Electronic work-based learning (eWBL): A framework for trainers in companies and higher education

Driven by COVID-19, remote work is popularising. Companies and employees are increasingly embracing its benefits of flexibility and convenience, showing reluctance to return to full-time office schedules. Similarly, companies and HEIs started offering remote forms of work-based learning (WBL)–or eWBL. However, remote work presents social and psychological barriers associated with physical isolation that need addressing. In the context of WBL, which aims to provide a real-work environment for students, it is essential to explore these barriers as they might undermine the development of critical competencies associated with WBL, particularly creativity, teamwork, collaboration, networking and situational awareness. While research has started producing alternatives to overcome some of these limitations, we still miss a robust framework for designing and implementing these and other potential new strategies that could further enhance eWBL. To address this gap, a comprehensive framework is developed by integrating literature recommendations with results from 27 case studies derived from the Erasmus + Project eWBL. The framework comprises five primary phases: design, preparation, onboarding, delivery, and assessment. Each phase contains several sub-phases that offer practical implementation steps to WBL trainers in higher education and industry on how to deliver high-quality eWBL.