We are doing research work in order to find out what do  people learn and how they learn it in the workplace, and which are the factors contributing to this. We are applying Michael Eraut’s framework to a particular research context: that of Work Integration Social Enterprises, companies which offer low qualified jobs for people who are under social vulnerable conditions. Our focus, hence, will be upon informal learning in the workplace and its relation to the qualification processes that Work Integration Social Enterprises seek.

We combine our findings with the measurement of the employability of the people involved, as Work Integration Social Enterprises seek to foster their employability. We then refer to current discussions on employability within the European Union and how learning in the workplace relates to such notion as well as the role it performs when referred to the lower levels of qualification of the workforce and yet with a minimum qualification level.

More particularly, we employ the typology of learning trajectories that Eraut has developed and we will focus upon certain areas: task performance, awareness and understanding, personal development teamwork and role performance.

Eraut has shown that learning trajectories are particularly valuable for tracking performance of workers (newly qualified professionals); for reducing the need to base qualification decisions on limited samples of performance under conditions of anxiety; and also to include the context of performance in the learning record. It is Eraut’s  (2009) conclusion that ‘discussions about learning trajectories and learning goals should become generally available across the population, regardless of age and formal qualifications’. We seek to support such statement with evidence from a segment of the population who lack formal qualifications or hold inappropriate formal qualifications and who is neglected the right to work and the possibility to learn in formal contexts due to their life trajectory which includes strong experiences such as those of addictions, mental disorder and others.

We take into account learning activities that are located within work processes (participation in group processes, working alongside others, consultation, tackling challenging tasks and roles, problem solving, trying things out, consolidating, extending and refining skills) as well as on work processes with learning as a by product (asking questions, getting information, locating resource people, listening and observing, reflecting, learning from mistakes, giving and receiving feedback, use of mediating artifacts). We pay particular attention to the following types of process as defined by Eraut: assessment of the situation and overt actions or sequences of action; as these are the ones which show greater occurrence in the occupations and sectors of work integration social enterprises, in particular those that we have chosen: industrial laundry and recycling (of clothes, domestic appliances, paper and other goods).

Eraut’s model has been applied in several research projects and usually to high levels of professional qualification. His team has developed the model with particular emphasis in the recent years on mid and early career professional learning, hence the development of the typology of learning trajectories. We have applied such model to lower levels of qualification and we expect to show that the model is also applicable to these circumstances. We expect it to be particularly valuable to the show processes and progress in different learning areas of people who have suffered social exclusion and who are re-entering the workforce with the support of work integration social enterprises. With our findings we expect to contribute to further development through criticism of Eraut’s model and to the description and explanation of the role of work in the learning processes of adult people experiencing processes of social inclusion through paid work.