Life Long Learning and Work

1
Life Long Learning and Work

• Bente Elkjaer
• The Danish University of Education

2
A project proposal on LLLWork

• Why?
• Schools of Education has something to offer in
  terms of knowledge about learning (the process
  and its results)
• What?
• The unfolding of learning at work/the development
  of competences in different industries
• How?
• Comparative project, same industries, same work
  functions, case-studies

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The shoulders upon which we stand

• Workplace learning (WPL)
• Learning as a side-effect of work, informal and
  incidental learning, how to design workplaces for
  learning for all
• Organisational learning (OL)
• Learning as decision processes, communication,
  enhance productivity and competitiveness at an
  organisational (managerial) level

4
continued

• Practice-based learning, learning through access
  and participation in organisational practices
  (learning as a joint endeavour focus on
  conditions for learning)
• Competences and competence development at work
• Objectified and possible to discriminate versus
  contextual and relational

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A contextual and relational concept of competences

• Focus upon the unfolding of competences in
  enterprises (which processes lead to what
  results?)
• A simultaneous focus upon the doings, the doers
  and the world in which the doing is done
• Competence development as WPL/OL
• Define and solve problems at work (relevance to
  work)
• Access to participation in different work
  practices
• Organisational tensions and power
• Reaching out - bridging over, not one way but
  several

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The impact

• Society
• Knowledge based economies, continuous change and
  innovation needs continuous learning
• Organisation
• Competitiveness, simultaneity versus sequential
  development of competences
• Individual
• Employability, mobility

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What can DPU offer?

• A research programme on competence and
  competence-development in which WPL and OL are
  important issues (several seniors and PhD
  students)
• A doctoral school made in collaboration with
  national partners and strong affiliations to
  European networks
• Experienced in collaborative research, e.g.
  through partnership in comparative project on
  management practices and organisational learning
  in 3 different industries in 7 different countries