Guest editorial (2017)

Academics involved in work-based learning (WBL) and enterprise education tend be to enthusiastic and vocal advocates for their approach to learning in HE.They embrace progressive pedagogy, they are comfortable in educational situations what other educators find "risky" and they have faith in learner's capacity to make valuable meaning from the active "experience of learning".But, surprisingly these two distinct educational approaches are rarely discussed, analysed, evaluated or debated in the same forums.This special edition of HESWBL is an attempt to offer an opportunity for academics to present a range of perspectives on the intersection of WBL and enterprise education and to understand how this is being played out across a range of higher educational programmes and courses.For the casual observers, it may seem that enterprise education is "what" is being taught and WBL is how it is being learnt.What is hoped is that the submissions in this publication will demonstrate that enterprise education is in of itself a form of pedagogical practice and for the aficionados a distinct and valuable form of WBL.They are both rely heavily on problem-based and active, experiential learning and as such have much in common.WBL generally concerns itself with the conventional "employment" situations and the pedagogy and practice that are involved.However, many HE educators are engaged with enterprise and entrepreneurship education that implicitly involves the "doing" of enterprise with students as either active sole agents or collaborators in a significant element of WBL.An entrepreneur is after all involved in a particular form of work.It is important to understand the distinctiveness of this WBL, in terms of how it underpins the ultimate success of the entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs and how it feeds back to pedagogic theory, practice and understanding.It is hoped that the exploration of different approaches to enterprise education within this special issue will stimulate and inspire other academic colleagues to adapt and develop their pedagogy on the basis of what they read.The aim of the special publication is therefore is twofold; to raise awareness amongst the WBL academic community of the concept of WBL being intrinsic to enterprise and entrepreneurship education and to attempt to uncover new, novel and distinct pedagogies, issues and debates that will help successfully progress WBL in enterprise and entrepreneurship education.The articles in this special edition are suitably diverse, but a number of themes occur within them.The first is that they highlight a significant amount of innovative pedagogy, including such things as enterprise placements, students as producers and coproducers and learning for intrepreneurship.Most strikingly, strategies for moving traditionally extra-curricular enterprise activities (and their WBL) safely and successfully into the curriculum should be of interest to many practitioners.Another notable feature is the role of civic learning, social projects and social enterprise approaches in a number of them.In the pursuit of authentic learning and effective work-based, experiential learning social and civic pedagogical situations appear to be very fruitful.A further point made in a number of the submissions is the positive impact of enterprise education and WBL on the development of non-cognitive skills of the participating students.Such things as personal development, team working, creativity self-reliance, etc. appear to be regularly enhanced by learning this way.This also ties in with another notable theme covered by a number of authors: employability.It is certainly the case that the progressive and innovate nature of the pedagogy developed here not only improves students learning