Transcript No Slide Title

Embedding learning in
work and using learning in
work
Some lessons from recent
research and policy
innovation
Ewart Keep
The Standard Policy
Discourse
The standard, OECD-wide policy discourse
on skill states that:
• skill
• learning
• knowledge
are now the key drivers of competitive
advantage in an era of globalisation.
More is Better
Leaving aside the question of whether this might not be a
bit of an over-simplification, much resultant policy
discourse appears remarkably uninterested in
understanding anything very much about the:
• nature
• creation
• usage
of ‘skill’, ‘learning’ or ‘knowledge’.
WE JUST WANT MORE OF IT (WHATEVER IT IS)!
For Example…...
The English Learning and Skills Council
(annual budget £11 billion) has never
once, in its 7-year life, yet chosen to hold
a serious discussion about what
constitutes learning, how it takes place, or
how it might be enhanced (i.e. curriculum,
pedagogy, learning environment, etc).
Instead, it has spent its time chasing
targets.
More, But How……?
If we want more skills, then understanding
how they are:
• Created in the workplace
• Subsequently deployed to produce
productive value
Would seem like important building blocks
for policy.
15 YEARS AGO
15 years ago, research on workplace learning was
sparse, tended to be based around theoretical
constructs derived from psychology (e.g. Kolb’s
learning cycle and single and double-loop
learning), and was founded on very limited
evidence of actual learning practices in real
workplaces. It discussed what ought to happen,
not what happened (and students and
practitioners often spotted this!).
The Learning Organisation
• Much of the literature was highly normative,
based around models of the perfect ‘learning
organisation’ (Peter Senge and friends).
• A great deal of energy was spent defining the
LO, and in debating (not very conclusively)
whether (and how) a learning organisation was
different from organisational learning.
Communitarian Visions
Much of the LO literature was shot through
with a communitarian set of values about
personal actualisation, ‘organisational
transfiguration’, and a new set of
organisational values that would put
development and ethics ahead of profits.
OD people liked it, MBAs generally hated it!
Not Very Helpful
• Given that the vast bulk of organisations did not
appear to be LOs
• Given that the few LOs that could be identified
tended either to be exceptional organisations or
not to be very successful (e.g. Rover Group).
The LO literature had limited resonance with
practitioners or policy makers.
What Was Lacking
• Hard data on how people learned in and
through their day-to-day jobs.
• How lower status workers learned.
• What characteristics of organisational
design and job structuring aided or
impeded learning on the job.
And Also……..
Any sort of simple diagnostic that would tell
someone how rich a learning environment
was offered by any given workplace. Thus
publicly-funded apprenticeships were
often placed with employers and
workplaces where they were doomed to
deliver weak/poor/shallow learning from
day one.
But Things Have Changed
And for once, for the better!!!!
• Karen Evans et al. 2006. Improving Workplace
Learning, Abingdon: Routledge.
• Michael Eraut & Wendy Hirsch. 2007. The Significance
of Workplace Learning for Individuals, Groups and
Organisations, SKOPE Monograph No. 9, Oxford.
Expansive-Restrictive Learning
Environments
Lorna Unwin and Alison Fuller in Evans et al.
Evolved from work being doen on why some
apprenticeships worked well, and others
failed. Explanation sought in nature of the
work/learning environment.
The Framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Participation in multiple
communities of practice
inside and outside workplace
Restricted and limited
participation in communities
of practice
Primary CoP has shared
memory and cultural
inheritance of skill formation
Main CoP has little shared
memory and tradition of
structured initial training
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Breadth: access to learning
fostered by cross-company
experiences
Narrow: learning restricted in
terms of task, knowledge
and/or location
Access to range of
qualifications
Limited or no access to
qualifications
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Planned time off-the-job,
including for knowledgebased courses and reflection
Gradual transition to full,
rounded participation
Virtually no off-the-job.
No time for reflection.
Vision of workplace learning
= platform for whole career
Vision of workplace learning
= static, for single entry level
job.
As fast as possible transition
to full workload.
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Organisational support for, & Little support for, or
recognition of employee as
recognition of, employee as
learner
learner
Workforce development used
to align individual
development and
organisational capacity
Workforce development used
to tailor individual capability
to immediate organisational
need
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Development fosters chances Development limits chances
to extend skills and identity
to extend skill and identity.
through boundary crossing
Little boundary crossing.
Deep, well-developed
workplace curriculum
(document, symbols,
language and tools)
Shallow, poorly developed
curriculum, patchy access to
more sophisticated practice
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Widely distributed skills
Polarised distribution of skills
Technical skills valued
Technical skills taken for
granted
Only some groups valued and
developed
Rigid specialist roles, often
narrow
Whole workforce valued and
developed
Team work valued
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Cross-boundary
communication encouraged
Bounded communication
Managers as facilitators of
workforce and individual
development
Chances to learn new skills
and jobs and to progress
Managers as controllers and
police
Barriers to learning new skills
or to progression
The framework
EXPANSIVE
RESTRICTIVE
Innovation important
Innovation not important
Multi-dimensional view of
expertise
Uni-dimensional, top-down
view of expertise
What the Framework Allows
• Can ID workplaces where apprenticeship
will work, and those where it will not.
