Description:

At least at a rhetorical level, there is a widespread consensus among researchers as well as policy makers about the importance of workplace learning from the perspective of lifelong learning, as well as from the perspective of competitiveness and innovativeness in firms (Lundvall & Johnson, 1994). In spite of the widespread consensus regarding the importance of work-based learning, little is known about processes of learning at work, and the conditions that are likely to facilitate and constrain such processes.In a previous study on patterns of competence development in SMEs (small and medium-sized companies), we were able to demonstrate the importance of external and internal conditions as driving forces for competence development efforts in SMEs (Gill, Kock & Ellström, 2005). A distinction was made between two types of contextual conditions, external conditions related to factors such as competitive pressure and customer demands, and internal conditions related to the work organization in a broad sense. The study showed a significant relationship between the rated strength of contextual conditions and the type of strategy used by the company: a formal strategy (based on formal courses in or outside the workplace) and an integrated strategy (based on formal courses in combination with for example changes of the work organization).In this paper we will pursue these issues a little further and focus on what is here defined as the learning environment of the company (cf. Ellström, 2005; Fuller & Unwin, 2004). More specifically, we will concentrate on aspects related to the work organization, leadership, and qualification requirements

The following two questions will be addressed:

1. What are the relations between the strategies for competence development used by the SMEs and the characteristics of their learning environments?
2. To what extent are the observed strategies of competence development used by the SMEs perceived by the employees to be helpful for facilitating learning at work?

Methodology or methods/research instruments or sources used:

The data was collected as part of an ongoing programme on learning and development processes in SMEs that have received support from the European Social Fund (Objective 3). The study comprises data from 17 SMEs, representing private enterprises and public organizations, and collected by questionnaires (n=151) and interviews (n=90) among employees, managers/owners and union representatives.

Conclusions or expected outcomes or findings:

An important concept in this paper is the notion of the learning environment of an organization. This concept, as used here, refers to conditions that hinder or facilitate learning at an individual-, group- or organizational level (Ellström, 2005). These conditions can be characterized as structural, or related to the individuals' background and subjective conditions, actions and interaction. As important characteristics of the learning environment of a company, we focus on its prior experiences of carrying out programmes for competence development, qualification requirements, potentials for learning at work related to the content and/or organization of work, management support for learning, and union participation in the planning and carrying out competence development. Data will be analyzed and discussed in relation to two different conceptions of learning environments related to the notions of restrictive vs. expansive learning environments (Fuller & Unwin, 2004), and to a distinction between two different patterns (logics) of practice in organizations, called the logic of performance and the logic of development, respectively (Ellström, 2005). These two logics of practice are assumed to reflect not only different ways of understanding learning at work, but also different ways of organizing and designing strategies for competence development and learning at work. We will be able to present interesting results concerning the two different logics used by the SMEs, and to what extent the employees view these different competence development practices as facilitating learning at work.

References:

• Ellström, P.-E. (2005). Two Logics of Learning. In: E. Antonacopoulou, B. Elkjær, & P. Jarvis (Eds.), Learning, Working and Living. Mapping the Terrain of Working Life Learning. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Fuller, A. and Unwin, L. (2004). Expansive Learning Environments: integrating personal and organisational development. In H. Rainbird, A.
• Fuller & A. Munro (Eds.), Workplace Learning in Context, London: Routledge.
• Gill, A., Kock, H. & Ellström, P-E. (2005). Why Do SMEs Participate in a Programme for Competence Development? Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER),Dublin, Ireland
• Lundvall, B-Å. & Johnson, B. (1994). The Learning Economy. Journal of Industry Studies, 2, 1, 23-42.