DEL LABOUR MARKET SEMINAR WELCOME!! Introduction: Victor Dukelow Analytical Services, DEL.

DEL LABOUR MARKET SEMINAR

WELCOME!!

Introduction: Victor DukelowAnalytical Services, DEL

Analytical Services

Northern Ireland Population Estimates

80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80

0- 4

10-14

20-24

30-34

40-44

50-54

60-64

70-74

80-84

90-94

100 & over

('000s)

Females

2009

Males

Analytical Services

Northern Ireland Population Estimates

80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80

0- 4

10-14

20-24

30-34

40-44

50-54

60-64

70-74

80-84

90-94

100 & over

('000s)

Females

2020

Males

Over 75% of the 2020 Workforce is already in

today’s Workforce

Analytical Services

NI’s working age population is less well qualified than most other UK regions

… 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)

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

Wales Scotland England UK Northern 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

A Policy Conundrum?

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?

Adult learning in the workplace:enhancing skills for life?

Karen Evans

Individual data

• Initial test and interview

• Follow-up test and interview

• Final test and interview

• Interviews with tutors• N=567 in initial

sample

• Plus more detailed in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of learners, and their managers and tutors

Workplace data

• Interviews with training managers

• Follow-up interviews with training managers

• Interviews with line managers

ESOL learners are heavily represented in the sample

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

Level 1 11 16 12

Level 2 18 23 16

Level 1 or 2 (includes those where unclear which)

36 48

Level 3 11 6 16

Level 4 6 2

29

Level 5 1 0

NB: numbers in column 1 do not sum to 100

Understanding people and environments

• 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, self-aware learners, and with the workplace

environment.

Enterprises’ own efforts

• 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’

Motivations and benefits….

•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.

Correlates of progress

• 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

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Learn new skills Do current jobbetter

Increasechances forpromotion

Increasechances forbetter job

Meet new people Make current jobmore interesting

Earn moremoney

%

Two most important outcomes that learners wanted or expected from their course at Time 1Two most important outcomes that learners actually felt they got from their course

Outcomes of course (item by item basis)

Increased confidence at work 66%

Developed new skills 61%

Increased confidence outside work 59%

Met new people 58%

Affected how current job is done* 45%

Helped with use of computers outside work 33%

Helped with use of computers at work 27%

Made work more interesting 25%

Increased chances for promotion 11%

Increased chances of a better job 10%

Helped earn more money 2%

* 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.

Changing track…

• 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

ParticipationIn Further Learning (%)

LearnersAll

Learnersexcluding involuntary

LFS sample

Non-ESOL 44.5 51.9 37.5

ESOL 45.8 n/a 33.7

Confidence - building

• 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.

Too few hours….?

• Workplace literacy courses produce very small average gains in performance, but participants’ average performance continues to improve over a two year post-instruction 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.

Use it or lose it….

• 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.

Implications?

• Citizens’ entitlements – best achieved through or beyond the workplace?

• Connecting ‘courses’ with use of skills on-job 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)

Further insights

• 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

Workers’ dispositions

The learning workplace

Expansive learning

environments

Understanding the learning workplace is central to analysing incentives

and barriers

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”

From ‘Putting Knowledge to Work’, Evans, Guile and Harris 2009 :

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