Why this blog on workplace learning?

Why is workplace learning so important?

Workplace learning is a critical component of skills development - but it is the most neglected. It is seldom recognised, codified or implemented in a structured way. Yet is is the oldest and most powerful form of learning that humans engage in, whatever their race culture, gender or social status. It is the same learning process that we see in children learning to walk, speak and play. Children learn to acquire skills through combination of modelling on others, trial-and-error, feedback from others, social interactions and goal attainment. This form of learning is driven by contextual needs and is dependent on the learner interacting with his or her context and environment.

Workplace learning follows a similar pattern, but can be deepened through reflection, or double-loop learning. The learning pattern is also is not just confined to the place of work, i.e. the place where one earns a wage, salary or income. It is also found in social and community settings and activities, in the home, in recreational activities, such as sport, hobbies and even in spiritual activities.

This learning pattern is, however, far more important than merely acquiring notional job skills. It is also key to acquiring values, attitudes and standards.

The consequences of poor workplace learning practices are evident all around us, poor quality workmanship or service, lack of maintenance or service delivery.

So if want an improvement in standards of service and workmanship (workpersonship?), then we are going to have to pay attention to workplace learning.

Why workplace learning is not effective I'll discuss in another post.

Occupational Qualifications on the NQF: Communities of Mistrust?

This paper was developed for SAQA's QAfrica Conference in 2005. It sets out the underlying principles for the establishment of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations in 2008

Abstract

The relationship between qualifications required for the world of work (trades, occupations and professions) and the National Qualifications Framework in South Africa can best be described as uneasy. While labour market players who participated in the evolution of the NQF always worked with one goal in mind – the NQF as a framework for all kinds of learning – the reality has been quite different. Many of the structures and processes that support the NQF work against the uptake of such qualifications on the NQF. 

The paper analyses occupational and labour market requirements, and makes a number of proposals which can be used to create alignment between the world of provision and the world of praxis. In particular it proposes:

• the use of an occupational framework, based on a classification of occupations, to link the world of work and the NQF
• a method of defining occupational competence and hence of structuring qualifications
• the use of unit standards to describe occupational skills
• the role of communities of practice within the quality assurance cycle.

This paper will deal with principles that can apply to a range of occupations including trades and professions.

Introduction

The trigger for this paper was SAQA's call for research on the inclusion of professions on the National Qualifications Framework.

At best, this is a bizarre research question for 2005 going on 2006. 

It was intended from the very beginning that trade, occupation and professional qualifications should be captured on the NQF (NTSI, Ways of Seeing the NQF, even SAQA documents themselves). The NQF was conceived as a framework of learning - not a framework of education and training interventions. People seem to have forgotten that. 

But this question is an indication that the problems inherent in implementing the NQF have created an atmosphere of mistrust. 

What the NQF meant was that those who had been outside the formal structures - the under-educated and the unemployed – would gain access to learning opportunities which would integrate them into the formal system. Also intended was that today’s youth - graduates of schools, FET Colleges and higher education institutions - would have the relevant skills and knowledge to enter into the labour market either as employees, or increasingly, as entrepreneurs.

Whatever indicators are used to measure the NQF, the real question remains unanswered: are those who have been marginalised as the result of past inequities (which still remain with us) now in the main stream?

The NQF promised career progression. But does it achieve this?

For the full paper click here 

 

What is workplace learning?

So what's your understanding of workplace learning?

My sense is that it is a different learning modality.

It kicks in the moment you take off your training wheels, and start riding without support from your teacher, trainer, coach, mentor, your manuals, text books etc. You have to learn to start collecting information through your senses from your work context, make sense of what you see, hear, feel and then start making decisions based on this data or information. The outcome of this process is action. Then the feedback loop begins and you go through the cycle again. There is more, but let's use that as a starting point.

So why should you be interested?
All of us in one way or another are "teachers" of one kind or another. How to we prepare our learners to shift seamlessly into this mode. What is the role and importance of case studies, role plays, on-job observation, role-modelling etc. What prepares and assists learners as they dive in and start to swim on their own?