A culture of change? Adult education in the workplace
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A culture of change? Perspectives on adult education in the workplace
Mary Hamilton, Lancaster University
Workplace general education initiatives are a relatively recent development, spreading fast in North America and beginning to take hold in the UK. Such initiatives may signal changes in the culture of the workplace and in employer attitudes towards their manual workers. They certainly have implications for the culture of the colleges involved in developing such courses and negotiating with employers. These initiatives blur the distinctions between education, training and personal development, work and leisure.
A panel of people engaged in current research projects in this area will explore the general context of the development of workplace education initiatives and offer specific examples from their research.
Susan Hoddinott will introduce the international dimensions in workplace basic education. She will use her experience from North America and the UK to raise critical questions about the changes that are going on, possible causes and outcomes.
Fiona Frank will present data from three case studies of workplace education developed in private companies in the North-West of England. The case studies include interviews with employers, educators, programme organisers, trade unionists and learners themselves.
John Payne will present the results of a questionnaire survey of employers in the UK which looks at their attitudes toward employee development and programmes they have implemented.
Mary Hamilton will lead a discussion which will centre on questions such as
- What is the relationship between adult education opportunities and job-related training?
- How is workforce literacy coming to be perceived as a problem? How are workplace education initiatives seen to contribute to the solution of this problem?
- What factors lead to the development of successful workplace education programmes?
- What counts as ‘success’ by the different parties involved and what motivates them to support such programmes?
- Does the development of these initiatives signal some change in the culture of the workplace? If so, what is the push behind this change, and how do the different models on offer link in with the new culture of the workplace?
- Do workplace adult education initiatives themselves promote change - either in individual lives or in the workplace?
- How does workplace literacy relate to the privatisation of education? Will these programmes replace public provision?
The material on which this discussion will be based is very much ‘work in progress’ since all three research projects are on-going. We expect our thinking to move on during the session and we will write up a paper afterwards which will incorporate these new insights and be circulated to all session participants.
Presenters:
Fiona Frank: Research Associate, Leverhulme funded project on Workplace Basic Education, Centre for the Study of Education and Training, Lancaster University.
Susan Hoddinott: Worker in ABE in Canada since 1980, currently on leave at Warwick University carrying out a comparative study of workplace literacy in the UK, Canada and North America.
John Payne: Research Fellow, UFC funded project on Adult Learners At Work, Department of Adult Continuing Education, University of Leeds.
Chair: Mary Hamilton, Senior Research Fellow, Literacy Research Group, Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.
Reproduced from 1992 Conference Proceedings, pp. 46-47 SCUTREA 1997