Introduction: Victor Dukelow
Analytical Services, DEL

Analytical Services
Northern Ireland Population Estimates
2009
100 & over
90-94
80-84
70-74
60-64
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0- 4
80
Males
60 40 20 0
('000s)
20
Females
40 60 80

Analytical Services
Northern Ireland Population Estimates
2020
100 & over
90-94
80-84
70-74
60-64
50-54
40-44
30-34
20-24
10-14
0- 4
80
Males
60 40 20 0
('000s)
Females
Over 75% of the
20
2020 Workforce is already in today’s Workforce

Analytical Services
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
NI’s working age population is less well qualified than most other UK regions
% of Working Age Population
Qualified to level 4 and above
% Working Age Population with No
Qualifications
25,0
20,0
15,0
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
 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?

• 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

• Interviews with training managers
• Follow-up interviews with training managers
• Interviews with line managers

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
16
23
12
16
Level 1
Level 2
Level 1 or 2
(includes those where unclear which)
Level 3
11
18
36
11
Level 4 6
Level 5 1
NB: numbers in column 1 do not sum to 100
48
6
2
0
16
29

• 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.

•
•
•
•
• 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’

•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.

• 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 Time 1
Two most important outcomes that learners actually felt they got from their course

Outcomes of course (item by item basis)
Increased confidence at work
Developed new skills
Increased confidence outside work
Met new people
Affected how current job is done*
Helped with use of computers outside work
Helped with use of computers at work
Made work more interesting
Increased chances for promotion
Increased chances of a better job
Helped earn more money
* 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.
66%
61%
59%
58%
45%
33%
27%
25%
11%
10%
2%

• 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 excluding involuntary
LFS sample
Non-ESOL 44.5
51.9
37.5
ESOL 45.8
n/a 33.7

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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)

• 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

Regulatory framework
Expansive learning environments
Workers’ dispositions
The learning workplace

Types of Informal Learning
1) Observing from Knowledgeables
2) Practising without Supervision
3) Searching Independently for Information
4) Focused Workplace Discussions
5) 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
”

• Can a shared focus on ‘putting knowledge to work’ better bring together employer, employee and provider interests?