Models of work-based learning with examples of practice in petroleum engineering: a university-employer partnership.

Work-based learning (WBL) is a collaborative tool employed by educational institutions and industry to educate and develop their students or workforce in all three strands of learning: for, at, and through work. This paper presents petroleum engineering WBL models designed using Merrill's First Principles of Instruction for university-employer partnership programmes to meet the specific needs of employers and individual students. These models integrated activities and assessment for learning and provided experiences where WBL is used as the principal means for bringing about change in the workplace and student competency as future engineers. The models are a learning approach that exposes students to a wider industry partner to build up client-facing experience throughout their degree. This is aligned with key employability skills, which are highly valued in the job market. The results indicated that the WBL approach requires active involvement of students, educational institutions, and employers in course design, and that the WBL approach has increased professionalism and motivation among students, as well as significantly increasing graduate employability by addressing persistent skills gaps and meeting business needs. In conclusion, the WBL models demonstrated positive implications, widening access to higher education and enabling employers to shape their workforce in line with business demands while offering a high-value, low-cost option to upskill staff.