Work-related Learning Research Articles

The impact of workplace changes and supervisor support on employee learning: a nonlinear perspective

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine how workplace changes relate to employee participation in formal learning (i.e. participating in a course or training) and informal learning (i.e. learning from tasks and people at work). Drawing from work design principles, we propose a nonlinear relationship between workplace changes and employee learning, suggesting that multiple changes accelerate employee participation in learning activities. Additionally, we propose that supervisor support for learning moderates this relationship. We examined our hypotheses using survey data from a large subsample of employed workers who participated in the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) in 2018 and 2020. Results showed that workplace changes generally enhance both formal and informal learning. Specifically, we observed a nonlinear relationship for formal learning, however, the pattern of the curve was a decelerating rather than an accelerating one. Further, supervisor support for learning was positively associated with both formal and informal learning and outweighed the association of workplace changes with work-related learning: for employees who experienced high supervisor support, informal learning depended less on workplace changes, but for formal learning it enhanced the found nonlinear relationship and resembled a positive curve that gradually flattens. Results are discussed in light of their theoretical and practical contributions.

Paradoxes in work-related learning—and how they are perceived by practitioners

This article in the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation (GIO)” theoretically and empirically examines potential paradoxes in work-related learning. Organizations are full of paradoxical situations that also affect work-related learning. Based on three forms of work-related learning (i.e., formal, informal, and self-regulated learning) and three learning-relevant dimensions of organizational goal conflicts (i.e., stability vs. change, exploration vs. exploitation, and short-term vs. long-term), nine work-related learning tensions are described that can lead to paradoxical situations. Using survey data of 113 experts from the field, these tensions were evaluated according to their frequency in everyday organizational life and their perceived contradictory nature. The findings show that there are many frequently occurring but less contradictory tensions and some very contradictory but rarely occurring tensions. Implications of the results are discussed.

Strategies used by Information and Communication Technology tertiary students to deal with sexual harassment during work-related learning period in Zimbabwe

Strategies used by Information and Communication Technology tertiary students to deal with sexual harassment during work-related learning period in Zimbabwe

A Private Function: Independent Providers of Vocational Education and Training in Post-War England

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on independent training providers (ITPs) – in other words, private companies – as suppliers of vocational education and training in post-war England. Whilst acknowledging the central role of further education (FE) colleges in delivering vocational learning, it draws attention to a large, diverse sector of ITPs operating alongside FE colleges, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. Data suggest that around 15–20% of vocational learners were enrolled as fee-paying customers with private providers at that time – a figure broadly similar to today. There are, it is argued, three related reasons for this. First, the post-war policy environment, and the varied and uneven nature of colleges at that time, allowed significant room for ITPs to operate as alternative providers of vocational education. Second, the far-reaching ‘efficiency’ gains required since FE colleges left local authority control have largely attenuated the space in which ITPs previously operated. Third, neoliberal assumptions about the superiority of private enterprise mean that ITPs now receive significant funding from the state, largely to deliver Apprenticeships and other programmes of work-related learning – which has, somewhat perversely, reduced the incentive for them to act as bone fide commercial providers of a broader range of vocational learning.

Do employability programmes in higher education improve skills and labour market outcomes? A systematic review of academic literature

ABSTRACT We conduct a systematic literature review of the academic literature on activities organised by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with the aim of improving skills associated with employability and facilitating labour market outcomes. The search resulted in 87 papers followed by an iterative evaluation of their relevance. Papers in the corpus were analysed using an evaluation research framework and classified in terms of the activities, outputs, and outcomes. The reviewed literature is centred on one of three stakeholders: HEIs, students or employers. It suggests all stakeholders value employability activities for similar reasons. Generally, they are seen as a vital part of HEI education programmes, facilitating the development of diverse skills that are desirable in the labour market as well as de-risking labour market entry for students and appointments for employers by alleviating information asymmetries. The evidence base is dominated by small-scale case studies and evaluations that are not sufficiently robust to infer about causal impacts of employability activities on students’ development and labour market outcomes. Moreover, the corpus is skewed towards studies of Work-Related Learning. We set out avenues for future research and argue for a comprehensive evidence base encompassing diverse forms of employability activities, such as larger scale ‘embedded employability’ activities; a more contextual understanding of employability as an interplay between individual and a particular labour market and education system; and a more robust evidence base tracking students from education into the labour market, allowing for selection effects and identifying heterogeneity of impacts across different activities and demographics.

