The First Principles of Work-Based Learning

For years, we have treated learning as something delivered by institutions.
But what if learning is something that emerges through contribution — and has always done so?

In this forthcoming article, our Secretary-General – Jeremy McQuigge, C.Mgr., will introduce the Seven First Principles of Work-Based Learning; not as the result of a formal study, but as a practitioner-derived articulation of what must be true if learning through contribution is to be recognized, trusted, and scaled.

These principles emerged through the design and implementation of CAWBL, WBLNS™, and PathLedger™ and are offered to the field for critique, testing, and refinement.

This is not a conclusion. It is an invitation.

Abstract

Work-Based Learning (WBL) has long functioned as a global system of learning, yet it remains under-theorized as an autonomous epistemic field. Building on prior work defining contributive epistemology—where knowledge emerges through acts of contribution that are socially recognized and made meaningful within context—this paper articulates the First Principles required for such an epistemology to function as a coherent and transferable learning system.

The Seven First Principles presented in this paper were not derived through a prospective research study or formal empirical methodology. Rather, they emerged through the author’s lived experience in developing and operationalizing WBL as an autonomous system, including the design and implementation of the Council Advancing Work-Based Learning (CAWBL), the Work-Based Learning Numbering System (WBLNS), and PathLedger. As this system was constructed, it became evident that certain ontological and epistemic commitments were necessary for its coherence, adoption, and scalability across contexts.

These principles represent a post hoc articulation of the irreducible conditions required for contributive epistemology to operate in practice. Their formulation is informed by ongoing engagement with relevant scholarship—including situated learning, prior learning recognition, competency-based education, and historical apprenticeship traditions—as well as exploratory reference to historical precedents introduced during peer review of the foundational article.

This paper presents the principles as practitioner-derived theoretical claims. They are offered not as validated findings, but as a field-level proposition: a set of foundational conditions to be critically examined, tested, and refined through future empirical research and collaborative inquiry.

Interested in contributing to the work-based learning journal or participating in future issues of Praxis? Reach out to start a conversation!