about ‘tacit knowledge’ to identify the cognitive processes and organizational factors which
facilitate the transfer of knowledge from education to workplaces (Eraut, 2003; 2004). A
further approach is Engestrom’s (1987; 2001) work in the field of Cultural-Historical
Activity Theory (CHAT). He has formulated a continuous stream of new concepts over the
last few years such as ‘activity system’, ‘boundary crossing’ and the ‘cycle of expansive
learning’ to analyse the transformation of work and learning in different settings.
Work placements have a long history as a strategy to facilitate the development of
vocational practice in most European countries and for that matter elsewhere in the world
(Griffith & Guile, 2004). This is because the forms of knowledge, skill and judgement
characteristic of vocational practice are best developed in the workplace as people mediate
the general principles, which they have learnt in education, in relation to the specifics of
actual practice-based situations (Guile & Okumoto, forthcoming). It is widely accepted
therefore that the field of workplace learning, with its focus on the processes that facilitate
learning at work, is ideally suited to the analysis of vocational practice (Evans et al, 2002;
Evans et al, 2006; Rainbird et al, 2004). The aim of a work placement is usually to provide
a novice with an opportunity to develop their vocational practice by participating in the
well established procedures, protocols associated with a specific field. The type of work
placement described in this paper, however, is rather different in two senses: it has to be
specially designed and embedded in a company; and, it had to develop newly qualified
designer’s vocational practice and participating companies’ product and/or service range.
We acknowledge the significant contributions that the aforementioned writers have made to
the analysis of workplace learning. Nevertheless, given that Billett, Eraut, Fuller and
Unwin’s concepts are primarily concerned with the analysis of existing processes and
environments, which enable individuals to acquire or modify known forms of knowledge
and skill rather than on the introduction of new working and learning arrangements in work
placements, they did not appear to be completely compatible with the focus of our research.
Neither did Engestrom’s (2001) theory of expansive learning because the methodology
associated with his theory presupposes the establishment of a ‘boundary crossing
laboratory’ inside an organisation, where a cross-section of the workforce collaboratively
re-think the ‘object of activity’ (i.e. that which is to be realized) and re-design the
organisation’s community, rules and division of labour so as to realize the new object, and
this requirement fell outside the remit for both the work placement and the research.
We are nevertheless interested in using the concept of the object of activity, which lies at
the heart of Engestrom’s work, as a way of analyzing the way in which the participating
parties agree the focus of, the process of, and the outcome from learning through work
placements for companies and individuals. This has led us to turn to other recent work in
CHAT specifically, the work of Hyysalo (2005) who has elaborated the concept of the
object of activity with his notion of the ‘project-object’. The project-object serves as a
bridge between the motive for the overarching goal of an activity and the actions required
to realize that goal, thus, it allows Hyyaslo to provide a multifaceted analysis of the