25.1. Introduction

Commonly, when a student is asked about what he or she has learned from a work experience, the first answer is to state the different tasks performed, especially those that were vaguely new to the student. When we continue the questioning by asking what he or she has learned by performing these new tasks, the answers are often disappointing. In general, the student tells us that he or she has learned to carry them out well. Of course, not all respondents give such disappointing answers. There is even a striking contrast between respondents. From my observations, this contrast generally increases over time as if some apprentices learn a lot from their experiences and others very little. However, the same can be said in other learning contexts, such as the classroom or when carrying out projects at school, and not only in learning through professional experience. However, work experience is substantially different from classroom learning. At school, the teacher most often emphasizes the most important concepts, processes, principles and attitudes, and sometimes, which is even better, supports students in identifying them. The students’ attention is then focused on the essential points.

It is important to consider the reasons for these symptoms and the remedies available. In other words, how can we increase the benefits of the field experience or, more generally, derive greater benefits from action-based learning, learning in action, learning from action and learning – for future – action? Professional experience falls into this category.

This first observation is coupled with a second double observation. That is, most learners do not have a definition of the word learning and do not develop a learning strategy. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones! A large number of actors often confuse the situation with the cognitive process. That is, being an apprentice in a company – the situation – is confused with learning - the cognitive process. If we look at the purpose of learning and the means, confusion often reigns here too. The common idea is that the objective of an apprenticeship is to perform a, more or less complex, task effectively and efficiently, as well as reliably. In other words, it is a matter of doing a task a certain number of times to be able to carry it out perfectly. While the accumulation of experience makes it possible to make progress – this is undeniable – progress is often limited compared to what could be achieved. Cognitive scientists would be tempted to classify this approach as “training”. For those skilled in organizational learning processes, this approach represents only the first loop of learning. It essentially consists of identifying errors and avoiding their repetition. However, there is a second loop. It considers the reasons for errors and changes in thinking patterns to avoid the production of errors. This second loop, unlike the first, is reflective and has a greater range (Argyris 1977).

Let me use a very personal example. More than 30 years ago, I began a career as a veterinary practitioner and received my first client as part of my practical education. While I have no memory of the owner, the animal was a small land turtle. She was listless and, contrary to her habits, had no appetite. These were the reasons that had led her owner to present her for consultation. After a thorough inspection of the animal to detect abnormal physical signs, the medical examination manual indicated that the animal’s temperature should be taken. I was then equipped with a standard thermometer, which seemed very big for such a small animal, and I did not know where to insert it to perform this second task! Classmates, when questioned with a look, shook their heads to tell me that they did not have an answer to my question. It was then with the greatest embarrassment that I decided to call on Professor Busserias. He had a reputation for highlighting, in private, the students’ lack of work, the answers to our questions being most often in one of the handouts of the course. My teacher told me, as I expected: Olivier, you already have the answer to your question. Dear readers, do you yourself have the answer to my question? Where do you take the temperature of a land turtle? I think you have the answer. Look carefully! As you probably know, turtles are cold-blooded animals. The body temperature of a turtle is therefore that of the room! This is why turtles hibernate in a place protected from the cold. It is therefore useless to take the temperature of a turtle, since it has no meaning. The most important thing in this story was the continuation of the conversation with this instructor. He invited me to project myself into my future work as a practitioner and asked me if I had developed a learning strategy, which would ideally allow me to easily recall in real life the knowledge that was useful in solving a case, but which had been taught and learned in the classroom several years earlier. He told me about the concept of inert knowledge. This knowledge has been well learned – the results of the examinations are there to attest to this – but it cannot be mobilized at the right time, i.e. in a situation of use.

All modern definitions of learning underline the purpose that this teacher invited me to consider. Learning to diagnose an ear infection in a turtle, that morning’s task, was a much less important lesson than the one that led me to reflect on the meaning of the word “learn” and define a learning strategy. What is learning? Cognitive scientists agree on the following definition: learning is about acquiring knowledge and skills and keeping them available through memory in order to better understand the problems you will face and implement the means to solve them. Learning through work experience must meet this objective. They also agree that field experiences facilitate learning as well as that learning can be greatly improved by certain practices.

How can work experience be used to increase learning 10-fold? The apprentice’s conversation with the manager or the tutor, or three of them, is a great lever! However, if it is misused, then it can also be a barrier to learning. Let me elucidate these statements. Among the skills that we want apprentices to acquire, let us consider creativity. One of the students who had asked me to support her in her “apprenticeship” in a company asked me about this. Very early in her “apprenticeship”, she discovered that creativity was one of the skills on which her progress would be monitored during her field experience, and her apprenticeship supervisor told her that it was indeed one of the skills expected in the trade. However, all people who knew her agreed: she was not creative at all. At the moment when she called me, she was therefore particularly anxious, since she was not endowed with this talent. She even wondered if she should change her career plan and focus on jobs that do not require as much creativity. It is at this stage that conversations with the manager or tutor can improve experience, rather than avoid it. Indeed, creativity can be learned! While some people are more creative than others from the outset, the latter can most often surpass the former by practicing creativity. The conversation at the tripartite meeting, two months after the beginning of the professional experience, was beneficial. The student questioned the manager and the tutor; the tutor proposed readings and creative exercises; the manager identified areas where the apprentice’s creativity could be deployed without risk; and the student decided to practice and experiment; progress was monitored and suggestions for improvement were made; more varied areas were also proposed. As a result, the apprentice has acquired a new skill: creativity.

