Transfer of Learning between Higher Education and the Workplace

This thesis examined the process of learning transfer between university and the workplace by investigating the one-year work-placement experiences of three undergraduate students. For this study, transfer was conceptualised as an ongoing process, based on three distinct dimensions:knowledge, social interactions and self; supported by physical and conceptual mediational means; and framed by the context(s) in which it occurred. In order to address these dimensions, a new learning transfer model was developed, drawing on classical and sociocultural perspectives on transfer.
The participants were three undergraduate students from the University of Leeds, from different schools and degrees. They were in between their second and third years, and they were undergoing a paid work-placement.
The chosen methodological approach was a longitudinal case study with three instrumental cases, resorting to interviews with the students in transition, observation of two of the students, and further collection of secondary data, including students’ placement reflections. The data was coded and analysed through thematic and cross-case analysis.
Using the developed learning transfer model enabled the understanding of transfer of learning, within the transition between university and the workplace, as a multidimensional and intercontextual process of transformation, experienced by the students in a developmental manner. The study’s findings also identified a narrow understanding of learning transfer by the students and discussed the possible implications of this perspective on their ability to transfer. Regarding the context of the study, work-placements were found to be beneficial experiences for the students. However, the study proposes that placement experiences are reframed as broader opportunities
for learning and development.