“Being a Careful Observer”: The Design of Work-Related Assignments in Higher Education

According to the perspectives of situated learning and university-business cooperation, a Work-related learning experience was provided for master students of Lifelong Learning and Continuing Education course at the University of Padua in cooperation with companies located in the north-east of Italy. The students'assignement was to play the role of consultants within the companies. the student consultants were asked to identify, in pairs, the key values of the company’s organizational culture, starting from observation of the physical setting. The process included the analysis of data collected, the preparation of reports, the presentation of results to the companies, and consequent reflection and discussion on them with human resources manager. In addition, the activity foreseen reports and presentations peer-assessement according to shared criteria. The lessons learnt from this experience are connected to different aspects: WRL methods remain a teacher’s choice, related to personal assumptions and beliefs about how learning happens, where it occurs, and the role of the context in shaping learning; The WR perspective asks universities and teachers to question themselves about the relationship between learning and transitions, and between learning and employability. WRL expands the meaning of learning outcomes to include not only knowledge but also skills, competencies, and work connections, with a remarkable impact on assessment and evaluation methods.This experience encourages future actions: faculty development programs to explore active, experiential, situated, and work-related teaching methods; the exploration of new sustainable cooperation strategies that enhance work-related learning