Sometimes the best way to attract good people is to show them how easy it will be for them to leave you. The Royal Air Force in the UK is an employer of choice because they can demonstrate the employability of their “graduates”.
John Konrad is an international researcher in Vocational Education and Training [VET] and a policy advisor to British and European governments He is a national and European Expert on the Transparency and Recognition of Qualifications and Competencies.
“Get ‘Em to Show You.”
That’s the very simple premise upon which some organizations build their approach to Recognizing Prior Learning in the workplace.
As one Manitoba employer says, “You don’t know what an employee can do, if you don’t ask.”
And that means finding ways to identify how employees apply both their formal and informal learning.
There are many learning paths for workplace skills – college, universities and on the job experience. The key is understanding what exact skills and knowledge are required for explicit tasks at specific worksites.
It’s easy to think that a weld is a weld and a measurement is a measurement – but each industry and workplace has their own standards for applying that skill and knowledge.
Some large organizations are investing in identifying, documenting and testing for that specific application of knowledge right from job descriptions and recruitment to assessing and addressing training needs.
Is it costly? Perhaps. But in today’s competitive market with changing skills demands and increasing need for task-specific training – can employers afford not to invest?
