
Project teams: eclectic & changing mix of expertise distributed between pre-post production studio/’shoot’/rehearsal space etc Working & learning in project teams expertise (i.e. knowledge, skill & judgement) developed & deployed relationally identity developed & enacted relationally
Early 2000s, Vision&Media (intermediary in NW England) plus local stakeholders, BBC, independent TV companies, local SSC and LSCs, agreed to run a pilot apprenticeship to: diversify recruitment in Media Production (new staff via degree work placements/’runners’) prepare apprentices for career as freelance worker How? local advertisements to recruit a cohort for Level 2/3 Media Techniques ‘tournament contest’ in college to identify apprentices
Work enculturation of apprentices is team & occupation issue (minimum of four in two year apprenticeship) process of: (i) allocation/modelling/shadowing/relating from context to context & (ii) negotiation/leading/hanging/relating from context to context Education C&G Level 3 Media Techniques & NVQ Assessment mix of min0lectures/individual & group work on & off site /plenary sessions/portfolio development
Work learn to: deploy developing KSJ relationally (as required by team & task) develop confidence to: (i) make relationship with new line managers & (ii) cope with periods of intense solitary & collaborative activity develop networks to secure further work Education: remembering & recalling experiences Outcome: identification with activity & key figures to secure
Work: distributed within & between buildings (base), project space(s), studios etc distributed between buildings (joint productions) & ‘shoots’ distributed between people you know well/know/not know
Criteria for \expansive AA’ modelCriteria for Liquid model Occupation Internal & firm-specific labour market functional differentiation Occupation external labour market (freelance) project team Pedagogy participation in workplace CoP participation in college CoP Pedagogy recontextualisation of KSJ in multiiple & distributed project teams recontextualisation of KSJ in FE College re discussions/assignment/NVQ portfolio Social consolidation of participation in CoP Social development of relational expertise & identity (deploy KSJ in relation to needs of team) Location firm & community based Location activity-based
Apprenticeship is flexible & robust MoL project work - ushers in new ways of working based on contracting & collaboration rather than functional separation contracting & collaboration ushers in shift from learning as contextual process to learning as recontextual process learning as recontextual process ushers in shift from insular to relational & distributed conceptions of expertise & identity relational & distributed conceptions of E&I usher in shift from geographical location to location of activity Outcome – a new but related model of learning
Researchers: need to rethink notion of novice to expert so it looses its axiomatic insular focus & takes account of relational dimension of development of vocational expertise & social capital (or replace the term?) Policymakers: In light of Coalition’s desire to expand apprenticeship & underrepresentation of sectors with freelance work in AAP is Vision+Media’s principle of only offering apprentices contracts for the duration of their apprenticeship a way to overcome this underrepresentation?