WORK EXPERIENCE- PHILOSOPHY & PURPOSES
Work Experience India has set before herself the task of alleviating the lot of the people by creating a modern and technological society. An infrastructure has already been created and the country is on the threshold of a major technological revolution. This would not only create demand for highly skilled technicians but would also require average citizens to be self-supporting and self-generating in their competence and attitude. It, therefore, becomes essential that every citizen should equip himself/herself with knowledge and skills necessary to make him a productive/creative worker.
Education has rightly been defined as an investment in future. It can give rich dividends only if it keeps pace with the requirements of the society. Under the existing system there is a wide gulf between the world of school and the world of work, with the result that the students turned out by the education system fail to become productive units in the society. As such, their utility to society becomes questionable. The major aim before the education, therefore, should be to bridge the gulf between the school and the world of work. This can possibly be done by providing effective programmes of work experience in the school curriculum.
Concept The concept of work experience is a recent development in the field of education. If analysed literally, the term consists of two prominent words: "Work" and "Experience". In dictionary sense, the term work has been defined as application of effort to some purpose. This denotes creation of a situation wherein one has to apply energy or effort to a cause. There can be numerous types of situations wherein human effort or energy can be involved. But in order to be purposeful it has to be productive, as emphasised by the Indian Education Commission, which has not only personal but social significance as well. It, therefore, implies that any productive/creative work should be socially significant and desirable besides being useful and satisfying to the individual.
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Taking a broad view of work experience, productive work has been defined by the Education Commission "as participation of pupils in productive work either in school, in home, in workshop, in farm, in factory or any other productive situation". The experience to be provided need not be confined only to a factory or a farm in its rigid sense but it can also include such experience which has relevance to school and home. The work experiences may, therefore, not be construed simply as an attempt to train highly skilled or professional workers to suit a particular vocation but may be interpreted as an experience to enhance general skills-manual and artistic, through a selected medium, so as to make him creative/productive in action and scientific in his outlook to manage or execute the tasks properly.
The productive work is, therefore, a very inclusive term. The outcome of the productive work can be in the form of a product, a service or an artistic creation which may help the individual in making a happy living besides providing him the channels for self- expression. In its broader sense this may also include items or activities which have both economic and aesthetic value.
Purposes The programmes of work experience in these areas can be utilised for the following broad purposes:
(i) Providing first exposure to various fields of work in order to help students discover their aptitudes and capabilities by exploring occupations, experiencing professionals' demands and testing their own endurance for making right choice when they finally take to productive/ creative work;
(ii) Engaging the students in production process to make them self-supporting in living and productive in functioning,
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(iii) Gaining experiences in maintenance of items useful to him, his house, his family, his school, his community etc. This may bring him or his institution savings by doing this kind of work by himself or by supervising the work effectively;
(iv) Orientating the mind for scientific and technological outlook for executing various jobs whether in farm, factory or home,
(v) Encouraging creativity (both technological and artistic), through his medium by engaging in such activities which have economic or aesthetic significance.
With this end in view a wide range of work experience is being provided in the curriculum, which relate to the following important areas:
(a) Science and Technology
(b) Agriculture
(c) Handicrafts and Cottage Industries
(d) Fine Arts
(e) Household Activities
(f) Commerce & Trade
Specific Outcomes Pedagogically work experiences can be summarized as a series of controlled and organised experience to prepare students for socially useful and productive work.
In any work situation two basic components are involved viz: the principles and skills. As such, work experience is a technologically oriented manual work including its theoretical foundations. It necessitates that the Students must be exposed to the scientific principles so as to execute the task or produce the item in a most economical and scientific manner. To illustrate
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the point it may be said that even simple jobs like sweeping a floor would require certain techniques to be adopted such as moving the broomstick in a manner that minimum dust floats in the air adopting body postures which would put minimum strain on the body with maximum of outcome. This may even be helpful in selecting a broomstick of specifications most suitable for the job, such as weight, length, diameter of the grip etc. etc.
The purpose of providing understanding of scientific principles is, therefore, to develop insight into processes and to inculcate an attitude of innovation in whatever situation the students are involved. Here a distinction can be made between a traditional artisan and scientifically oriented skilled person. The knowledge of scientific principles must be supplemented by a deep insight and dexterity into essential occupational, manual or physical skills required for performing the task. Such an insight can be provided only by engaging the students in actual work situation.
Besides this, the students should also have an idea of the economics of returns, the sources and types of raw materials, usefulness and characteristics of the products, time factor, and the market trends to create awareness to seek proper direction as an entrepreneur. The situation may also involve some experience in organisational skills.
In keeping with this, work experience has to fulfil some specific physiological, psychological, historical, sociological and economic purposes. Some of them could be as follows:
(i) To develop occupational or manual skills and systematized physical techniques necessary for the job.
(ii) To give understanding of facts, terms and scientific principles involved in the job.
(iii) To develop insight into productive processes.
(iv) To develop productive competency to make a living or thereby to benefit community or society.
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(v) To develop organizational skills and competence for running small units of production.
(vi) To inculcate respect and love for manual work.
(vii) To inculcate in students the spirit of modernization, and innovation.
(viii) To develop a sense of self-reliance by making the students productive.
(ix) To develop useful personality traits such as co- operativeness, hard work, rational inquiry, commitment to social welfare etc.
Based on these general/achievement expectations the requirements of individual subjects or work experiences can be identified by teachers in terms of principles, understandings, skills and attitudes necessary to make the experience in the selected area really worthwhile and interesting too.
How to Secure Maximum Results For securing mastery in skill aspect of the work experience an understanding of the learning process is necessary. Any learning process in order to be successful, has to pass through the following sequence of operations:
(1) Pre-testing To determine the needs of the
students.
(2) Teaching and learning To devise a situation for involve-
ment of students.
(3) Evaluation To evaluate achievement against
the expected outcomes.
(4) Adapting teaching To improve teaching learning
procedures process for better attainments in
general.
(5) Remedial teaching To repeat or improve upon ori-
ginal teaching-learning situation
for further reinforcement.
(6) Re-Evaluation again To judge the effectiveness of
remedial teaching.
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Mastery is said to be achieved in skills when a skill can be exercised quickly without giving much attention to it. In other words it should gradually result into automation of the habit so that a job can be performed without much effort and attention until and unless the system requires further improvement. Such a degree of high training requires constant practice till the automatic control is developed.
For this, following conditions may be-created:
(i) A steady uniform flow of motion;
(ii) Easy and economical movements;
(iii) Relax performance;
(iv) High concentration upon the task;
(v) Intelligent use of the senses.
If the work experience teachers are to expect the maximum results the following techniques may be tried:
(i) The development of techniques and skills should be the primary point of attack.
(ii) Teacher's demonstration is the economical method of presenting a skill subject.
(iii) Adequate practice may be provided to the students to the point of automatization. (In relevant subjects).
(iv) The class should be divided into groups working at drill levels best suited to their individual abilities and the purpose of the drill should always be made specific to them. (In relevant subjects).
(v) Practice must be distributed into their drill and these drills must be varied so that they do not become monotonous. (In relevant subjects).
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(vi) The teacher himself set attainable goals for each student in terms of products and skills suiting his potentialities.
(vii) The teacher should be co-operative in attitude, judicious in praise for students' success, anxious to help them overcome their failures.
The above approach is suggestive; teachers, however, may feel free to develop better techniques and procedures for effective learning.
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