• Can more generally be used to audit a
workplace for learning potential/density.
• Simple and easy to deploy.
Eraut and Hirsch
Commissioned to provide a synthesis and
overview of current knowledge on
workplace learning and its links to
performance. Draws on their own work,
and on that of many others.
Looks at both new entrants to a
job/profession and mid-career
development activities.
Key Point
The vast bulk of learning in the workplace
is:
• informal
• uncertified
• embedded in the process of doing the job
• often impossible to record, quantify or
certify
Work Processes with learning as a
by-product
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Participation in group processes
Working alongside others
Consultation with colleagues
Tackling challenging tasks and roles
Problem solving
Trying things out
Consolidating, extending and refining skills
Working with clients
Learning Actions located within
work or learning processes
• Asking questions
• Getting information
• Locating people who act as resources/knowledge
•
•
•
•
•
•
sources
Negotiating access
Listening and observing
Reflecting
Learning from mistakes
Giving and receiving feedback
Using mediating artifacts (e.g. databases, spreadsheets)
Learning Processes at or near the
workplace
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Being supervised
Being coached
being mentored
Shadowing
Visits to other sites
Conferences
Short courses
Working for a qualification
Independent study
Balance Between These
• Bulk of learning takes place in first box.
• Most attention tends to be focused on last
box (not least by policy makers).
• Impact of courses is often slight and often
mainly to do with networking.
Factors Affecting Workplace
Learning
Challenge and
value of the work
Feedback and support
Learning
Factors
Confidence and commitment
Personal agency and motivation
Context Factors
Encounters and
relationships with people
at work
Allocation and
structuring of work
Context
Factors
Individual participation and
expectations of their performance
and progress
Key Dimension
The allocation of structuring of work was central to
determining the level and success of learning because it
impacted on:
• The difficulty or challenge of the job
• The extent to which activity was individual or
collaborative
• The opportunities for meeting, observing and working
with people who had more or different expertise, and for
forming relationships that provide feedback and support.
Attributes of a Learning
Culture
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•
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Confidence and trust in managers and colleagues
Mutual learning and support
Giving and receiving feedback without blame
Learning from experience, positive or negative
Learning from colleagues, clients and visitors
Locating and using knowledge from outside sources
Attention to the emotional dimension of work
Discussing and reviewing learning opportunities
Reviewing work processes and opportunities for quality
improvement.
The Role of Managers
Managers have a key role in developing a culture of mutual
support and learning, not in trying to provide all of it
themselves.
1. Use of work allocation and job design to create
learning
2. To create trust
3. To appraise and give feedback on both work and
learning
Other Topics Covered
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nature and meaning of group work and learning
The nature of performance
Learning trajectories
Modes of cognition
Transferring knowledge
Learning and innovation
How do organisations facilitate and plan learning
Atomised versus holistic approaches to learning
Weaknesses
Tends to have more to say about the skills
and the work organisation and job design
of higher level workers (managers, nurses,
engineers, accountants).
Skill Usage and Work
Organisation
If we now know lots more about how skill is
created inside the workplace, what do we
know about how it is used therein.
The answer in the UK is quite a lot, but it’s a
bit depressing.
Using Learning in Work
• Low Paid work in the UK - tiny jobs,
limited progression, and some overqualification.
• LSC Large Employers Survey
• Skills Survey time series
LSC Large Employers Survey
2007 Survey of 201 large (1000+
employees, mainly 5000+)
Asked a range of questions about
recruitment, training and job
design/quality.
Job Quality by main occupational
group
L4
L3
L2 or
Below
Total
Low
14.3%
51.9%
40.6%
37.4%
Medium
17.1%
14.8%
16.4%
16.3%
High
68.8%
33.3%
43.0%
46.3%
Skills Survey Data
Year
% over-qualified
1986
29.3%
1992
30.2%
1997
31.7%
2001
35.1%
2006
39.6%
Overall
• The UK has many low discretion, low skilled jobs.
• Their number is not shrinking and may be growing
• Across the economy as a whole, skill requirements are
rising, but slower than the rate at which the workforce’s
qualification levels are rising.
• A large amount of skill is being seriously under-used.
Where Does Policy Go Next?
Two Options
Workplace = ‘black box’ into which more skills
are injected, i.e. more of the same (again, and
again, and again…….)
A three-legged policy - better supply, effort to
stimulate underlying demand, and attempts to
help improve usage in the workplace.
Examples
• Model 1 - England, where we now have
‘world class’ targets at every level to
chase.
• Model 2 - Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia,
Australia, and now New Zealand.
Why Has Model 2 Emerged?
• Countries asking why the skills bang isn’t bigger for the bucks
expended.
• Exposure to international competition makes continued success
problematic (e.g. Ireland).
• Concerns about spreading success across whole population, not just
upper echelons.
• Realisation that more skill does not = economic success UNLESS
other things change as well.
Ireland, Scotland and New
Zealand
• All 3 have decided to try a partnership
approach to changing skill utilisation.
• Following in footsteps of Scandinavians
• A chance to experiment with workplace
innovation, work organisation and job
design.