However, the benefits of this conversation do not stop with the acquisition of a skill. The manager and learning tutor, working together, stressed throughout the conversation the idea that “talent is overrated”: no one was born with a fixed potential; everyone can develop all forms of skills, while stressing the importance of encouraging and accepting feedback from others and emphasizing their potential for improvement (Colvin 2010).

The second illustration contrasts with the first. The student discovers during the first assessment, in the middle of her apprenticeship period in a company, that creativity is a skill whose progression will be monitored. She does not think she is particularly creative, but she is relatively confident because she thinks creativity is innate. We can therefore not blame her for not being creative if she does not have any. It is better to have it, but you cannot change nature. Her apprenticeship manager shares her vision! And to ensure that her professional experience runs smoothly, he has decided not to place his apprentice on assignments that require too much creativity. “The apprenticeship” is therefore going well and everyone is satisfied, especially since the tasks requested are being carried out more and more efficiently. It will be necessary to wait until the end of the learning process to realize that opportunities for progress have been wasted. The student has not progressed, when she could have become much more creative.

These two illustrations show how two very similar field experiences can lead to very different learning of the same skill. From these two stories, several important points must be highlighted. I will also propose others, borrowed from my exchanges with other tutors, apprenticeship managers and company executives.

25.2. Overrated talent

While some people, at one point, are better endowed with given skills than others, the brain is nevertheless remarkably plastic, even in old age (Colvin 2010). In this way, all skills can be developed. The first barrier to learning comes from the belief that skills are fixed quantities. If you do not have an ability, it is better to avoid the experiences that require it, especially since the results of these experiments could endanger the ego of the apprentice and tarnish his experience. Our attitude towards learning is therefore a first barrier or lever to learning. Carole S. Dweck (2006), Professor of Psychology at Stanford, teaches us, from a large number of field interventions, that two attitudes coexist in the learner population: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. The effects of each of these two attitudes on the desire to learn are striking. It also tells us that we can adopt a growth mindset to our benefit. People with such a mindset look for experiences that can allow them to learn more and see mistakes as a signal of a temporary lack of knowledge that can be filled through work; they look for advice. On the other hand, those with a fixed mindset only look for experiences that guarantee their success, those that do not endanger their ego. They only seek advice when it is based on their success.

25.3. Mission contract and feedback

A good attitude must be combined with a good learning strategy and a good dose of perseverance. A good learning strategy is based on a mix of regular practices. The first consists of identifying gaps between achievements (not results, because only negative results invite us to revisit the approaches) and an ideal achievement, relating to a critical dimension for the apprentice’s professional future, such as creativity or work organization. Several methods can be used to identify learning objectives, but they all fall under the heading of feedback.

In some companies, managers, once an assignment has been given, ask their apprentices to offer them an assignment contract. This contains, at a minimum, a precise description of the objectives of the assignment and a proposed approach. This document then serves as a basis for conversations that are particularly beneficial to both parties. For example, if the manager asks the apprentice if there are other ways to achieve the results, or if the proposed approach could be more far-reaching. The possibilities for successful interactions are endless. This contract has another effect: it increases the manager’s confidence in the apprentice’s achievements, since they are known in advance to the apprenticeship manager and this increases the probability of production success. Regular meetings make it possible to monitor developments, identify gaps and propose alternatives. For the apprentice, the benefits are also substantial, the first being learning to plan his activities, writing reports and receiving and asking for suggestions. A more traditional form of feedback is to ask yourself a series of well-chosen questions, such as: what did you do? What did you learn from these activities? What have you learned about yourself? How would you do this activity differently and better (more effectively, more efficiently, more reliably)? What should you learn in order to carry out your activities better? How do you plan to achieve this?

25.4. Projection outside the scope of the current field experience

While the two previous points improve experiential learning, projecting oneself into different challenges allows associations to be established between methods and problems that are not those addressed in the current field experience. Conversation is also useful here. The tutor can then take over, to show the specificities of the task and encourage such generalization to spread to other types of assignments.

25.5. Conclusion

Conversation seems to me to be essential to the achievement of learning through work experience. I believe it is appropriate for the manager and apprentice to focus very early in the period of professional experience on the establishment of an assignment contract. It is the apprentice’s responsibility to write it and include, at a minimum, the elements relating to the skills proposed in the evaluation grids of his school, but also, if possible, technical skills (e.g. command of a computer tool) and trade skills (such as project management if the apprentice is involved in project management). This contract should not be a list of skills to be acquired, but an action plan expressing the means that all parties could implement to facilitate learning. If the drafting of this contract is the responsibility of the apprentice, he must be assisted in its drafting by his tutor. The latter will then be able to identify misconceptions, clarify trajectories and discuss learning strategies. It is also up to him to promote a growth mindset. Conversions, in my view, should not only be about asking the apprentice to perform a task or showing him how to do it better or evaluating his achievements. They must be an opportunity to challenge apprentices. How, for example, to perform a task differently? Appreciate its usefulness? Identify underlying concepts? They must also support apprentices in developing their feedback scheme (activity supervised by the apprenticeship tutor) and guide them to and in the regular practice of this activity (activity supervised by the apprenticeship manager and tutor).