In the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, there is often confusion around TAEDEL402 Plan, organise and facilitate learning in the workplace.

It usually gets eclipsed by its other ‘DEL’ cousin, TAEDEL401 Plan, organise and deliver group-based learning – the unit where you do more traditional classroom style training.

Let’s be clear on what TAEDEL402 is all about:

1. It’s about an individual learning something (instead of a group of people)
2. It’s almost entirely about an individual learning stuff in the actual workplace
3. That learning mostly occurs through real workplace practice (i.e. actually ‘doing the job’)
4. It’s about you facilitating that learning process – that means you may not be doing much direct instruction
5. You don’t have to base the teaching on a nationally recognised unit of competency

What is a Workbased Learning Pathway Plan?

Just want to get to the action?

Jump Down to How To Video and Free Template!

If you’re at point A, and you want to get to point B, you choose a path, and you follow it to your destination.

In TAEDEL402, you find a learner who is at point A (current skills and knowledge). You determine point B (the learning objective). Then, together, you plan the best way to get to point B. You write it down.

That’s your workbased learning pathway plan. Together you commit to it. And then the journey begins!

As the facilitator, you guide them along this pathway. This path might be very familiar to your learner. They may have walked on similar pathways before, just in different environments. They may move faster than expected, and require little guidance from you. That’s okay. That’s what happens on workbased learning pathways.

As long as you monitor their progress, you will be able to help them when they need it, and point out pitfalls, hazards, or new tricks and hacks for getting there more efficiently.

You may even introduce them to others along their journey who are also familiar with the path, who have different ideas and perspectives on how to get to the destination more effectively.

So you can see in workbased learning, you are less of a teacher – more of a guide. At times you may need to demonstrate, coach, instruct, correct, support, clarify, mentor, and go back and repeat steps.

Example of a Learning Pathway you might plan for TAEDEL402

Imagine a new staff member joins your landscaping company, Hardys Landscaping, based on the Mid North Coast of NSW. They previously worked in landscaping over in Western Australia, in a place where the soil is quite loose and sandy. On the Mid North Coast, there’s a lot of hard compacted clay soil.

The new staff member is very experienced in planting shrubs and small trees, but the different soil here requires the use of different tools and techniques, such as different shaped holes and the need to scrape the edges to ensure better root penetration.

You determine an overall objective (point B).

You chat with your new worker and get and understanding of what they already know about planting trees. How close is their ‘Point A’ to your ‘Point B’?

Course Tip: The simpler and more specific you make this objective, the easier it is going to be to help your learner achieve it.

Now remember TAEDEL402 Plan, organise and facilitate learning in the workplace, is all about 1-on-1 training.

You have a very big advantage in helping one person achieve a learning objective, over a group of people (where you have to work to the lowest common denominator for pace, progression, and prior knowledge).

With this one person, you can take the time to understand what they already know about planting trees and build the learning pathway on that.

Again, here is a key difference to classroom training. With work based learning, as a facilitator, you’re doing less ‘teaching’ and more coaching and mentoring. You’re creating a pathway. A series of ‘steps.’ Where they go off and do real work tasks and learn on the job.

The amount of guidance or support you provide while they do this will depend on their previous experience, complexity and the risks involved.

Often, as a work based learning facilitator, you’re doing a little coaching and mentoring. But as the facilitator you may actually be pairing them up with another experienced worker so they get exposed to different ways of doing things.

Some tips when developing your workbased learning pathway plans

Write clear, specific, measurable learning objectives.

“The learner will know how to change a tyre” at first glance seems okay as an objective.

But can you see where it is problematic?

• “The learner will  know …” taken literally – the training could be entirely theoretical. It’s all about knowing. There’s no description of any skills or abilities to be demonstrated.
• “change a  tyre …” is this a Bicycle tyre? Car tyre? Tractor tyre? Any tyre?
• “a  tyre …” the tyre is the black rubber thing attached to the rim and inflated. When you get a flat tyre on the side of the road and you swap it for the spare, you’re changing the whole wheel. Replacing the tyre, the rubber bit, is a specialist skill requiring specialist equipment. So which scenario is this objective referring to? It’s unclear.
• Must they change the tyre unaided? Must they do it within a timeframe? Must they do it in accordance with any procedures or to any specifications?

✅ Always try for simple, clear, specific measurable objectives. With vague, ambiguous objectives your learner will never be able to actually achieve them and measuring their performance will be difficult.

Ensure the training matches the objectives

If the objective says “develop a full understanding of…” but the training only covers a few basic things, there is now a permanent record showing the person was trained to have “a full understanding of” something when they probably only have a limited understanding.

Unfortunately, some people learn this lesson the hard way, when inadequate training leads to serious incidents, accidents and court cases.

Be clear about safety and supervision

Learners are often novices. Letting them work with materials, tools and machinery or in unfamiliar environments brings additional health and safety risks, and business risks (e.g., ruining thousands of dollars worth of valuable raw materials).

• Ensure appropriate supervision is in place for their skill level and experience
• Ensure they have relevant WHS training and any necessary site inductions

Use the workplace as your learning resource

Often some of the most effective learning experiences are a result of learners ‘just doing it.’ Doing the job in a real environment under real work conditions is an excellent way to practice and develop skills. Ensure your plan (while being mindful of safety, supervision and risks) gives the learner opportunities to practice and develop their skills by doing the tasks.

Did it stick?

Ensure your plan has opportunities for checking that the objectives have been achieved.

Commonly, people do up nice looking plans with good learning activities, which end suddenly with no way of checking the learner arrived at ‘Point B’ – the objective.

This is especially true of those who have very simple objectives which are covered in just a few quick demonstrations. Give the learner time to implement and practice what they learnt! Check in a week or so later and see how they are doing. Are the performing the skill consistently now due to the learning?

See a full example workbased learning pathway plan

This video steps you through the process of documenting a formal and detailed workbased learning pathway plan. The video explains things in a nice easy to understand way, with lots of examples.

Download our free template

If you’re studying TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, you are most welcome to use our template which is very similar to the one in the video. Feel free to use it create your own workbased learning pathway plan.

Note: TAEDEL402 refers to “learning styles” – so we have to make reference to it for completeness and validity. However, there is no evidence to support the theory that people have learning styles. See our article here for more info on that.