Page 39 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

To train or not to train? 33

However, recent international policy reviews suggest that a fundamental
bulk of adult learning takes place at the workplace (Keogh, 2009), through
informal processes, as working tasks are carried out in everyday problem-
solving contexts; this is not quantifiable. A recent analysis of changing patterns
of working, learning and career development across Europe confirms that
informal learning is a central component of skill development at work (European
Commission, 2010f). The study lays emphasis on the breadth and diversity
of learning at the workplace, through engagement with challenging tasks,
involvement in activities that imply decision making, problem solving and
exercise of judgement, as well as peer learning – such as team working and
communities of practice – supporting the learning of others and job changes.
The analysis concedes that learning acquired while working, through informal
processes, need to be combined with more structured, systematic and formal
learning pathways to enable employees make a significant leap in terms
of knowledge, proficiency and performance in a particular field (European
Commission, 2010f, p. 61-64). Alternative forms of learning, mainly non-formal,
do not compete with more formal forms of training, which enterprises may
organise, but rather complement them (Cedefop, 2010b, p. 65).
How far have we gone in the establishment of working environments that
encourage learning? The level of learning demanded in a job and the degree
of intellectual challenge are indicative of a work organisation in which workers
can develop their competences on the job (Eurofound, 2008a). The Fourth
European working conditions survey selected five indicators to assess the
extent to which workers can broaden their competences at work; while two
concern the use of quality standards in the work process (meeting precise
quality standards and assessing the quality of own work), three others refer
to the complexity of work and the need to acquire new knowledge for work
performance (solving unforeseen problems, carrying out complex tasks
and learning new things). In contrast, a working environment that hinders
workers in developing their skills while working is one that imposes low
cognitive demands and comprises monotonous tasks.

‘Those workers who carry out complex tasks and learn new things at work are much more
likely to feel that they need further training, whereas the opposite is the case for those carrying
out monotonous and repetitive tasks (who are actually more likely to consider themselves
over-skilled for the work they do)’ (Eurofound, 2007a, p. 48).

Workers carrying out routine working tasks may assume responsibilities in
the workplace through which they use a wider variety of transversal skills and
take on further learning, such as acting as health and safety delegates, trade