NGRF - UK National Guidance Research Forum

Resources and Links:

Significance of individual dispositions (Hodkinson and Hodkinson, 2004) [ Go there ]

ABSTRACT This article about workplace learning examines the relationship between, firstly, individual learners positions and dispositions, and secondly, their working and learning within the workplace community and practices. Drawing on research with secondary school teachers, it presents case study accounts of two teachers from the same school to illustrate the significance of these relationships. In order to understand these relationships from a broadly participatory perspective, the article then presents a theoretical discussion, extending Lave and Wenger’s work on communities of practice, through the use of Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field. It concludes that such a combination offers a valuable means of understanding these relationships, in a wider social, economic and political context.'It is necessary to offer an account of learning for work which acknowledges the independence of individuals acting within the interdependence of the social practice of work' (Billett, 2001, p. 22).

Basic skills and workplace learning: Katerina Ananiadou, Andrew Jenkins and Alison Wolf [ Go there ]

In this paper we review the literature on the impact of workplace basic skills training on individuals, as measured by their effects on wages and employment probability. In addition, we also examine studies on the returns to individuals of general training at the workplace. On the whole, the evidence suggests that better numeracy and literacy skills have a strong positive effect on individuals' earnings and employment stability, even when other relevant factors, such as qualifications levels, are taken into account. There is also good evidence to suggest that general training provided at the workplace has a positive impact on individuals' wages, particularly when this training is employer provided rather than off the job. However, the literature also suggests that improvement of basic skills levels in adults has very small or even no positive effects on wages and employment probability. We discuss the implications of these findings on the formation of government policy on basic skills provision. We also propose that there is a real need for more research in this area, not only in terms of longitudinal quantitative studies tracking the effects of basic skills programmes on firms and individuals but also in terms of detailed case studies focusing on specific training programmes and their impact at the level of the individual and firm.