Work-based learning expert addresses students

United Kingdom academic Frank Lyons, centre, talked to USQ Fraser Coast Director of Professional Studies programs Madeline Fisher, left, and master's student Ian King, right, during a seminar at Hervey Bay.

An expert in the field of work-based learning has addressed students of the Master of Professional Studies degree at USQ's Fraser Coast campus in Hervey Bay.

The Director of the Foundation Direct Faculty from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, Frank Lyons, spoke about good work-based learning projects.

The Foundation Direct Faculty was established to help working people obtain university degrees without having to give up their jobs.

Mr Lyons said that great knowledge and discoveries often came from within the workplace.

'Some of the best learning, I think, is actually about new products, new ideas, new protocols, new policies, new practices developed in work, emerging out of the problems of work itself,' he said.

'And to me that's what work-based learning projects should be.'

Mr Lyons commended USQ for the development of the Master of Professional Studies degree and the Doctor of Professional Studies, both developed at Fraser Coast.

They are USQ's first workplace-based degrees designed for people in full-time employment 40 students have commenced the Professional Studies higher degree programs since Semester One 2007.

Media Contact: Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media Fraser Coast, +61 7 4120 6167