ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a type of workers in the knowledge economy from the perspectives of how they work and learn. Creative workers may be broadly defined as those who use their creative talents and know-how to create products and services in the new economy. Their work is supported by advanced technologies.
This chapter aims to provide findings of the specificities of this particular type of creative application of knowledge by the workers and how their working and learning have implications for higher education institutions (HEIs) concerning the nature of the curriculum. The findings are drawn from empirical data of 31 semi-structured interviews with practitioners and related academics from two sectors of advertising and information technology (IT) software. These interviews are carried out over three countries: England, Japan and Singapore. It argues that a revision of the conventional notion of learning and working as dichotomic activities is needed. It uses ‘powerful knowledge’ to suggest that robust curricula (depending on the contexts) are required and that they should be approached with a strong interdisciplinary approach, which offers a diversity of pedagogic strategies to engage and facilitate these workers in acquiring the necessary know-how. In addition to ‘powerful knowledge’, the chapter uses lifelong learning, formal and informal learning, ‘externalising’ (as defined in this chapter as non-traditional curricula, which enable learners to make the transition between knowledge acquisition and its application), and tacit and explicit learning. This chapter also offers insights into how HEIs may act as a bridge between work organisations and these creative knowledge workers before and while at work.
Finally, the chapter explicates the implications for aspiring creative knowledge workers, HEIs lecturers, managers, policymakers, government officials, researchers of think tanks and academia, and those from socio-development change agencies.
