UTS course code: C04202
Testamur title: Master of Professional Practice in Education
Abbreviation: MEd
Courses Coordinator: Associate Professor Nicky Solomon
Course fee: see note (local)¹
Total credit points: 72

Footnote:
1. This course is not offered to international students.

Note: The cost of your WBL award is currently under review.

Course aims
Admission requirements
Course duration
Course structure
Assessment
Articulation and progression
Other information

Work-based learning (WBL) awards are based on the premise that the formal study undertaken at university is only one of many ways that learning can be gained. These awards acknowledge that people can learn from many other experiences including work, their families and friends, from participation in community activities and so on.

This program is one of the WBL programs at UTS. It has been developed through an innovative partnership between the NSW Department of Education and UTS. This partnership provides a strong learning infrastructure and supports you in achieving your performance and professional development goals by negotiating a customised, award-bearing learning program.

Course aims

The aim of many learning programs is to provide you with knowledge that you don't have. A WBL award challenges this by engaging you in processes that require you to consider:

• the work-related knowledge you already have and for which you can demonstrate current capability
• the learning needs you have which relate to your current job, and
• the learning needs you have which relate to your long-term needs and career aspirations.

Thinking of learning in this way is useful because it provides you with opportunities to reflect on what you know, gain formal recognition for this learning and use this learning as a base on which to build future learning activities. This encourages you to take a more systematic, integrated and holistic approach to your learning.

Work-based learning engages you in a process that encourages you to explore and make links between the learning you gain in a range of contexts including work and education. It encourages you to apply critical questions, reasoning and reflection in your work practices and use theories to provide a framework for how you approach your work.

One of the key requirements of a WBL award is to make knowledge explicit. Reflection is seen as the key to assisting you to interrogate your past learning experiences and current learning needs and to help you to understand and make explicit your knowledge.

Admission requirements

Applicants must be employees of the NSW Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), our workplace partner with this award.

Course duration

Your WBL award is largely self managed. This provides you with a great deal of flexibility in terms of course duration. By undertaking a WBL award, you should expect to undertake an equivalent amount of work and engage in learning at an equivalent level of complexity as students engaged in traditional awards. When estimating the anticipated completion timeframes for your award you need to consider the composition of your individual program with the maximum time being two years.

Stage 1: Program Planning

WBL participants are required to complete and submit their WBL program plan 24 weeks after commencement of Stage 1 of their WBL award.

Up to two-thirds of your WBL award can be claimed as Recognised Current Capability (RCC). A large claim for RCC can clearly significantly reduce the time that it takes you to achieve your WBL award. In cases where RCC claims exceed 18 credit points, WBL participants are provided an additional four weeks to submit their WBL program plan in Stage 1 of their WBL award, i.e. 28 weeks from the time of commencement.

Stage 2: Program Implementation

The duration of Stage 2, the implementation of your WBL program plan, depends on:

• the proportion of your award which you allocate to Future Learning
• the extent to which you are able to integrate your WBL award into your normal work practices, and
• the contingencies of work.

Course structure

Participants work towards obtaining their WBL award in two stages:

• In Stage 1 participants plan their WBL program plan in consultation with their UTS adviser and manager. Your course structure is based on this plan, and falls into the ranges of credit points outlined in the diagram below. You have the option of planning a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, or a Master of Professional Practice award.
• In Stage 2 participants undertake the formal subjects and/or work-based projects which they identified in the 'future learning' component of their WBL program plan.

Recognised Current Capability (RCC)

One of the underpinning principles of work-based learning is that learning can be gained from a range of contexts including education, work and other relevant experiences. Learning which has been completed prior to starting your program and which contributes to the major focus area of your target award may be recognised by UTS and assigned academic value (credit points). To gain RCC, WBL participants develop a strong case and provide documenting evidence of their learning in their portfolio for each of the areas of learning (AOLs) in their claim for RCC.

Future Learning

Future Learning is the overarching category for the AOLs in your WBL award in which you intend to develop further capability.

The assessment of your Future Learning areas of learning can be achieved:

• Through undertaking formal subjects and recognised in-house training.
  You may choose to enrol in formal subjects at UTS or any other tertiary learning institution or university, or undertake accredited in-house training programs as part of your learning program.
  In the case of undertaking formal subjects it is useful to refer to a University handbook, University website and contact the relevant lecturers to gain further information on prerequisite knowledge and subjects, assessment tasks, learning outcomes, etc.
• By undertaking work-based projects.
  Work-based projects provide you with the opportunity to conduct research of relevance to your work. A work-based project involves five interconnected phases:
  Phase 1: Identifying your focus
  Phase 2: Devising your action plan
  Phase 3: Implementing your work plan and collecting data
  Phase 4: Analysing and interpreting your data
  Phase 5: Reflecting on the process and future directions.

For each work-based project that you undertake as part of Phase 2 of your award you are required to write a report that documents your understanding of the process of undertaking the five phases of your work-based project. You have access to six hours of support from a UTS adviser to assist you with the development of your work-based project. Each stage of the process is outlined in detail in the Stage 2 WBL program workbook, Work-based Learning (WBL) Program Implementation Workbook.

Assessment

As part of your WBL proposal you indicate an assessment strategy for each of the AOLs that make up your WBL award. Assessment is the process of determining that WBL participants have acquired a level of capability necessary to demonstrate the achievement of the learning outcomes for each of the AOLs that make up their WBL award.

• Assessment of Recognised Current Capability (RCC) involves the development of a portfolio.
• Assessment of Future Learning involves undertaking either a work-based project or formal subject.

Grading for all components of your WBL award is on a Pass/Fail basis.

Articulation and progression

Learners first enrol in the Program Planning subject. The subject is classified as a non-award subject (i.e. not formally linked to a specific award or degree). UTS enrolment forms are provided to you in the first workshop. Successful completion of Program Planning enables your enrolment as an award student with UTS. When enrolling in a Master of Professional Practice in Education you carry forward nine credit points for completion of your WBL program plan, in addition to the credit points you gain for RCC in your portfolio. On commencement of Stage 2 of your award you are required to complete an Application for Admission Graduate Coursework form. If undertaking a formal subject at an institution other than UTS, you also need to comply with the enrolment procedures at the relevant institution.

Other information

For further information about this course, contact:

telephone (02) 9514 3900
email education@uts.edu.au