Transcript Adult learning in the workplace: enhancing skills for life?

DEL
LABOUR MARKET
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Introduction: Victor Dukelow
Analytical Services, DEL
Analytical Services
Northern Ireland Population Estimates
2009
100 & over
90-94
Females
Males
80-84
70-74
60-64
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0- 4
80
60
40
20
0
('000s)
20
40
60
80
Analytical Services
Northern Ireland Population Estimates
2020
100 & over
90-94
Females
Males
80-84
70-74
60-64
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0- 4
80
60
40
20
0
('000s)
Over 75% of the
20202040Workforce
60
80is already in
today’s Workforce
Analytical Services
NI’s working age population is less well
qualified than most other UK regions
% of Working Age Population
Qualified to level 4 and above
40
% Working Age Population with No
Qualifications
25.0
35
30
25
20.0
15.0
20
15
10
5
0
10.0
5.0
0.0
… But the dynamic innovative economy that the NI
Executive wishes to create will require more and higher
skills
Analytical Services
Proportionately fewer employees in
Northern Ireland receive (seek?) training.
% of Employees Receiving Job Related
Training in last four weeks
(Jan - March 2009)
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Wales
Sco tland
England
UK
No rthern Ireland
Analytical Services
…And many do not train because they
believe they already have the necessary
skills
 The vast majority of employers (91%) say that their
staff already possess the required skills (Skills
Monitoring Survey, 2005).
 Nearly 90% of NI employees who did not undertake
training said the lack of training would not harm them
in keeping up with changes in their job (Skills at Work
in Northern Ireland, 2006)
Analytical Services
A Policy Conundrum?
 Upskilling today’s workforce is important if we are to achieve
our skills ambitions
 But job related training in Northern Ireland is low
 And large proportions of NI employees and employers do not
report a requirement for upskilling
Hence need for evidence…
 How best to engage the workforce in skills enhancement?
 What types of engagement are most effective?
 What are the benefits of workplace learning?
Adult learning in the workplace:
enhancing skills for life?
Karen Evans
Individual data
• Initial test and
interview
• Follow-up test and
interview
• Final test and
interview
• Interviews with tutors
• N=567 in initial
sample
• Plus more detailed indepth interviews with
a sub-sample of
learners, and their
managers and tutors
Workplace data
• Interviews with training managers
• Follow-up interviews with training
managers
• Interviews with line managers
ESOL learners are heavily
represented in the sample
Basic skill workplace learners in
sample are 35% ESOL
Current UK employed workforce is
3% ESOL
Highest qualification obtained (%)
Learners
Non-ESOL learners
UK working age
population, 2001
None
46
44
27
Level 1
11
16
12
Level 2
18
23
16
those where unclear
which)
36
48
Level 3
11
6
Level 4
6
2
Level 1 or 2 (includes
16
29
Level 5
1
NB: numbers in column 1 do not sum to 100
0
Understanding people and
environments
• workplace courses can both improve skills
and change people’s approach to learning;
but current policy design is highly
inefficient.
• It is at odds with the needs of mature, selfaware learners, and with the workplace
environment.
Enterprises’ own efforts
• Workplace courses successfully reach adults who
do not participate in other formal learning, but fail
to create any lasting infrastructure when
delivered through outside initiatives.
• Support for workplace learning should encourage
and complement enterprises’ own efforts.
Learning programmes initiated by and within
workplaces are the ones that survive long-term.
•
•
•
•
Reasons for facilitating training:
possible reasons offered to managers
• Improve job skills
• Improve soft skills
• Offer general
development to staff
• Increase staff morale
• Reduce number of
errors at the
workplace
• Reduce absenteeism
• Reduce staff turnover
• Improve health and
safety
• Increase staff
confidence
• Help staff to be
receptive to change
• ‘Other’
Motivations and benefits….
•Both the participants in workplace literacy courses
and their organisational sponsors are motivated by
a wider range of factors than the wish to improve
performance at work.
•The most marked benefits for individuals and
organisations are in personal and/or work
satisfaction.
