Professional Studies

Work-Based Learning and Research for Mid-Career Professionals: Two Project Examples from Australia

This paper analyses two work-based research projects from the USQ Professional Studies Program and analyses how each is contributing to filling the shortage of Advanced Practice Professionals in Australia while simultaneously advancing practice-based disciplines and improving workplaces.

Advanced practice professionals possess and display what some call “super-skills”. The term super-skills often refers to highly specialised skills and proficiencies, such as those required in professions related to medicine and allied healthcare, construction, information technology, and financial services, but can also relate to advanced practice in general, which requires not only specialist training but the development of problem-solving, field-independent, and other cognitive and affective traits and capabilities necessary to function effectively in, and thereby inform and transform, rapidly changing global worlds of work.

Citation: Fergusson, L., Allred, T., Dux, T., & Muianga, H. (2018). Work-based learning and research for mid-career professionals: Two project examples from Australia. Interdisciplinary Journal of eSkills and Lifelong Learning, 14, 19-40. doi: 10.28945/3959.

Work-Based Learning and Research for Mid-Career Professionals: Professional Studies in Australia

The purpose of this paper is to specifically examine work-based learning in relation to work-based research, and to identify evidence of both in the Professional Studies Program as conceived and implemented at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Australia. The paper is organised into two main sections: an explanation of work-based research; and a description of the Professional Studies Program at USQ and its relation to work-based learning and research.

Citation: Fergusson, L., Allred, T., & Dux, T. (2018). Work-based learning and research for mid-career professionals: Professional studies in Australia. Interdisciplinary Journal of eSkills and Lifelong Learning, 14, 1-17. doi: 10.28945/3930.