Studying workplace characteristics and their relevance to skills development in degree apprenticeships. A managerial perspective

There is an increasingly evident disparity between the skills students acquire in education and those actually required in the workplace. This trend poses a real challenge in business talent management. Learning programs that combine university coursework with hands-on corporate experience are seen as bridging the gap in professional competencies. In this study, we use job characteristic theory and social development theory to try to determine which job characteristics are relevant for workplace learning from the perspective of the training company, so that the student can develop professional competencies. To achieve this, we collected 122 surveys from companies collaborating in Dual Learning programs within bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration & Management and Engineering at a Spanish university. The results demonstrate that both feedback and students’ social interaction in the company are essential for creating an effective learning environment in the workplace that promotes the development of professional skills. In addition, our mediation analysis indicates that the apprentice’s social interaction in the company contributes to skill development through feedback. Companies and universities should therefore take these two characteristics into consideration when designing and managing workplace learning processes, in order to ensure their success.