Guided Learning at Work - Report Example

Running Head: Workplace Learning Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Submitted: Workplace Learning Introduction This essay details a critical evaluation of a workplace to establish its suitability as a learning environment for a workplace trainee who should later take on the responsibilities and tasks of that particular workplace after the learning process is successfully completed. The workplace place chosen for analysis in this essay is as a member of the supporting staff in a training institution. While being a support staff within a college organisation, there is always need to advance ones training and or to further one’s field. More so, new employees of such a college will need to be inducted into the workplace as through training. In this instance, the essay takes a case study approach to a newly hired middle level manager hired by the college and who needs to be trained in certain elements of the job like human resource management. In this job position, the manager will be working under a senior human relations manager within the college. To evaluate the workplace of a middle level human resource manager in the college critically, this essay will be broken down into three sections. First, the paper will detail a description of the workplace to establish the specific kinds of learning required for one to performance excellently as a human resource manager. This section will also identify the procedures, knowledge and understandings required, for one to practice effectively as a human relations manager in any of the TAFE colleges. The second section will detail a consideration of the particular kinds of learning, possible in the human relations manager position by evaluating both the learning opportunities and limitations. Theoretical support will be provided in examining how the workplace supports learning the procedures, knowledge, understandings highlighted above. The eleven principles developed by Pedler (1991) will help characterize the workplace as a learning environment. Finally, the last section a conclusion on the evaluation detailing the weaknesses and strengths analyzed in the study job position as regards its suitability for workplace learning. Types of Learning The Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system is among the most reputed training institution in Australia, offering esteemed skills and certification for those who want to enter the job industry or seek higher education elsewhere (TAFE, 2010). Currently, TAFE Australia has 8 distinct colleges at TAFE Queensland, TAFE NSW, TAFE Victoria, TAFE Tasmania, TAFE South Australia, TAFE Western Australia and TAFE Australian Capital Territory (TAFE, 2010). The staffs for these colleges are hired by the individual colleges through a program developed centrally for all the colleges by the overall management (TAFE, 2010). Being a government-owned college and a nationally operated system of colleges, TAFE offers qualifications recognized internationally and transferable internationally.  TAFE mode of training is mainly practical training giving trainees some key competencies that have been worked into each and every course (TAFE, 2010). These skills are very essential for those people who are already working in their field of expertise or just about to enter the workforce. Towards this end, TAFE courses have been developed in close consultation with the businesses and industries requiring these skills. TAFE has been reputed for offering relevant skills to the particular expertise areas and which are in demand by the job market (TAFE, 2010). For a student at TAFE, one has a direct pathway to further university education with all Diploma graduates from a TAFE college being eligible for one or two year's credit for the related university degree worldwide. This is made possible by a system of credit transfer arrangements that TAFE has established with universities numerous across and without Australia (TAFE, 2010). Further, the experience of training at TAFE is also exceptional. Students at the college, those who are working or getting ready to enter the job market, TAFE allows them to get the most out of their college experience. This is because all TAFE colleges have infrastructure to offer a student support services that is reliably important during the learning process (TAFE, 2010). An example of these services is frequent workshops in which industry experts are invited to interact and share with the students (TAFE, 2010). For this essay, a human resource manager employed at TAFE and in need of further training in his or her filed will be exposed to the same benefits as the students of the college and some more fringe benefits available for staff training (TAFE, 2010). Beginning with orientation, a TAFE support staff employee is given refresher courses in the area of their specialisation and is only hired after six months of initial training. The employee is also inducted into activity programs that assistance him or her to measure up to the expectations of the workplace (TAFE, 2010). TAFE colleges have a very supportive environment for staff training, offering a paid leave from duty during the training and a fully paid tuition as long as the employee is trained within the organisation (TAFE, 2010). Given the above description of the workplace, it is now possible to analyze it as a learning environment for the new human resource manager who has just joined the institution from outside. When such a manager is interviewed and accepted into the company, he or she is inducted in a three week learning process. This learning process is very broad however since one is introduced to the company as a whole and not so much to his or her job description (Senge, 1990). The induction period aims at orienting the new employee to the policies and practices of the company, the departments, organisation structure, human resource practices, working department, organisation culture and such broad areas that welcomes the employee to the company as a whole (Senge, 1990). Once the induction is over however, the employee finds himself or herself in a department where he will be performing his or her tasks henceforth. The employee is assigned to the head of department where his job description is explained and exemplified in the proceeding weeks until the employee knows what he or she is expected to do. This is at a time when the employee is not even sure how the job is done, what is the job in the first place and what he or she can do about the ignorant position. All middle level and senior level managers must necessarily complete some management refresher courses at the college while simultaneously working in their job station for the first five months after being hired. The first thing to not about being newly employed support staffs at TAFE is that there is no distinct separation between the learning, the participation and the