Page 26 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

Learning while working
20 Success stories on workplace learning in Europe

(b) social partner contributions to developing and expanding learning
provision in the workplace, through collective bargaining and specific
actions in the working environment that motivate workers to keep on
learning, to move one step up and even acquire a qualification;
(c) sectoral initiatives and partnerships led by enterprises, in which skill
development is a means to stimulate innovation in enterprises and
economic growth, and to anticipate and manage sectoral changes and
restructuring, with a specific focus on SMEs;
(d) the professional development of in-company trainers, to expand the quality
and relevance of skill development initiatives for the workforce.
In considering key success factors and challenges related to workplace
learning, the report examines effective policies, strategic partnerships,
structures, modes of delivery and instruments to expand adult learning in
the workplace. The analysis aims to encourage debate on the contributions
of the workplace to lifelong learning and employment strategies. What kind
of policies and strategies need to be put in place to support employers
developing the skills of their employees? How to develop workplaces that
are conducive to learning? It highlights examples of commendable practice,
innovative responses and effective policies in adult learning that can serve
as leading examples for policy-makers at regional and national level, the
social partners, and guidance and training providers.
The following definitions underpin the analysis of adult learning in the
workplace. For the purpose of this report, adult learning refers to all types of
learning, whether formal, non-formal or informal, undertaken by adults after
they have terminated initial education and training, however far this process
may have gone, whether they have acquired or not a certificate. In this context,
non-formal learning does not lead directly to certification, it is intentional, aims
at achieving certain learning outcomes and is generally not provided by a
formal education or training body. It can be provided, for example, by peer
workers through mentoring, by trainers working in the company or by external
training providers. Informal learning results from daily working activities; it is
embedded in working processes and tasks; it is not structured and typically
does not lead directly to certification. Both non-formal and informal learning
can be validated, recognised and lead to certification, generally, by granting
exemptions from parts of a training programme, which the worker could later
on complete to acquire a recognised certification or qualification.
More specifically, workplace learning is used as a synonym of ‘on-the-job
learning’ and encompasses both non-formal and informal learning embedded
in the working place, in job related processes and tasks, both for introducing