Correlates of progress
• Non- ESOL – programmes leading to
qualification
• Non-ESOL – already qualified to levels 1
and 2 (lower at level 3 and unqualified)
• All cases (ESOL and non-ESOL) –
positively associated with job change
Most important expected and actual benefits
from the course
%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Learn new skills
Do current job
better
Increase
chances for
promotion
Increase
chances for
better job
Meet new people
Make current job
more interesting
Earn more
money
Two most important outcomes that learners wanted or expected from their course at T ime 1
Two most important outcomes that learners actually felt they got from thei r course
Outcomes of course (item by item basis)
Increased confidence at work
66%
Developed new skills
61%
Increased confidence outside work
59%
Met new people
58%
Affected how current job is done*
45%
Helped with use of computers outside work
33%
Helped with use of computers at work
27%
Made work more interesting
25%
Increased chances for promotion
11%
Increased chances of a better job
10%
Helped earn more money
2%
* 40% elaborated: all reported positive impact
Whether or not a course increased confidence at work was highly (and
positively) related to whether a learner also thought it had helped them to do
their current job better/had affected how they did the job.
Changing track…
• Adults who participate in workplace
courses are somewhat more likely than
their peers to continue with formal learning
in later years.
• Workplace learning has the potential to
change individuals’ ‘learning trajectories’
and encourage them to rethink their
ambitions and capabilities
Participation
In Further
Learning (%)
Learners
All
Learners
LFS
excluding
sample
involuntary
Non-ESOL
44.5
51.9
37.5
ESOL
45.8
n/a
33.7
Confidence - building
• People with low confidence in their own ability to
learn will need extra encouragement or incentives.
Once involved in formal learning, they progress as
fast as other learners.
• Adults who are confident about their ability to
learn are also much more confident that they
will gain from workplace courses.
Too few hours….?
• Workplace literacy courses produce very
small average gains in performance, but
participants’ average performance
continues to improve over a two year postinstruction period.
• Current policies are inefficient, as courses
are too short to have much impact. But
they may stimulate learners to use their
skills more, and so continue improving.
Use it or lose it….
• Whether the job itself facilitates the learning and
use of literacy skills in the workplace appears to
influence whether people increase their proficiency
or lose ground.
• Adults who actively use literacy in their day to
day lives in the workplace and beyond it are
the ones who will continue to improve.
• The relationship between job change and
change in reading score was positive:
learners whose jobs changed showed a 5
or 6 point larger improvement in reading
scores between first and second tests.
• This is consistent with these learners
utilising their new skills at work. Indeed
this was strongly supported by the
qualitative research.
Implications?
• Citizens’ entitlements – best achieved
through or beyond the workplace?
• Connecting ‘courses’ with use of skills onjob and beyond-the-job: evidence of
effective practices in Taylor and Evans 2009*
• Organisational dynamics – the challenges
for ‘brokerage’…:
(Journal of Adult and Continuing Education)
Further insights
• From ‘Improving Workplace Learning’
(Evans, Hodkinson,Rainbird Unwin 2006,
Routledge)
Three dimensions of workplace learning
consistently identified as significant:
• Workplaces can be characterized as more
expansive or restrictive as learning
environments. Richer learning generally found
where environments support skills utilization and
development.
• Regulation of the employment relationship and
Government initiatives have significant impact
on opportunities for, and nature of, workplace
learning
• Dispositions and tacit skills of employees
influence the nature of the working environment
and the ways in which workers react to and
interact with that environment
Understanding the learning workplace
is central to analysing incentives
and barriers
Regulatory
framework
Expansive
learning
environments
Workers’
dispositions
The learning
workplace
Types of Informal Learning
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Observing from Knowledgeables
Practising without Supervision
Searching Independently for Information
Focused Workplace Discussions
Mentoring and Coaching
Workplace Informal Learning Process
1) Trigger events – company ethos of quality
performance; safety concerns
2) Attitudes about lifelong learning- curiosity,
creativity, imagination
3) Inner recognition – personal and work benefits
• Informal learning not motivated for monetary
rewards or up-ward mobility
• “spurred on by a need for the challenge or a variety in the
everyday work routine”
From ‘Putting Knowledge to Work’,
Evans, Guile and Harris 2009 :
• Can a shared focus on ‘putting knowledge
to work’ better bring together employer,
employee and provider interests?