UK workplaces still failing the learning test

Citation

(1999), "UK workplaces still failing the learning test", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 23 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.1999.00323iab.010

UK workplaces still failing the learning test

Keywords: Workplace learning, Training, United Kingdom

A new report, Workplace Learning, Culture and Performance, published by the Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD) in collaboration with the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO), shows that the UK has been slow in embracing high-performance working practices and the high-performance learning on which these are based. Such practices include a mixture of learning through experience, improving the design of work systems, employee development and flexible learning. However, far too many UK businesses are still stuck in a low-skill, low-quality equilibrium and are a long way from becoming high-performance workplaces.

The report sets out a comprehensive view of the changes in market conditions that are providing the spur to increased investment in human capital. The two main drivers are globalization and the introduction of new technologies. While there is no one country which can be used as a model for turning UK plc from a low-performance to a high performance economy, lessons can be learned from abroad.

The report highlights the close links that Germany has developed between education and employment – links which will provide the foundations for Germany’s future recovery. Singapore and Canada are also cited as countries from which the UK has much to learn. They have succeeded in developing and encouraging cultures which have moved away from a narrowly-focused, pedagogic educational approach and towards a continuous learning approach which focuses as much on “soft” skills as on “hard” qualifications. The report contends that it is the development of core skills – communication, teamwork, leadership – which will provide the foundations for future competitive success.

However, there are encouraging signs of change in some UK companies and some sectors. As John Stevens, Director of Development and Public Policy, at the IPD, says: “It is not all doom and gloom within UK businesses. The report shows how some firms responding to market stimuli are developing some new learning approaches. Many are team-based, with an emphasis on continual on-the-job improvement and development, and involving the whole workforce (not just a small elite at the top) in education and learning centres. This shift towards the team has resulted in innovations in vocational training”.

He continues: “If the UK is to keep pace with its competitors, then we need to move to what might be described as ‘high performance working’. Increasingly, our competitive position worldwide will depend on developing businesses which compete on the basis of how they manage knowledge and how they develop their staff. It will mean a sea-change in management and employee attitudes at work. However, as other recent IPD research [The Impact of People Management on Business Performance] has shown, workplace learning techniques, once placed alongside and within other people management systems, will offer dramatic results in terms of profitability and productivity. High-performance workplaces are the workplaces of the future, for these are workplaces which understand that it is people who mean business”.

Copies of Workplace Learning, Culture and Performance and The Impact of People Management on Business Performance can be ordered direct from business bookshops or from Plymbridge Distributors Ltd on 01752 202301.