Workshop Attendance as a Mode of Learning: Evidence from the Netherlands

Andries De Grip,Astrid Pleijers

doi:10.1007/s12186-019-09219-y

Andries De Grip, Astrid Pleijers

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-019-09219-y

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Abstract

Although workshop attendance appears to be as high as participation in training, this paper is the first study in the educational science, human resource management and labour economics literature that explores the drivers of workshop attendance among the working population. In our analysis of the Dutch Adult Education Survey, we find that workshop attendance is highest among managers and professionals, in contrast to their participation in training. These results confirm our expectation that workshop attendance is important in acquiring state-of-the art knowledge on external developments as a dominant source of competitive advantage for the organization. Furthermore, workshop attendance is positively related to individuals’ level of education. Particularly in workers’ mid-career years, attending workshops appears to be an important mode of learning: Workshop attendance is peaking at the age of 47. Moreover, we find that workshop attendance is complementary to training participation instead of a substitute. Our results show that there are interesting differences between the drivers of workshop attendance and those of participation in training and informal learning.

Highlights

Many studies in the fields of educational science, human resource management (HRM) and labour economics analyse the extent to which participation in formal trainingA. de Grip, A
Those employed in larger organisations appear to participate more often in both short and long training courses. This result confirms those of various other studies (e.g. Kyndt and Baert 2013). Since this does not hold for workshop attendance, our findings suggest that workshop attendance could have a lower threshold for those employed in smaller organisations than participation in training does
In the Netherlands, workshop attendance is as high as participation in training courses and higher than participation in informal learning

Summary

Introduction

Many studies in the fields of educational science, human resource management (HRM) and labour economics analyse the extent to which participation in formal trainingA. de Grip, A. Building on early literature on social networks (Tushman 1977), they emphasize that regular communication and personal acquaintances are potential mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge between workers who are employed in different organisations From this perspective, attending a workshop can be an interesting mode of learning from other professionals in the same professional field or industry sector, either by listening to the lectures of experts or by extensive networking with peers participating in the same workshop. This holds all the more because many organisations are aware of the dynamic external environment in which they operate and the importance of state-of-the art information on market developments, research and development (R&D), best practices in workplace innovation, changes in legislation, and so forth. As the speed of these developments in most professions is extremely high, this knowledge cannot be acquired by participating in a training course (Burke and Hutchins 2007) but requires constant learning, which makes that professional organisations define relevant professional learning activities very broadly, including workshop and conference participation (Fenwick 2012)

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