This symposium, planned and hosted jointly by UVAC and The Open University, will take place in Milton Keynes on 30th April 2026. Taking the blending of theory and practice as our starting point, we invite perspectives on all aspects of work-based learning from the doctoral and early career researcher community. We aim to provide a safe and inclusive space for debate and dialogue in this exciting field, alongside a potential opportunity to develop your paper for publication through the conference hosts. The invitation is an open invitation to member and non-member organisation staff.

We invite you to register as a delegate HERE.

See the programme HERE.

Amidst all the plans for change and innovation in HE provision, and given the sheer scale of transformation possible, there is a pivotal role for academic inquiry and thoughtful scholarship. Work-based learning, by necessity, is a trans-disciplinary affair, where specific individual contexts for learning carry as much weight as classroom-based study and individual reflection. Whatever the discipline, problems and challenges of transmitting learning and developing competencies are just as relevant – this holds true from nursing to management, in policing and law, and in finance and engineering. What may have relevance in one sector (whether public or private) could offer new insights and new ways of working across typically unconnected sectors. Organisations ask not only what is worth learning today, but what we should be learning tomorrow. Policy makers ask how we should be learning and how higher education should be supporting their endeavours. 

It is at this critical moment that we look to our new generation of scholars, the growing community of PhD/professional doctorates and early career researchers who are finding and charting our pathways forward, if not through a green-field site, then one that has undergone a period of under-theorisation and neglect until recently. 

The time has now come for the exploration and development of new ideas, but also the dusting off and re-tooling of stalwart concepts and applying them afresh to new workplace situations and modes of teaching, learning and assessment. 

This one-day event will take place on Thursday, 30 April 2026 at the Walton Hall campus of The Open University in Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA. We look forward to welcoming you there! There is plenty of parking too…