Facilitating Independent Learners – Lessons for Improving Career Practice

17/10/2023

Dr Glenys Ker is a facilitator and assessor for Capable NZ at Otago Polytechnic and owner of Career Fit. She has worked for 40 years as an educator, with experience across secondary, polytechnic and university contexts. Glenys was the principal architect of the development and implementation of the Independent Learning Programmes on offer through Capable NZ.

The Independent Learning Pathway (ILP) is a groundbreaking educational paradigm designed for experienced professionals in pursuit of higher education degrees. The ILP approach provides equitable access for this demographic, who often feel underserved by traditional pedagogical methods.

Expanding upon their existing expertise, the ILP enables professionals to fuse learning with their existing careers, all without the constraints of traditional classrooms or online courses. Learners embark on a journey of self-discovery, emerging with insights into their individuality and professional roles. 

As a practitioner who works as both an ILP facilitator and a career development specialist, I have encountered numerous intersections between my two roles. In this blog post, I will summarise the key takeaways for career practitioners that can be learned from facilitating independent learners.

The ILP Facilitation Model:

The ILP is underpinned by a well-defined facilitation model, guiding learners through a sequence of tasks designed to foster profound personal and professional understanding and growth. Learners transition from passive recipients of knowledge to active participants in their educational journey, nurturing essential skills like self-assessment, reflection, and critical evaluation.

The facilitated pathway supports learners to critically examine their past practice, illuminating skills and their transferability. This reflective process commences with an examination of early influences and a review of their career timeline. Learners meticulously identify, describe, and analyse their skills and knowledge, culminating in an up-to-date awareness of their entire career capital.

With this enriched perspective, learners revisit their current practice, integrating newfound learning into their existing professional framework. Learners acquire a profound understanding of theory-based practice, bridging the gap between practical experience and scholarly knowledge.

The ILP journey concludes with a panel assessment, which allows learners to share their accomplishments confidently with experts, solidifying their understanding of their journey and ultimately receiving external recognition and affirmation. 

Characteristics of Effective Facilitation:

An essential element for a successful and transformational ILP learning journey is effective facilitation characterised by the following:

Fit: the facilitator and the learner have commonalities such as age, interests, or work backgrounds which enable a quick and effective working relationship to be established, recognising that one size does not fit all. 

Relationship building: the facilitator is skilful in establishing and maintaining an effective working relationship, which is essential to providing meaningful support. Effective relationships require mutual respect and trust, and empathy on the part of the facilitator, to gain insights into the learner’s needs and aspirations. Empathetic facilitators are deep listeners and ask curious questions to gain access to the learner’s perspectives.

Learner first: the facilitator puts the learner first, prioritising their needs and always acting in their best interests. This means offering support that is responsive, flexible, and available anywhere, anytime, anyhow. The facilitator recognises the individuality of each learner – their uniqueness and any individual challenges.

The facilitator develops strong diagnostic and analytical skills to identify challenges that may impact the learner’s journey and exercises sound judgment in the learner’s best interests. The facilitator enables learner agency by promoting and enhancing their self-awareness and self-empowerment, equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and capabilities to make informed decisions.

Effective facilitators also possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes for their role, including adherence to ethical standards. They are aware of areas where they may need to upskill, especially in response to evolving challenges, innovations, and technology. They embrace the concept of "ako," recognising that there is a reciprocal relationship in learning, being open to ongoing learning opportunities to enhance their practice.

Finally, effective facilitators demonstrate resourcefulness by seeking information, learning, and researching to gain a better understanding of learner needs. They seek supervision or peer mentoring for continuous improvement.

Key Takeaways for Career Practitioners:

I define an effective career practitioner as someone who enables clients to make transformative decisions about their careers and lives. In my experience, the characteristics of effective learning facilitation are applicable in all respects to career practitioners. The application of fit, meaningful relationship building and unrestrained client centredness will all contribute to a more transformative client experience.

Secondly, just as learning facilitation is a professional and not merely a technical activity, so too is career practice. Career practitioners have a vast literature which can inform their practice, and a wide range of theories and tools and world of work knowledge that can inform better practice. Career practitioners should also seek continuous improvement in their practice, particularly through a reciprocal learning relationship with their clients, and through supervision which is itself focussed on transformative career practice.

Thirdly, as with ILP learners, I would argue that critical reflection is the essence of a transformational career development experience. This transformation hinges on individuals actively participating in a reflective journey, examining who they are, the purpose of their existence, their past accomplishments, and the knowledge they've gained.

It is important to acknowledge that this level of self-reflection may not always be innate, but rather, it can be cultivated and developed through skilful and purposeful engagement. Thus, a major lesson for career practitioners is surely they too must practise the art of learning facilitation!

Much like learning facilitators, career practitioners can foster deep, meaningful changes by helping individuals understand themselves better, identify strengths and weaknesses, clarify goals, and reshape strategies for success. If skilfully facilitated, a client’s career journey can lead to profound shifts in their self-perception, work approach, and worldview.

Dr Glenys Ker and Heather Carpenter released the book 'Facilitating Independent Learning in Tertiary Education', which is available to download free here.