Page 24 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

Learning while working
18 Success stories on workplace learning in Europe

Lifelong learning strategies received a further stimulus when the Lisbon
Strategy was relaunched in 2005, with the priority of achieving ‘more and
better jobs’ (European Commission, 2010a; 2010b). The renewal of the Lisbon
strategy in 2005 helped clarify its scope and aims, with the establishment
of four priority areas (research and innovation, investing in people and
modernising labour market, unlocking business potential, particularly of
SMEs, as well as energy and climate change) that have a strong relevance for
education and training systems. Within the New skills for new jobs initiative,
which aims at reaching a better match between the skills that workers have
and available jobs, skill upgrading features as a key measure to keep people
in, or bring them back to, employment. This policy initiative takes into account
the growing importance of transversal skills in maintaining employability:
problem-solving, self-management and communication skills, plus language
skills, digital competences and team working. Finally, the European Strategy
2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth gives emphasis to improving
the quality and relevance of education and training to empower people for
career shifts, engaging in further learning and fully participating in society
through skill development (European Commission, 2010a).
In these European strategic documents, which have set some guidelines
for developing lifelong learning policies, individuals are increasingly requested
to take responsibility for their learning to keep their skills up to date and
maintain their value in the labour market: they need appropriate support. They
need proper guidance and learning support to navigate in an increasingly
complex labyrinth of education and training provision and to interpret the
demands of insecure labour environments in which a job no longer lasts for
a lifetime, as stressed in the Council Resolution on better integrating lifelong
guidance into lifelong learning strategies (Council of the European Union,
2008a). The uncertainties of the present economic circumstances, together
with the complexity of labour market changes, generate an acute need for
high quality information and guidance services for adults to manage their
transitions from work to unemployment, training or another employment.
While European policy documents recall the responsibility of individuals to
go on learning, the lifelong learning paradigm needs to be well understood,
and a recent comparative analysis of changing patterns of work and learning
in Europe draws attention to the fact that:

‘It is important that the message about lifelong learning does not convey that “we all need
to be engaged in substantive learning all the time”. This message could easily be seen as
unachievable – it is out of alignment with how people actually learn across the life-course.
Rather than engaging in continuous learning at an even pace year after year, people are likely