Life long learning

1. Life long learning Personal and professional development

2. What we aim to cover today • Lifelong learning: self-directed learning; continuing professional development; linking higher education with industry, further education, recognition of prior learning, apprenticeships, credit accumulation and transfer schemes • Assessment of learning: improved ability range with personal learning; evidence of improved levels of skill; feedback from others; learning achievements and disappointments

3. Lifelong learning • Lifelong Learning refers to learning that is pursued throughout life; flexible and diverse learning that is available at a number of times, in a number of places.

4. Life long learning • In the digital world, lifelong learning is made much easier than it used to be, based on the number of available resources. There is enough material on the internet for essentially anyone to learn anything, provided it isn’t beyond their comprehension

5. Self Directed learning • In its broadest meaning, ’self-directed learning’ describes a process by which individuals take the initiative, with our without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.” (1)

6. Self Directed Learning • the initiative to pursue a learning experience, and • the responsibility for completing their learning. • Once the initiative is taken, the learner assumes complete responsibility and accountability for defining the learning experience and following it through to its conclusion. This does not preclude input from others, but the final decision is the learner’s. Self-direction does not mean the learner learns alone or in isolation

7. Continuing Professional Development • Continuing professional development (CPD) or continuing professional education (CPE) is the means by which people maintain their knowledge and skills related to their professional lives • CPD obligations are common to most professions. Many professions define CPD as a structured approach to learning to help ensure competence to practice, taking in knowledge, skills and practical experience.

8. Continuing professional Development • CPD can involve any relevant learning activity, whether formal and structured or informal and self-directed. • Health practitioners, safety officers, lawyers, • Areas of study • Professional skills, • Practical legal ethics, and • Practice management and business skills.

9. Higher education • What is higher education? • Higher education (HE) primarily describes post-18 learning that takes place at universities, as well as other colleges and institutions that award academic degrees, professional qualifications and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) modules. Whilst HE is the common name in the UK and Ireland, it is also known as post-secondary, tertiary and third level education. The right of access to higher education is enshrined in both UN and European human rights conventions

10. Higher education with Industry • “over the past decade higher education institutions have been increasingly under pressure to become more responsive to economic and social development needs. • There is pressure for research to engage in research that is more relevant applied and strategic in partnership with industry” Kruss 2008 p. 1 • Partnerships between the two • Is landing in industry the only benefit

11. Further education • What is further education? • Further education (FE) is used to describe the education that occurs following compulory post-16 secondary education, which is usually distinct from that offered in universities (higher education). It includes many different levels such as A Levels and Higher National Diplomas. Foundation Degrees are also a type of further education and take 2 years to complete (or 3-4 part-time) compared with the 3-4 years of most bachelors degrees, however they are offered by both universities and colleges; sometimes it is possible to ‘top-up’ a Foundation Degree to a bachelors degree, with 1 year or more of extra study

12. Further education • Further education is usually taught in the sixth-form college part of a school or in independent FE colleges, as well as in other work-based, adult and community learning institutions. Further education programs will usually go up to Level 3 (e.g. Advances Apprenticeships or A Levels) and are often designed to provide the skills to advance to HE. In the US FE is sometimes referred to as continuing education.

13. Recognition of prior learning • Recognition including recognition of prior learning (RPL), is a process for giving candidates credit for skills, knowledge and experience gained through working and learning. It can be gained at any stage of their lives, through formal and informal learning, here or overseas, through work or other activities such as volunteering.

14. Apprenticeships • Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeship also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulated profession.  • Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships. Most of their training is done while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession, in exchange for their continued labor for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competencies. Apprenticeships typically last 3 to 6 years. People who successfully complete an apprenticeship reach the journeyman level of competence.

15. Credit accumulation & transfer Schemes. • Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) is used by many universities in the United Kingdom to monitor, record and reward passage through a modular degree course and to facilitate movement between courses and institutions. Typically a university course of 150 or 300 notional studies hours (contact time and allocation for self-study) would be worth between 15 and 30 credits, at one of Levels 4 to 7 on the National Qualifications Framework. • 360 points need to be accumulated (usually 120 points at each of levels 4, 5 and 6) to qualify for award of an honors degree. A foundation degree is broadly equivalent to 240 points (levels 4 and 5), and a 'pass/ordinary degree' to 300 points. • A postgraduate Master's degree is equivalent to 180 points at Level 7.

16. Assessment of learning • Assessment of Learning is the assessment that becomes public and results in statements or symbols about how well students are learning. It often contributes to pivotal decisions that will affect students’ futures. It is important, then, that the underlying logic and measurement of assessment of learning be credible and defensible.”

17. Assessment of learning • Assessment for Learning happens during the learning, often more than once, rather than at the end. • Students understand exactly what they are to learn, what is expected of them and are given feedback and advice on how to improve their work. • Assessment for learning occurs throughout the learning process. It is interactive, with teachers: • aligning instruction • identifying particular learning needs of students or groups • selecting and adapting materials and resources • creating differentiated teaching strategies and learning opportunities for helping individual students move forward in their learning • Providing immediate feedback and direction to students

18. Assessments & feedback • it is not uncommon for examiners and students to have different expectations of the type and level of feedback on assessments which should be provided "Feedback on student work, either individually or in a group, should be sufficiently detailed to be a useful identification of strengths and areas for improvement, yet not so detailed as to discourage self-reliance in learning and assessment." 

19. Exercise • Hospitality and tourism professionals too need to keep up-to-date with the latest knowledge of the industry • Write down criteria/areas of study for such a program • e.g. legal knowledge.

20. Bibliography • http://www.selfdirectedlearning.org/what-is-self-directed-learning • Kruss, G 2008, Creating Knowledge networks : Higher education and contemporary Challenges, Human Science Research council. South Africa. • http://lcp.org.uk/index.php/2012/03/whats-difference-between-higher-education-further-education/