Untapped potential

In today’s Europe, there is no shortage of voices urging for stimulation of innovative environments and competencies among highly educated workers – largely for the purpose of hopefully keeping Asia’s tiger economies in check for a while yet. We also have considerable experience in such innovation stimulation. However, when it comes to developing and utilising the competencies of low-educated workers, such insights and positive experiences are much rarer.

This is the current situation – regrettably, says lecturer Steen Høyrup from the Danish School of Education, co-author of the report “Arbejdsplads læring – strategier/metoder og resultater” (Workplace learning – strategies/methods and results). The report analyses a number of successful competence development projects from the Nordic countries and provides workplaces and educational institutions with concrete recommendations for maximising the potential of competence development projects. “The companies that have succeeded best in adopting a goal-oriented approach to competence development at all levels have involved the entire staff – not only management and other key persons – in the process. These businesses take care to utilise all the knowledge that production and service personnel have with regard to wastage and inappropriate work processes, as well as experiences and ideas related to workplace development. Better use of employees’ knowledge means profit for the companies, both financially and in the form of greater job satisfaction among the personnel who get a chance to share their knowledge”, says Steen Høyrup.

He hopes that the report can, among other things, contribute to ending the persistent myth that learning which takes place in the context of daily work tasks is only narrowly applicable to these specific tasks. The study shows that workplace learning enhances broader competencies, leading to what could be described as improved employability. “On the contrary, it was clear that employees acquired broader competencies, which they used in different ways. Organisational culture plays an important role here: a company striving to utilise the competence of all its entire personnel must create space for social changes that make it possible for employees to make use of what they have learnt”, Steen Høyrup stresses. Another characteristic trait of successful companies was that they were influenced by the so-called Nordic model. Employers and workers were used to discussing and negotiating work-related issues regularly, both locally at the workplace and through their respective labour market organisations. Concrete plans for competence development projects, too, were preceded by negotiations between management and employees.

Employee-driven innovation

One typical characteristic of the successful competence development examples analysed by the research team is close cooperation between human resources managers at the workplace and consultants at the educational institutions. Competence development processes are usually tailored for the company by, for instance, using concrete challenges experienced by workers and combining these with theory. In addition, successful companies planned in advance how the results could be implemented. “For example, on a course in cooperation and communication, the participants’ final task was to consider how the concrete communication routines of the workplace could be improved. In other words, they were able to apply their newly acquired knowledge straight away and to create useful changes at the workplace”, Steen Høyrup explains.

Together with colleagues from several Danish universities and about ten other European universities, he is now planning a joint research project in employee-driven innovation and workplace learning. The goal is to assemble knowledge and draw up concrete guidelines for a more systematic approach to stimulating innovative workplace environments and developing innovative competencies among the entire personnel, including workers with low education levels.

“A challenge currently facing Europe is that many unskilled jobs are disappearing, while the remaining jobs and new tasks are becoming more knowledge-intensive. New, useful knowledge must be created, shared and used at work. Employees are increasingly expected to see the broader picture, to take control and to delegate responsibility between different teams, for instance. Of the Nordic workplaces analysed in our study, the ones that had come farthest consider it important that employees participate in developing the company’s overall strategic goals. One possible way of supporting such generation and sharing of knowledge is to give employees time and space to reflect on their work-related experiences together, so that they can discuss these issues when they need to. Opportunities for learning, creating new knowledge and competence at work, as well as the factors that support such learning at the workplace, are some of the things we plan to explore in our European project on employee-driven innovation. Our ambition is to create knowledge that can inspire and benefit people across country borders”, Steen Høyrup lists.

Putting creativity on the curriculum

As the labour market changes, new expectations will be directed at education providers that cater for people with low education levels. For instance, it is possible that education institutions will increasingly be asked to help with the development of learning environments at companies. They might be expected to supply both the theoretical background and part of the practical day-to-day functions, such as mentoring. Furthermore, educational institutions will be seen as crucial partners in regional cooperation projects related to competence development, Steen Høyrup predicts.

Many businesses are going to expect the inclusion of a global perspective, too, since they themselves keep a close eye on developments taking place abroad. With regard to education providers, the rise of innovative businesses will probably lead to more demand on learning processes that support the development of innovative environments and competencies, rather than training based on “course packages” designed in advance, he says.

The cross-European research network recently arranged its first seminar, and the members have another year left to develop their thoughts before they submit their project application to the EU. The fact that researchers from four Danish universities have announced their interest in the plans might be seen as an indication of the increased focus directed at stimulating and developing learning at work and at Danish workplaces right now. Budget allocations to adult and continuing education have increased, the Ministry of Education has initiated a national centre of competence development, and policy-makers are stressing the importance of meeting the current education and development needs of workplaces.

Steen Høyrup personally looks forward to starting the research project in earnest as soon as he gets the green light from the EU. “We still need to discuss and make decisions about many issues related to the project, but I have no doubt that it will be incredibly exciting to generate new knowledge about employee-driven innovation and to create knowledge by comparing the conditions and developments in different European countries.”

Crucial factors for successful competence development
* Integration of formal and informal (job-based) learning
* Integration of individual learning processes and changes that take learning into account at the workplace
* Competence development is incorporated into the company’s overall development strategy
* Strategies for employees’ competence development are integrated into the concrete human resources routines
* Successful strategies call for a holistic vision of the workplace
* Close cooperation between those responsible for competence development at the workplace and the relevant education providers Lessons in workplace learning A Nordic team of researchers, led by lecturer Steen Høyrup from the Danish School of Education and Professor Per-Erik Ellström from Linköping University, has surveyed and analysed successful examples of competence development at medium-sized workplaces in the Nordic countries. The overriding goal was to form an overview of best practice in this field, to secure knowledge dissemination, and to provide inspiration for new initiatives in the Nordic countries. The project is conducted under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The report was published in June 2007, and it is accessible at the website of the NCM. The conclusions of the report have been translated into English.