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Revitalizing Flexibility in Work and Learning: Strategies for Modern Competitiveness

This paper by Mike Osborne from the University of Stirling explores the multifaceted concept of flexibility in the workforce and education. It emphasizes the importance of a flexible workforce that can adapt to the changing economy and labor market while contributing to innovation. The discussion includes various models of learning—both in-reach and out-reach—highlighting flexible learning environments that are responsive to individual needs. Notable barriers to flexibility in education, such as rigid structures and assessment methods, are also addressed, stressing the importance of adaptability in both sectors.

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Revitalizing Flexibility in Work and Learning: Strategies for Modern Competitiveness

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  1. Putting the Flex back into Flexibility Mike Osborne University of Stirling m.j.osborne@stir.ac.uk

  2. Meanings • Flexible workforce • adaptive and reactive to a flexible economy and labour market • agents of change contributing to innovation (Johnson and Lundvall 1991) • Social, Cultural and Personal Flexibility • Individuals and enterprises should be more entrepreneurial, competitive, market-oriented

  3. Flexible Learning • Flexible learning • '…all those situations where learners have some say in how, where or when learning takes place' (Ellington, 1997)

  4. Home and international • ‘…the importance of a highly motivated, flexible and well-qualified workforce to the United Kingdom’s international competitiveness’(DfEE, 1995) • ‘the need to render traditional education systems more accessible and less rigid so that learners of all ages can embark on reasonably individual study programmes’(Jouve 2001) • ‘far reaching change from a supply steered system to a flexible system steered by changing individual demands’Swedish Ministry of Education and Science (2001)

  5. In-reach

  6. Models of in-reach • Summer Schools (for (mainly)school-pupils) • The modern model First Chance • Access Courses (for adults) • The historic model Second Chance • Entrance tests • Aptitude tests, Psychometric testing (e.g. Medicine in UK and Australia) • Examen Spécial d’Entrée à l’Universit (l'ESEU)), and later the Diplôme d’Accès aux Etudes Universitaires (DAEU) • Prueba de acceso a la universidad para mayores de 25 años

  7. Out-reach

  8. Models of out-reach • School links - awareness raising • FE/HE links • Workplace learning • Vertical, Longitudinal, All-embracing, Integrated (Woodrow and Thomas 2002)

  9. Flexibility

  10. Examples of Flexibility • Modularity/Credit accumulation and transfer schemes(e.g. SCQF) • Distance Education, Open University Systems, ODL, ICT(e.g. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Dutch Open University, the Finnish Open University, UHI) • RPL/AP(E)L(e.g. La Validation D’Acquis de la Experience (VAE)) • Independent Study • Bologna to Bergen

  11. Modularity • Horizontal • Vertical

  12. SCOTCAT

  13. Or ….

  14. Or even ...

  15. What’s curriculum got to do with it? Key barriers • Pre-requisite knowledge • Subject specific • Study skills • Assessment skills • Inflexibility of both HN Design and degree structures and delivery options

  16. And more • Lack of acceptance of equivalence within credit frameworks • Grading systems • (Lack of) ‘gatekeeping’ at entry and exit

  17. Distant Failings • ICT and Access • Technological Failings • Cost

  18. RPL • Challenges to traditional conceptions of knowledge • Procedures

  19. Raising Aspirations • Is it enough? • The evidence base

  20. Even two swallows don’t ...

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