coming up: ten challenges for workforce development. presentation by barb mcpherson
DESCRIPTION
Businesses and workplaces are very different to how they were 10, even just 5 years ago. Critics of our national training system suggest competencies are out of date. Are they? Or, is it our approaches to learning and our understanding of what constitutes training that is now out of step with the needs we claim to address? At what point do the national VET system, workforce development needs and culture of organisational learning intersect? Siemens and Wegner, familiar to VET practitioners on the Australian conference circuit 2005-2006, promote connectivism-network learning theory, and communities of practice respectively as relevant alternatives to traditional classroom learning. In this presentation, Barb McPherson a veteran of six Australian Flexible Learning Framework initiatives since 2002 considers ten challenges to workforce development and how RMT is responding and preparing for change.TRANSCRIPT
10 challenges for
workforce development
River Murray Training Pty Ltd
Presenter: Barb McPherson
Framework Projects SCADA and MIS
Skills for the Future Industry Engagment
Inclusivity pilot- Mature Age Workers
Knowledge management - Learnscope
Knowledge Organisations
Learners
Business
VET system
Knowledge
George Siemens Charles Jennings Thomas A Stewart
Knowledge
Thomas A Stewart: “The Wealth of Knowledge”
New economy
1) Knowledge has become what we buy, what we sell and what we do. It is the most important factor of production.
2) Knowledge assets (intellectual assets) have become more important to companies than financial and physical assets.
3) To prosper in this new economy and to exploit these newly vital assets, we need new vocabularies, new management techniques, new technologies and new strategies
Knowledge
George Siemens
Charles Jennings
Charles Jennings: Education.au, Global Summit 2006
Technology Connected Futures
Digital era
1) The information available to humans is currently growing at a rate of 30% per year. This growth is
increasing year on year and showing no sign of slowing.
2) Ninety percent of the new information generated each year is stored on magnetic media of some type. Thevast majority is unstructured.
3) Much of the information we interact with or use on a day-to-day basis has been generated in the recent past, and much will be invalid or out-of-date in the near future
Knowing&
Know-how
George Siemens: “Knowing Knowledge”
1) Knowledge sources are changing. We are the filters, mediator the weaver knowledge
2) Morality and ethical discussions are trailing behind progress of science and technology.
3) Societal trends change the environment in which knowledge exists
Knowledge
1) Amount of knowledge
3) Digital nature of knowledge
challenges
2) Speed with which it changes
Knowledgechallenges
impacts
Amount of knowledge
Speed with which it changes
Digital nature of knowledge
Business
Thomas Friedman Thomas A Stewart
BusinessThomas Friedman: “The World is Flat”
1. New ways or doing business Open-sourcing Outsourcing,Off shoring Insourcing In-forming Supply-chaining
2. Growth of India – service industriesand China – manufacturing, primary production
Globalisation
BusinessThomas Stewart: “the Wealth of Knowledge”
A community of practice
A place to keep knowledge asset
A help desk (a librarian) (to tour newbies and visitors so they don’t irritate the regulars; and who keep the knowledge asset current.)
A primer – a quick introduction to the body of knowledge
Knowledge artefacts – connections and collections.
A bulletin Board – to ask Does anybody know
A Doorway – a link between the rest of the organisation and the knowledge asset.
Creating knowledge assets
4) Changing shape of businesses
5) Global relationships, economy
Business
challenges
Changing shape of business
Business
impacts
Global relationships, economy
Davenport & Prusak
Organisations
Peter Senge
Organisations
Peter Senge The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organisation (2006)
Team Learning
1) In the long run, the only sustainable source of competitive edge is your organisation’s ability to learn faster than its competitors.
2) There has never been a greater need for mastering team learning in organisations than there is today…..”the people who need one another to act” in the words of Arie de Geus, are becoming the key learning unit in organisations.
3) This is because almost all important decisions are now made in teams, either directly or through the need for teams to translate individual decisions into action.
Organisations
Davenport & Prusak Working Knowledge: how organisations manage what they know
knowledgemanagement
1) Despite the corporate mantra that employee knowledge is a valuable resource, most firms do not make concerted efforts to cultivate the knowledge-oriented activities of their personnel.
2) To begin knowledge management with a focus on organisationl learning would be a good idea, but firms rarely do.
6) a skilled and adaptable workforce is the only competitive advantage
7) Attitude to organisational learning and knowledge management
challenges
Organisations
challenges
a skilled and adaptable workforce is the only competitive advantage
Attitude to organisational learning and knowledge management
challenges
Organisations
impacts
Learners
George Siemens Malcolm Knowles
Learners Charles Jennings
Digital learning
1) Digital natives – multi-taskers, global thinkers, they are very much just-in-time and just-enough learners
2) Young employees live in an abbreviated instant message type of world; writing more complex thoughts down is likely to become challenging
3) They have a different understanding of `basic skills' – wanting to get high-level overviews and return for `deeper dives' when and if needed
Malcolm Knowles “The Adult Learner”Learners
Adult learning
Theory
1) Learners need to know – why, what, how
2) Self concept of the learnerautonomous, self directing
3) Prior experience of the learner (resource, mental models)
3) Readiness to learn (life related, developmental task)
4) Orientation to learning (problem centered, contextual)
5) Motivation to learn
8) Learner characteristicschallenges
Learners
challenges
Learner characteristicsLearners
impacts
Baby boomers, Generations x, y and z
Learning styles – JIT, just
enough, multi-tasking,
Networked learning Life-long learningRepackage knowledge created by others
Will move into many different fields over lifetime
VET system
9) Bureaucratic and political processes
VET system
challenges
10) Keeping up with Challenges 1-9
Bureaucratic and political processes
Keeping up with Challenges 1-9
VET system
impacts
Are we training in
the right skill sets?
Decision-making on
VET policy?
Needs based
learning?
Does AQTF support innovative RTO practices?
10 challenges 1) Amount of knowledge
2) Speed with which it changes
3) Digital nature of knowledge5) Global relationships, economy
4) Changing shape of businesses
5) a skilled and adaptable workforce is the only competitive advantage
6) Attitude to organisational learning
9) Bureaucratic and political processes
10) Keeping up with Challenges 1-9
7) Learning preferences
8) Generational characteristics – baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, and the