learning at work: worlds within worlds professor lorna unwin institute of education university of...

Learning at Work: Worlds Within Worlds

Professor Lorna UnwinInstitute of EducationUniversity of London

The workplace as a site for learning

• Learning in the workplace arises from everyday workplace activity plus specific need (e.g. technological change)

• Learning can be deliberate, unplanned, individual or collaborative, incidental, productive, subversive

• Workplace context shapes the learning environment

Workplace Context

• Competitive product markets - target and cost driven

• Government/sector Regulation• Dynamic climate - change/flexibility • Short-term business goals may

conflict with long-term workforce development

Employer Diversity

• Employers vary as much as learners in terms of motivation, aspiration and values

• Some employers have limited managerial/business expertise

• Organisation of work (levels of discretion, involvement in decision-making) has major impact on opportunities for learning

Employer Apathy/Realism?

If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree.

(Kansas City Blues)

Van Driver’s Story

• devise efficient route for day• choose product line to suit each ‘drop’• negotiate prices • arrange product on shelf • waste control• find new customers• maintain existing customer loyal• Calculate, record and collect money• feedback field intelligence to directors

Expansive Environments

• Learning key to success and sustainability – embedded process

• Dual Worker-Learner Identity• Shared pride in organisational

output • Older workers pass on skills,

knowledge and tacit understanding

Restrictive Environments

• Learning regarded as ‘events’ – separate to everyday workplace activity

• Fast journey from learner to productive worker for trainees/apprentices

• Workers restricted to limited job roles – minimal boundary crossing

• Knowledge management confined to elite few

Role of Managers

• Key to maintenance and sustainability of learning environment

• Understanding their drivers and pressures

• Feedback key motivator for employees• Forms of managerial support need

building into model of learning- mentors, coaches, appraisers/reviewers

Points for Discussion

• Employers need help to create more effective learning environments

• Greater emphasis must be placed on the relationship between learning and the way work is organised

• Need for policies that take a more holistic view of skills development – greater connection between enhancing individuals’ skills and the quality of the contexts in which they will develop and apply them

For more information

‘Learning as Work: Teaching and Learning Processes in the Contemporary Work Organisation’ is an ESRC funded project (2003-2008) directed by Alan Felstead, Lorna Unwin, Alison Fuller and Nick Jewson

• l.unwin@ioe.ac.uk

• http://learningaswork.cardiff.ac.uk