The development of self-efficacy is fundamental to successful work-based learning (WBL), particularly within the UK health and social care sector where apprentices must integrate theoretical knowledge with professional practice in complex, unpredictable and emotionally demanding environments.
Self-efficacy, defined by Bandura (1997) as an individual’s belief in their capability to organise and execute actions required to achieve desired outcomes, influences persistence, resilience, motivation, decision-making and ultimately the quality of care delivered.
Apprentices with strong self-efficacy are more likely to engage actively in learning, persevere through challenging workplace situations, seek feedback and develop professional competence, whereas low self-efficacy can contribute to anxiety, poor performance, withdrawal from learning and increased risk of programme attrition.
Although considerable research has demonstrated positive associations between work-based learning experiences and self-efficacy development, much of the existing literature remains grounded within positivist traditions that measure changes in confidence through surveys or quantitative scales. Such approaches identify whether self-efficacy changes but provide limited explanation of why it develops differently among individuals working within similar organisational contexts. Consequently, important underlying organisational, relational and contextual mechanisms remain insufficiently understood.
Health and social care workplaces are characterised by high levels of complexity, including variable mentoring quality, staffing pressures, organisational culture, leadership practices, multidisciplinary working and emotional labour. These contextual factors interact with apprentices’ personal histories, prior experiences and workplace relationships in ways that cannot be fully explained through observable variables alone. Consequently, understanding self-efficacy requires investigation beyond individual perceptions towards the deeper organisational and social structures that enable or constrain learning.
This study therefore adopts a critical realist perspective. Critical realism assumes that reality exists independently of human perception but is only partially observable through experience (Bhaskar, 1978). Rather than restricting analysis to apprentices’ reported experiences (the empirical), critical realism seeks to explain the events occurring within workplace learning (the actual) by identifying the deeper causal mechanisms and organisational structures operating beneath observable practice (the real). Through the process of retroduction, the research moves beyond description to develop explanatory accounts of how factors such as mentoring relationships, organisational culture, leadership, workload pressures and learning opportunities interact to shape apprentices’ developing self-efficacy.
A qualitative multiple-case study methodology is therefore appropriate because it enables in-depth exploration of self-efficacy development within authentic organisational contexts. By examining apprentices across different health and social care settings, the study acknowledges that mechanisms may operate differently depending upon contextual conditions. Semi-structured interviews provide rich accounts of apprentices’ lived experiences, while organisational documents such as induction materials, supervision policies, training records and mentoring frameworks provide insight into the structural conditions influencing learning. Combining these sources strengthens explanatory validity through methodological triangulation.
Importantly, this research does not seek to establish universal predictive laws. Instead, consistent with critical realism, it aims to identify generative mechanisms that may explain how and why self-efficacy develops under particular contextual conditions. Such explanations recognise that health and social care organisations represent open systems, where multiple interacting influences mean outcomes are contingent rather than deterministic. Consequently, findings will provide theoretically transferable explanations rather than statistically generalisable conclusions.
The significance of this research extends beyond theoretical contribution. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning self-efficacy development has practical implications for apprenticeship providers, employers and policymakers seeking to improve learner support, mentoring, supervision and workplace learning environments. Identifying organisational structures that strengthen apprentices’ confidence and professional capability may contribute to improved learner retention, enhanced workforce resilience and ultimately higher quality health and social care practice. By moving beyond surface-level descriptions of confidence towards explanation of the causal processes shaping self-efficacy, this study addresses an important gap in the work-based learning literature and contributes to the development of more effective apprenticeship practice within the UK health and social care sector.