Abstract:

In October 2022, Middlesex University embarked on a two-year partnership with Barking Havering and Redbridge University Trust, an Essex-based Hospital. The objective was to support the Trust’s vision of becoming a learning organisation (Kleiner at al, 1994) with a vibrant community committed to shared goals and change and organic development in the workplace inspired by research, academia, context and experience.

Middlesex University designed a ten-week course to support Hospital Trust colleagues engage with new theory and practices in how they developed others through teaching, coaching and mentoring. This course consists of live workshops, coaching and asynchronous activities and participants apply insights, experiences, and ambitions to their workplace contexts. The intention was for participants to enhance development skills, but also reflect on ways to enhance their own learning, careers, and community engagement.

The impact was overwhelming. In ten short weeks, participants reported a transformational experience that changed the way they worked, the way they thought, the way they related to colleagues, their concept of how to support others, and their own ambitions and sense of identity. Participants had more clarity on their relationship with professional communities and on how to extend their experience and impact going forward; some through experimentation, others through informal courses, others through new responsibilities, others through research and collaboration, and others through enrolling on qualifications. Participants reported enhanced motivation, relationships, and professional practice that exceeded our expectations. Responses demonstrated the power of academic and industry partnerships and the impact developing others can have upon ourselves.

From the outset this project was a knowledge exchange (Office for Students, 2023) case study for both Middlesex University and Barking Havering and Redbridge University Trust. We intended to design and implement the course and evaluate the impact, gathering data for analysis after each cohort. At time of writing, we have gathered data from the first two cohorts through a robust multi-perspective evaluation strategy grounded in Brookfield’s (2017) lenses and using mixed methods with a focus on transformation and impact at participant and professional community levels.

In this presentation and paper, we share insights and data from those two cohorts to demonstrate the transformational power of informal workplace learning and the mutual impact this entrepreneurial partnership is having upon communities, cultures, and practices at both the University and the Trust.

We outline future directions of this research across the next five cohorts and we share exciting possibilities as we develop new innovations which we had not anticipated. These developments emerged from a need to harness successes and extend the impact further into the Trust’s learning organisation and Middlesex’s engagement with industry.

References:
[1] Brookfield, S. (2017), Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd Edition, San Francisco: Jossey Bass
[2] Kleiner A, Smith, B. Roberts, C., Senge, P.M., Ross, R. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook : Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization, London: Nicholas Bealey Publishing
[3] Office for Students, (2023), Knowledge Exchange, https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/skills-and-employment/knowledge-exchange/, 12.07.2023

Keywords:

Workplace Learning, Industry and Academia Partnership, Learning Organisation, Transformation, Community of Practice, Knowledge Exchange, Entrepreneurship.