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.
All real knowing is doing – all doing is knowing. And if that’s the case, what's the potential for recognizing prior learning in the workplace?
In a rare Manitoba engagement, world-renowned author/lecturer Dr. Peter Senge was asked to contemplate the connection between recognizing prior learning in the workplace and his seminal work on the learning organization and building the organizational culture of learning. Dr. Senge was the keynote speaker at Reframing Manitoba’s Workplace: Uncovering Hidden Skills, a one-day conference on recognizing workplace prior learning.
Some key points to ponder from his discussion include:
- How we view learning in the North American Society. Our public education system is based on a linear model of learning - where the notion of schooling substitutes for knowledge and transmitting information suffices for learning. In part, the education system reflects the “industrial age” and the assembly-line lens on how to build and add value.
- How any of us really learning anything. Take for example learning to walk. We can’t explain what we do and, as parents, we clearly can’t “tell” our toddler how to walk – we learn to walk by doing, and doing and doing. And look around – we all do it a bit differently.
- Almost all real learning is acquired on the job. Because that’s where knowledge is applied to gain results. Knowledge is the capacity for effective action. And on the job – that means can I do it, in a context, for an outcome. It’s about learning to generate a value.
- Knowledge is what we do. Real knowledge isn’t out there – it’s within us. Real knowledge is embodied... and think about it: any of us “know” far more than we can “tell.” Knowledge is inherently fragmented and learning is “place-centred.”
- The acquisition of knowledge – learning – is both a very individual process and a very collective process. We all learn with other learners, which is very clear in the workplace where the work of the many produces organizational results.
- And in the work place, it’s not so much about right and wrong but about what is effective and ineffective.
Overall, we need to think differently about learning and go beyond the formal education system to value all knowledge, regardless of the place where it's attained and applied.
