Learning At Work

Skills in the WorkplaceIndividual Concerns and Organisational Responses

1Thursday 15 May 2008

Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching National College of Ireland

...a vision of Ireland in 2020 in which a well educated and highly skilled population contributes optimally to a competitive, innovation-driven, knowledge based, participative and inclusive economy

THE EXPERT GROUP ON FUTURE SKILLS NEEDS



Training participation is closely linked to educational attainment

35% of those with no qualifications

60% of those with third level qualifications

Who receives training?



Economics and Skills



Economics and SkillsSkills supply is dictated in part by the individual returns to investing in those skills and by the general level of awareness of those potential returns.




Economic theory, however, is predicated on the assumption that individuals will always make rational decisions.





In reality, an individual’s decision to undertake investment in education or training is often influenced by non-economic considerations including personal and family circumstances, gender and class background

P 31, The Expert Group on Future Skills (2007) 5th Report Tomorrow’s Skills Towards a National Skills Strategy





















New Skills for a New Economy

Knowledge economy skills (from KESP)

Solution oriented thinking

Gathering information

Communicate

Collaborate

Present



Connecting Perspectives

Individual

Instructional

Organisational


Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching National College of Ireland 7Thursday 15 May 2008


BEN



BEN

Ben is 48 years old

Works in transport

Connects with the office for dockets

Sees others using computers

Feels left out and alienated

Feels he could do his own print outs

and wants to be able to book holidays on the net



Adult Learners• Learn

what they want to learn

and what they perceive as useful

• and they integrate new learning with past experience

Tusting, K. and Barton, D. (2003) Models of adult learning: a literature review, National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy. Institute of Education, UK.



PHYSIOLOGICAL

SAFETY

LOVE AND BELONGING

SELF-ESTEEM

SELF-ACTUALISATION

Maslow’s Hierarchy



Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory

Autonomy

I decided to try...

Belonging

We work as a team

Competence

I can do it myself



Tracy’s story

Last year I was in The Local Shopping Centre and they were canvassing for the Know It course

now previous to that I have worked in the same shop for thirty years but it got taken over by a new company three years ago so basically we were in the olden days as in push button tills still writing down orders that type of thing

and all of a sudden within this period of three years everything has turned computerised now basically the tills, the ordering system, everything like that is computerised.



Tracy’s story (cont.)

So the I work with a great crowd of younger people who were all carrying the can for me Don’t worry about it Tracy we’ll put it through…Don’t worry about this, that I was still doing faxing where they e-mail, they were so much more knowledgeable than I was

…so walking through Centre one day and I had been thinking about it I must find out about doing a computer course and two lovely girls explained basically to me what it was, they told me they would put my name forward ... then A just got in touch with me then and it went from there….



AUTONOMY

BELONGING

COMPETENCE



Inquiry Cycle

ASK

Investigate

CreateDiscuss

Reflect