Virtual Communities of Practice on LinkedIn: A Study on Self-directed, Work-related Learning

As a career network, LinkedIn offers access to a wide range of job-related information and a low-threshold opportunity for exchange among experts in various fields. The purpose of this study was to find out which LinkedIn functions are particularly useful for self-directed professional development and to what extent users’ motivation to learn is influenced by their virtual community of practice (VCoP) on LinkedIn. Two approaches were taken to answer this question. First, a literature review on four different learning theories was conducted: self-directed learning, situated learning, social learning and connectivism. The learning mechanisms on social media were then put into the context of those four learning theories. Additionally, the specific potential of learning via social media and especially via LinkedIn was considered. Second, a qualitative interview study with LinkedIn users who were categorised as digital learning experts based on their education and/or profession was conducted. According to the results of the study, LinkedIn offers excellent conditions for professional development. Various functions such as consuming others’ posts, writing own posts, comments or private messages and subscribing to hashtags or newsletters support work-related learning processes. The value of the LinkedIn Learning course platform is controversial. The results also show that VCoP activities can influence users’ motivation to learn both positively and negatively. The LinkedIn activities of others can inspire users, but they can also cause social pressure. The results of the interview study represent an addition to the research field of “learning with social media” and can be used as recommendations for dealing with LinkedIn in order to broaden or deepen one’s professional knowledge. This study especially highlights the use of LinkedIn for lifelong learning with the goal of professional development.

Up-skilling and Re-skilling: A Strategic Response to Changing Skill Demands

The significance of up-skilling and re-skilling workers' work-related learning is discussed in this study along with how it affects talent mobility and engagement. The present research looks at the impact of re-skilling and up-skilling workers to create a workforce that is prepared for the future. Professionals in the automotive sector are the target audience. A questionnaire was employed as the data gathering tool. The hypotheses were analyzed using SPSS software. The study's findings demonstrated how employee engagement and talent mobility gain momentum when work-related learning is up-skilled and re-skilled. 

Identities in motion – Boundary-crossing learning from an intrapersonal perspective

This paper investigates how learning unfolds in poly-contextual settings. In work-related learning, boundaries between contexts have been viewed as learning resources. From the multilevel approach suggested by Akkerman and Bruining (2016), we focus on the intrapersonal level, on individuals as units of analysis. We propose an intrapersonal methodology and demonstrate it with an empirical study based on individual interviews. We combine cultural-historical activity theory understanding of an individual with Mariann Märtsin's ideas of identity construction and identity as subjective sense through multivoiced negotiations of meaning at the boundaries within the self. Our analysis demonstrates how the interviewees offered examples of identity construction that show how they rendered their being meaningful in the world in all its diversity without losing the unity of the self. Situationally dominant senses opened fields of meaning potentials with mediating semiotic devices at the boundary between the personal and the professional. The analysis points to some generalizability of sensemaking as a generic process that always operates in unique forms. Our findings suggest that exploring subjectivity from the perspective of sensemaking may contribute to research on work-related learning by addressing an object of sense making which is dialogically comprised with hybridity, multiplicity, and complexity.

Growth Motives and Learning Behaviors Among Older Workers: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment

Research findings indicate an age-related decline in worker’s growth and learning. In this paper, we investigate to what extent these results may be affected by measures (e.g., growth need strength scale) that are influenced by educational approaches to workplace learning, framing learning as intentional processes of knowledge acquisition guided by educators. Based on Human Resource Development (HRD) and non-HRD literature, we propose that these measures may not fully capture learning processes of older workers who seemingly prefer learning outside of formal educational contexts (e.g., spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning). We examine measures of growth motives and learning behaviors and conclude that these are strongly influenced by an educational perspective, encouraging inaccurate conclusions regarding older workers’ learning interest and activity. We provide suggestions for the development of new measures inspired by a noneducational perspective on work-related learning, for instance by tapping into spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning.

Augmented Reality für konstruktivistisches Lernen bei der Arbeit: Aktuelle Perspektiven und zukünftige Anwendungen

AbstractThis manuscript for the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) addresses the use of a new and very promising technology for work-related learning, Augmented Reality. New technological solutions have and continue to impact work in different areas, one of which is work-related learning. While Augmented Reality has been subject to numerous studies in the context of work and work training, there is a need for more detailed discussion of its relation to the theoretical foundations of learning and the therein based implications for designing and testing learning environments in Augmented Reality. For this purpose, our paper first reviews current perspectives on Augmented Reality and its value for work-related learning, before introducing and examining the concept of Instructional Design Methods. These are abstract mechanisms that can be used to support training using Augmented Reality based on expert performance. Through thorough discussion of these methods, we pose new perspectives on their application for future research and practical application.

