Learning organizations, employee development and learning representative schemes in the UK and New Zealand

Abstract

PurposeDisparities in learning opportunities endure. This paper aims to investigate whether the learning representative schemes in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) may redress disparate opportunities for learning.Design/methodology/approachAn interview study of UK trade unions' educational officers and an interview study of representatives of bodies involved in designing the NZ learning representative scheme are used to consider each scheme's capability to address disparate learning opportunities.FindingsThe paper finds that the UK scheme allows trade unions to initiate vocational and non‐vocational learning opportunities locally. Legislative and financial support allows some redress of inequalities in learning opportunities. The NZ scheme was introduced through a tripartite alliance of central organizations, without legislative support, to provide vocational opportunities. This scheme may facilitate learning opportunities at companies where the constituents of the central organizations support the initiative.Research implications/ limitationsThe UK scheme is firmly established, while the NZ scheme has only been developed recently. The potential for further developments in the New Zealand scheme must be acknowledged.Practical implications/ limitationsUnion‐backed learning representative schemes in different countries have been introduced to redress the unequal distribution of learning opportunities that exist at work. However, to date, there has been limited research into the potential for learning representative schemes to promote learning in different organizational contexts. There is a need for further research in this area.Originality/valueThe paper presents findings from the first comparative study of the learning representative schemes in the UK and NZ.