Workplace learning in rural and remote areas : challenges and innovative strategies

Workplace learning (WPL) presents students with a range of opportunities and possibilities as they pursue their journey from student to novice practitioner. Simultaneously, staff involved in WPL, whether academics, general staff or practitioners who act as WPL educators, face many challenges in helping students to navigate these journeys. In this chapter we explore these challenges and consider innovative strategies with particular reference to rural and remote WPL settings. In our experience, such settings face specific organisational complexities that influence personal, social and professional learning experiences. There is a particular need in these challenging situations for innovative WPL strategies. We define WPL innovations as new and authentic strategies that add value to or enhance the way in which WPL is conducted. We examine WPL from the context of Charles Sturt University in Australia, which has campuses across considerable distances within the state of New South Wales and is in a good position to reflect these emerging educational and partnership issues. Each year, CSU staff organise diverse WPL placements, visits and experiences for students across many different courses and disciplines. This is a demanding task. Some courses are dealing with diminished placement availability due to industry pressures and competition with an increasing number of course providers. Many courses need to deal with considerable distances between placements and campuses.