Building Bridges Between Work-Related Learning Approaches: Insights From a Secondary Meta-Analysis (WITHDRAWN)

Building Bridges Between Work-Related Learning Approaches: Insights From a Secondary Meta-Analysis (WITHDRAWN)

Which way of learning benefits your career? The role of different forms of work-related learning for different types of perceived employability

ABSTRACT Building and maintaining employability is important for employees and organizations in a changing world of work. Research considered work-related learning as an antecedent of employability but provided ambiguous findings. We attribute this inconsistency to the multidimensionality of the constructs involved. Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory, we investigated the links of three different forms of work-related learning (i.e., informal, formal, and self-regulated learning) with both internal (i.e., within the organization) versus external (i.e., in the general labour market) and qualitative (i.e., finding a better job) versus quantitative (i.e., finding another job) perceived employability. Our two-wave study (N = 307 employees) showed that informal learning positively relates to qualitative and quantitative internal employability, but not to any type of external employability. Conversely, self-regulated learning is positively linked to qualitative external employability, but not to quantitative external or any type of internal employability. Formal learning (i.e., training and workshops) surprisingly did not contribute to employability at all. Furthermore, we did not find that learning forms conceptually associated with more resource investment regarding effort would show stronger relations with employability. We discuss learning-related strategies to foster employability and address the missing association between formal learning and employability, calling for more sophisticated measures of formal learning.

Training prospective technical education graduates for school-to-work transition: insights from university–industry links

PurposeFollowing the tenets of experiential learning theory (ELT) and social cognitive theory (SCT), this study aims to investigate the influence of higher technology education students' placement experiences (work-related learning by teaching practice [WLTP] and by industry attachment [WLIA]) on learning self-efficacy (LSE) and perceived employability skills (PES) (namely, perceived future network [PFN], perceived expected experiences [PEE]), perceived future personal characteristics (PFPC), perceived future labour market knowledge (PFLMK) and perceived future skills (PFS).Design/methodology/approachUsing two-wave surveys (T1 & T2), data were collected from technical education students (N = 257) in Nigerian universities. At T1, LSE and PES were measured, while WLTP, WLIA, LSE and PES were measured at T2. The repeated measure t-test, and structural equation modelling were applied for statistical analyses.FindingsThe authors found a significant increase in the students' LSE and PES from T1 to T2. Direct associations between WLTP, WLIA, LSE and PES were partly supported. Similarly, WLTP and WLIA have indirect relationships with PES via LSE. However, the result of the indirect effect is partly supported for WLTP and PES relations; but fully supported for WLIA and PES relations.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough this study is not an experimental design to absolutely justify causality, it has provided valuable empirical evidence that added to the extant literature on higher education students' work-related learning, learning ability and employability skills.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the simultaneous influence of two aspects of students' work placement (WLTP and WLAI) on LSE and employability as well as the changes that occur after the placement.

Advanced professional learning in England and Wales: the lost opportunity of the colleges and institutes of higher education

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the colleges and institutes of higher education (CIHEs), major providers of HE, almost sixty of which existed in England and Wales between the 1970s and the early twenty-first century. Its central argument is that a failure to develop the CIHEs as specialist institutions of advanced professional learning along the lines of the German Berufsakademien (rather than being recast as universities of moderate standing) was a significant error, especially in terms of failing to provide a viable alternative to university-based higher education in England and Wales. This alternative trajectory would, I argue, have been beneficial both for the CIHEs as institutions and for those sections of the labour market most associated with them, especially in terms of resolving some of the long-standing tensions between academic and work-related learning in preparing aspiring professionals for employment in a range of people-centred occupations. The paper traces the historical development of the CIHEs and critically considers how they might have been alternatively fostered following the 1978 Oakes Report, a possibility, which, it is argued, was effectively extinguished following the neoliberal turn, which took place from the end of the 1970s onwards.

Work-Related Learning Practices of University Graduates: Scope and Determinants

The article analyzes the scale of work-related learning of recent higher education graduates, describes its main practices, determines the factors of participation in training. The empirical analysis is carried out on data from the federal survey of Russian university graduates who completed their studies in 2016-2020. The sample consists of 9325 graduates. About a quarter of recent graduates participated in job-related training in their first year of work. The probability of work-related learning is higher for full-time graduates and for those who are employed as a specialist. It does not depend on whether the graduate works in his specialty or not. Important predictors of participation in work-related learning are the lack of professional skills and the importance of personal (individual) characteristics for successful work. The results showed that work-related learning acts as a tool to overcome the gap between the knowledge and skills that graduates have and the knowledge and skills necessary for the employer, mainly professional content. It was found that participation in work-related training practices is differentiated by qualification groups and by the scarcity of different types of knowledge and skills. On the one hand, formal learning and, on the other, mentoring and self-learning are interchangeable practices. Mentoring and self-learning are in many ways complementary practices of job-related training.

