ABSTRACT
Qualifications take many forms and are used in a wide range of contexts for several, often conflicting, purposes. Hence interactions between qualifications and work-based learning differ according to the purpose and nature of the qualifications, their role in a person’s learning career’, the type of work involved and the nature of the working context. Such interactions may have a positive, negative or neutral effect on learning in the workplace. This chapter starts with a broad overview of types of qualification, their intended relationship to work, and what they mean to individuals and employers; then proceeds to a more detailed analysis of interactions between qualifications and work-based learning, and the influence on those interactions of various characteristics of the qualifications themselves.
