Capability and its development: experiences from a work-based doctorate

The idea of 'capability', popularised through the Royal Society for Arts' Education for Capability project, is applicable to the growing need for professionals to move beyond discipline-specific expertise and engage with what Schon terms the 'swampy lowland' of practice. Middlesex University has developed a generic doctorate designed to assist practising professionals and managers to enhance their high-level capability. Candidates joining the doctorate are required to complete a reflective Review of Previous Learning, describing their development to date and demonstrating preparedness for doctoral work. While common themes emerge, of working with change and taking the lead, these reviews point to capability as based in personally unique 'envelopes' of abilities. They emphasise the central role of experiential learning to developing high-level capability, and in particular, the importance of opportunities for personal and professional growth, events which provide turning points or spurs to action, and practitioners' own motivations to succeed or change.