Work-related informal learning in knowledge-intensive industry

AbstractThis study investigates occurrences and tools of informal and non-formal learning at work, focusing on the Hungarian IT sector. The aim is to demonstrate that learning at work mainly manifests informally and to identify its patterns. Companies shifting towards teleworking during the pandemic further increased the importance of informal learning. The empirical research uses complex methodology of three pillars: A questionnaire about workplace learning conducted among employees in the IT sector (N = 162). Case studies of three Hungarian IT companies using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Learning activity logging of work-related learning events were recorded by participating employees (N = 19). According to the main conclusions there is a positive correlation between the number of available workplace learning opportunities and opinions on the efficacy of informal learning. Informal learning dominates the learning patterns of employees in a knowledge-intensive industry. In supporting employees’ learning the average number of informal learning opportunities are significantly higher than those of formal learning and both employees and employers agree that this mode of learning is more effective.The results highlight that reinterpreting workplace learning is necessary due to economic, social and technological trends not to mention employer flexibility becoming more and more inevitable. Thus, the importance of informal learning is unquestionable.

Resources to Increase Older Workers’ Motivation and Intention to Learn

Two important and current trends in the domain of work are the aging workforce and the high and increasing requirement for work-related learning due to the rate of technological advancement and innovation. Together, they create a precarious situation, as many theories suggest a decline in motivation to learn as people age. This study investigates antecedents of motivation and intention to learn in older employees in the financial sector. Specifically, we research how learning motivation is affected by personal and job resources and how these translate into intentions to learn. Data was collected via a quantitative survey of 870 employees aged 50 or older. The data is analyzed by the means of structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show positive relationships between proactive personality and motivation (subjective task value and learning self-efficacy) and negative relationships between institutionalized negative age stereotypes and motivation. This, in turn, affects older employees’ intention to learn. Finally, in contrast to supervisor support, organizational support for professional development raised utility value in the respondents. The findings suggest that organizations might want to recruit employees who are high in pro-active personality. Also, trainings may be fruitful to educate against the negative stereotypes that often associate old age with an inability to learn. Finally, supervisors and trainers should explain the utility and interest of the learning activities since it makes employees motivated to learn.

Personal Financial Management Skills Of University Students and Their Financial Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract: Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to assess university students’ financial management skills and their financial experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. Research methodology: The research adopted the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design where a survey of 181 students on work-related learning was conducted using questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistic 27 Results: The study established that the majority of the students do not have a budget, run out of money before receiving the next income, have no funds set aside for uncertainties or medical expenses related to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to make ends meet most of the students borrow money from relatives and friends. The majority of students struggled financially because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Limitations: Questionnaires and interviews were only distributed/conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Contribution: Personal financial management skills are a vital human capital skill for students. Therefore the need to explore such skills and financial experiences of University students during the Covid-19 pandemic for the first time. Keywords: 1. Personal financial management skills 2. financial planning 3. financial experiences

Sovereign Workplace Learning: A Process Model to Integrate Self-regulated and Informal Learning

In a rapidly changing organizational world of work, sovereign workplace learning (i.e., work-related learning that takes place autonomously and independently of formal structures in organizations, putting the learner in charge of the learning process) is playing an increasingly important role in contrast to formal training. Our conceptual article identifies self-regulated learning and informal learning as the two key learning forms of sovereign workplace learning, which have rarely been considered together due to existing research thresholds between educational and management research. To overcome the fragmentation in literature and to reduce existing conceptual overlaps, we develop an integrative process model of sovereign workplace learning that includes a self-regulated learning pathway and an informal learning pathway. We base the model on a learning-specific planned behavior perspective and distinguish the stages stimulus, intention, and spontaneity of learning. Our article provides conceptual clarification and enables a new interdisciplinary perspective on sovereign workplace learning. We also set a future research agenda that includes issues of boundary conditions, antecedents, outcomes, operationalizations and interventions to foster sovereign workplace learning. Implications of the model for theory and practice—with special focus on promoting conditions conducive to learning in organizations—are discussed.

Journalism pedagogy and ICTs in a time of pandemic: A case study of selected journalism schools in Southern Africa

The paper explores journalism pedagogy in selected Southern African journalism schools. It draws from two South African Universities: The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Journalism Department and the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). From Zimbabwe, it draws on Journalism and Media Departments: The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Media and Society Studies at Midlands State University (MSU). The paper utilises the Domestication theory and Replacement model as theoretical paradigms to assess how the selected journalism schools reconfigured teaching and learning on their practical and theoretical subjects during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Semi-structured interviews are used with students and journalism educators to understand strategies adopted in the deployment of lectures. The study aims at understanding the teaching techniques that were adopted by journalism educators during the pandemic and how students adopted to virtual delivered education. Lastly, we solicit views from students who were already seeking or had been placed on attachment or work-related learning to establish how they readjusted, if at all. The study found that teaching practical courses was a challenge because, for example, editing suits for film and radio courses are housed on campus. For Zimbabwean universities, the challenge was that students were not given data by the University for online learning while lecturers’ data was not enough for their teaching. This is in contrary to South Africa were both lecturers and students were given data, laptops and other gadgets for online learning. Despite challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, lecturers received training on how to conduct online lessons and restructured their syllabus to ensure that it meets the demands of the ‘new normal’.