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Workplace learning in the UK – a new institutionalisation?

This research paper examines the changing landscape of workplace learning in the UK, particularly in the context of the state's role in vocational education and training. The study discusses the dismantling of VET institutions, the shift towards participative management of learning, and the development of partnerships and employee entitlements. It also explores the uneven process of institutionalization and the role of different stakeholders in shaping workplace learning practices.

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Workplace learning in the UK – a new institutionalisation?

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  1. Workplace learning in the UK – a new institutionalisation? Professor Helen Rainbird, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK

  2. Introduction • The UK – a liberal market economy cf coordinated economies (Hall and Soskice, 2001) • Organised cooperation and rules of exchange between competitors and opposing groups (Crouch and Streeck, 1997) • Voice mechanisms • Institutional, responsive and reactive partnerships on learning (Wallis and Stuart, 2004) • Skills as a collective good – market failure ‘endemic and inevitable’ (Streeck,. 1989) • The UK – any change since Labour came to power in 1997?

  3. Structure • The UK context: an increasingly centralised role for the state in VET • Towards more participative management of learning in the workplace? • The public sector: a more propitious context for institutional approaches to skill development? • Discussion and conclusion

  4. The context • Dismantling of VET institutions under the Conservatives 1979-1997 – shift from a tripartite to a neo-liberal regime (King, 1993) • Centralisation of VET policy under the Learning and Skills Councils and voluntarism in the workplace • Sector Skills Councils – limited capacity for voluntary collaboration • ‘Crowding out’ of other stakeholders by the state (Keep, 2004)

  5. A more participative management of learning in the workplace? • Rhetoric of partnership but lack of institutions involving dual agency • Union learning representatives – create demand • No rights to consultation on company training plan (1999 Employment Relations Act – only applies to workplaces recognised under statutory procedures and excluded from Information and Consultation Regulations 2004) • Reactive partnerships emerge in a crisis • Based on ‘enthusiastic local actors’ but institutionally fragile • Extremely weak or unenforceable legal entitlements • Possible basic platform of entitlement to NVQ level 2 – from 2006/7 free tuition for first full level 2 qualification

  6. The public sector: a more propitious context for institutional development? • Skills Strategy White Paper ‘public sector leading by example’ • Modernisation agenda plus UNISON as industrial union with workplace learning strategy • Development of partnerships and employee entitlement • Increasing national coordination especially in health • Northern Ireland – union-driven, multi-employer co-ordination in regional and local partnership boards

  7. Discussion and conclusion • Uneven process of institutionalisation – centralisation but no employer coordination or cooperation • Union learning representatives but Confederation of British Industry resistance to encroachment on employer prerogative • Achievements based on bargaining strength, new learning provision and possible basic floor of rights • Responsive approach to partnership in the public sector • Public sector exceptionalism: ‘good employer’ or the continuation of British industrial relations tradition of ‘collective laissez-faire’?

  8. Research projects • Munro, A. and H. Rainbird, 2003. Evaluation of Unison/employer partnerships on workplace learning in Northern Ireland. • Rainbird, H. K. Evans, P. Hodkinson and L. Unwin. 2003. Improving Incentives to Learning at Work. End of Award Report submitted to the ESRC Teaching and Learning Researc Programme. • Rainbird, H., A. Munro and L. Holly, 2003. Multi-employer partnerships in health and social care. Report for Unison. London, Unison. • Rainbird, H., A. Munro and L. Holly, 2004. Evaluation of the Skills Escalator Approach in NHS Professionals. Report Prepared for the NHSU. University College Northampton. • Rainbird, H. A. Munro, L. Holly and R. Leisten, 1999. The Future of Work in the Public Sector: Learning and Workplace Inequality. ESRC Future of Work Programme Discussion Paper No. 2, University of Leeds. • Rainbird, H. J. Sutherland, P. Edwards, L. Holly and A. Munro, 2003. Employee Voice and Training at Work: Analysis of Case Studies and WERS 98. Department of Trade and Industry, Employment Relations Research Series, No. 21.

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