practice. It is more of a comprehensive process where the new employee is introduced to new concepts while doing the actual work and he or she keeps on practicing the same until performance is perfected (TAFE, 2010). A typical day for such a trainee will include at least three hours in the office and at least six hours in classes. This helps the manager to integrate the theoretical skills learnt in class with the practical responsibilities he or he will be entrusted with once the training is completed. There are three types of knowledge that underpin the performance as a trainee manager at TAFE. The first type is propositional or conceptual knowledge, also called declarative knowledge (Altman, 1998). This is the knowledge of the information, facts and concepts about human resource management such as employee motivation, compensation systems, employee welfare programs etc. The second type of knowledge is procedural, involving the skills, techniques and abilities to achieve the goal (Altman, 1998). For the training human resource manager, these include interviewing processes, handling employee claims, mitigating in conflicts, evaluating employee performance etc. This is the knowledge that the human resource manager needs to successfully attend to the job position assigned one the initial six months of training are successfully completed. The third type of knowledge relevant for the middle level human resource manager is disposition knowledge covering the attitudes, values, interests and identities that are associated with the workplace (Altman, 1998). Examples of such knowledge include employee relations, communication channels, supervision and performance evaluation, organisation culture etc. To acquire these types of knowledge, the trainee manger has three avenues open to him or her as detailed above. These avenues open up arbitrarily during the work activity of day to day in the human resource department. The first avenue that contributes to learning in this workplace is the close guidance of other experts (senior human resource manager) in the field to whom the trainee is assigned in the beginning days of the learning process. This gives the trainee exposure to the real tasks and how to do it effectively as copied from the ones who know how to already (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). The direct guidance of the experienced managers always assists the trainee to acquire knowledge that has been culturally and historically accumulated by the experts over time and to be exposed to the practical application scenarios of performance of the job description. Secondly, the trainee manager learns by engagement in the actual tasks prescribed for the job position. The learning mode helps engage the trainee in some routine activities such as preparing performance evaluation forms for lecturers at TAFE, engaging in some non-routine activities such as interviewing new employees, handling employee complaints and or designing employee motivation packages. Engaging in the actual work helps the trainee manger to learn practical skills by trial and error, while also offering a field for practicing what was learnt under the guidance of expert managers. The mentorship and apprenticeship in the hands of a senior manager continues until the trainee is ready to initiate activities on his or her own and operate his or her work station smoothly without problems. In most cases, the first six months before the manager is hired at TAFE is spent in induction and refresher courses. If that is successfully undertaken, and the assigned department feels the trainee has fit in the job description and responsibility, the employee is then given a permanent contract to formally welcome him or her into TAFE. That marks the second phase of the training where the trainee manager begins learning from his or her own mistakes while handling the actual responsibility he or she was hired for. The third type of learning avenues open for the trainee manager is that of indirect guidance that is provided by the department’s experts. This type of learning involves learning while doing the actual work but with the indirect guidance and supervision of the senior staff in the editorial department. According to Lave (1993) and Pelissier (1991), this type of learning is aimed at developing the skills of the trainee independently where only the direction is pointed out for him or her and he or she has to learn by self initiative. For instance, the trainee manager can be given directions to facilitate a recruitment drive for some junior support staff, where it is upon the trainee to put in his or her efforts. Then after these efforts, the senior managers help qualify the performance as good or not, and points out improvements. After such constructive criticism, it is the onus of the trainee to compare what has he or she did and what he or she was supposed to do. As Billet (1994) says, practice is very important to learning since it helps a trainee “go from just being competent to being an expert.” With time, the middle level manager can in turn train new entrants into the TAFE system. As noted earlier, the manager will keep on learning and revising and even reinforcing the skills of the workplace. This is what helps the same middle level manager to graduate to a senior manager and so on to even higher positions of the TAFE organisation structure. Workplace Support for Learning000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell were in 1988 commissioned by Manpower Services Commission for research study investigating new ways to develop learning in British companies. From their study, they wrote a report, the Learning Company Report (1988) that formed the background of more informative research in the same area. Peddler published many books later on the development of workplace learning, becoming the world’s most respected expert on the area (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). The most important contribution that Pedler and colleagues has made in the area of workplace learning is perhaps the development of eleven distinct characteristics of a good workplace learning environment (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). These characteristics can be grouped into three types namely, those based on a good organization strategy (Pedler & Boutall, 1992). This strategy incorporates learning approaches to strategy and the participating policy making. The second type includes those characteristics linked to the structures of the workplace. This type incorporates enabling structures, an organization’s informating ability, the formative accounting and control’, the internal knowledge exchange potential and the reward flexibility of the workplace (Lave & Wenger, 1991). It also includes the ability to correspond internal workplace situations with those existing outside that organization, the boundary installed between workers of that organisation