Through the appointment of a Foundation Degree Fellow, the Bridges CETL was able to support a variety of work radiating out from supporting the development
of foundation degrees. Initially part-funded by Foundation Degree Forward the
original emphasis was on steering the development of foundation degrees into
awards with good employer engagement and robust work-based learning structures
at their core.
Later this developed into a more generic approach to enhancing
work-based learning, supporting some related employer-led and workforce
development activities and looking at ways in which all of these could be
supported and enhanced through e-portfolio practice.
Research work was carried out on a variety of areas which were closely related to foundation degrees, including the linkage between PDP and work-based learning within foundation degrees; the uses of technology-enhanced learning to bridge higher education and the workplace; the creation of a contextual framework for developing a work-based learning model which could be used to take forward not only foundation degrees, but also short-courses and work-based learning programmes themselves. A great deal of internal and external dissemination of this research work was undertaken, both nationally and internationally. The Bridges also contributed to the national Centre for Recording Achievement (CRA) research project (Higher Education Employers and Employees Engaging through e-Portfolio Practice), again bringing together the threads of work-based learning, PDP and e-portfolios.
A resource-base to support
the development of both work-based learning and foundation degrees was
established, with electronic materials being made available through the University’s T&L Directorate website as well as through the CRe8 wiki and a physical resource
base being set up within the T&L Directorate. Both of these will be maintained and expanded after the life of the Bridges. To augment these resources, workshops were organised annually to support
different aspects of work-based learning, some of these involving external
speakers including those from other CETLs. Documents and resources from some of
these workshops are available in the resources section below.
Essential resources and links for teams developing Foundation Degrees can be found in the Foundation Degree section of the T&L Directorate website and it is also suggested that development and delivery teams for all work-based awards refer to the work-based and placement learning section of the website.