as the environmental scanners, and finally the inter-company learning protocols between that organisation and others (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). The third group incorporates the learning opportunities themselves such as the learning climate and the self-development opportunities for every employee (Pedler, 2006). In essence, Pedler’s model of learning workplace environment features values, principles, attitudes, processes and systems that build the learning environment within an organisation. The above stated 11 characteristics can be used to analyze the features journalist’s workplace for its suitability as a learning environment (as done hereunder) (Pedler and Boutall, 1992). To make the analysis non-ambiguous, the characteristics have been grouped into three, such that they can easily be applicable in the sports magazine editorial department. These three categories describe the planning and strategies of the workplace in question, the established learning structures and finally the learning opportunities availed a trainee (Lave and Wenger, 1991). This Workplace as a Learning Organisation Being a newly hired middle level manager at TAFE has great learning advantages that make it an ideal workplace learning environment. To begin with, most refresher courses that the trainee takes are facilitated in the college without any cost to the trainee. The classes are just near the office that such a trainee is allocated, meaning that the transition from the workplace to the learning area is smooth and convenient. Secondly, trainees are given an equal opportunity to develop their skills at the position they have been hired for and to earn promotion thereafter to senior positions. All trainees are given the same exposure, access to learning resources and the opportunity to perfect their skills using the very same process, one after the other (Pedler & Boutall, 1992). As emphasised above, the new manager is always given the opportunity to build on his or her practical skills by doing the actual work with senior managers at first and then on their own. This is the opportunity to use personal initiative, attributes and talents to create competence, experience and knowledge of the actual workplace performance that will be the job description once the learning process is accomplished (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1991). The learning process is properly elaborated by the central management of all TAFE’s colleges and implemented by individual colleges almost similarly. Every middle level and senior level manager at TAFE must go through the same structured process. This makes it standardised process for all learners and an ideal learning environment (Argote, Beckman & Epple, 1990). The responsibility of coaching, monitoring and supervising the learner is entrusted with the Department Head such as the Senior Human Relations manager to monitor and guide the learner once in a while during the learning processes. Another strength of the workplace as a learning environment is that there are good communication channels between the learners, the senior managers, which facilitate the transfer of knowledge during the learning process (Argyris & Schön, 1978). Learner’s personal initiatives are always welcomed and criticized for quality on a one to one basis between the department experts and the learner. Any good initiative is appreciated and reinforced giving the learner greater levels of motivation to learn. Availing an opportunity for the learner to interact directly with the experts is also another strength. At TAFE, most support staff are located within similar buildings with great avenues of interaction. Junior, middle level and senior administrative personnel as well as the teaching staff interact freely. This offers a level ground rich with interaction opportunities and thus maximal knowledge transfer. On the other hand, there are several weaknesses that can be attributed to TAFE as a workplace learning environment. To begin with, none of the trainees usually like the fact that they are mixed with students coming to study at TAFE to pursue some courses. Secondly, some senior managers who may be assigned the trainee might not give adequate exposure on which the learner can rely on. Sometimes the exposure is not adequate, sometimes the senior managers are not willing to go the extra mile, sometimes they are overburdened with tasks to afford coaching time and sometimes they are horrible teachers despite being experts in the field since not everyone can be a teacher. Conclusion The central aim of this essay was to establish whether the workplace of choice, a newly hired middle level manager in the Human Relations Department at TAFE. As the essay has detailed, this workplace offers a very amicable learning environment. The workplace is very ideal for learning since it avails convenient classes and workplace interaction during the training, practical orientation guided coaching by willing experts, equal opportunities for learning, an avenue for personal initiatives and talents, a precise learning process, appropriate and effective communication channels, a great interaction opportunity with colleagues, a positive learning climate and the opportunity for self development even after initial training. Nonetheless, the workplace environment is limited by integrating the some refresher courses with those being done by the newly hired employees. Further, some senior managers lack the time, ability or willingness to coach the new employees during the training period. Nonetheless, TAFE is among the most favourable workplace training environments that a middle level manger may join in Australia today, availing great prospects to advance one’s career, especially for people who have just left school and entered the job market. References Altman, Paul. (1998). Learning, leadership, teams: Corporate learning and organizational change. Journal of Management Development. Vol. 17 (1). pp. 44 – 55. Argote, L., Beckman, S. & Epple, D. (1990). The Persistence and Transfer of Learning in Industrial Settings. Journal of Management Science. Vol. 36(2): pp. 140-154. Australian Technical and Further Education (2010). Official Website, Available at . Billett, S. et al. (2001). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Billett S. (2000). Guided learning at work, Journal of Workplace learning. Vol. 12 (7). Pp. 272-285. Lave J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning - legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: CUP. Pedler, M. J., Burgoyne, J. & Boydell, T. (1991). The Learning Company: A Strategy for Sustainable Development. London: McGraw-Hill. Pedler, M. & Boutall, J. (1992). Action learning for change: a resource book for managers and other professionals. Bristol: National Health Service Training Directorate. Senge, P.M. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday/Currency. Read More