Career Transitions and Lifelong Learning
Author(s):
Antje Barabasch (presenting / submitting) Alan Brown (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

02 SES 07 C, Core Skills for Work and Lifelong Learning

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
A-104
Chair:
Pekka Ilmari Kamarainen

Contribution

The study to be presented investigates how learning can support workers’ transition on the labour market based on biographical interviews conducted in five European countries (Germany, France, Denmark, Italy and Spain). The purpose of the study is to extract common themes, approaches, ways and/or trajectories representing this relationship, based on individuals’ reflection upon their experiences with career transitions and coping strategies. The analysis of the interviews focuses on the identification of drivers for workers to engage in different forms of learning and the ways in which learning contributed to the management of labour market transitions. There will be a classification and description of the types of learning experience and specific learning characteristics considered useful by individuals, as well as an outline of criteria with which to assess if the transition was successful.

 

These elements will contribute to the constitution of building blocks for a theoretical model that describes the ways in which learning supports the successful management of labour market transitions. Of particular interest is the relation between agency and structure. Learning is herewith mainly understood from a utilitarian point of view as an active contribution to the building of employability. In this framework, the way individuals understand their life course and their learning can reveal different forms of learning that assisted them in their labour market transitions. The analysis of the narrative accounts will therefore touch upon the following issues:

 

  • Why and how the individual approached learning during labour market transitions;
  • Why and how learning shaped the course of the labour market transition;
  • The criteria to assess whether transitions were successful (subjective assessment);
  • The extent to which the individual’s considerations of the past influence the perception of future labour market trajectory and transitions; and
  • A description of future career plans and the role of lifelong learning in these plans.

The way a labour market transition is eventually managed by individuals and the role of learning in this process is shaped by a complex interplay of various factors that can be traced back to three dimensions:

I. The availability of opportunities influenced by policy design and macroeconomic context:

 

  • Labour market structure
  • General macroeconomic conditions
  • Availability of and opportunity to access the quality of lifelong learning and training programs
  • The role of learning and training in human resource practices within organizations

 

II. Individual attitudes and inclinations:

 

  • Attitudes, values and beliefs about learning and learning benefits,
  • Individual dispositions to cope with the concomitants of change in transitions,
  • Individual dispositions towards career transitions,
  • Individual inclinations for specific settings in which learning takes place and/or learning itself.

III. The Social Environment:

 

  • The importance of learning (or certain types of learning) and its role in the management of labour market transitions is also affected by norms about the life course, career and learning set by family, peers, and the social environment.

 

Method

To investigate the different ways in which learning supports labour market transitions, the study is based on biographical research. Adults, who have already entered the labour market, have been asked retrospectively to reflect upon their past experiences with career transitions and the role of lifelong learning played in these. They also assessed prospectively how these experiences informed their future career plans. The narrative approach brings to the surface the heterogeneity of individuals’ experiences in regard to the nexus between learning and labour market transitions. 25 interviews have been conducted in the five European countries (125 Total). They are currently analysed. The interviews draw out the complexity of the linkages between different aspects of learning, careers and workers’ identification with their work and performance with the meaning itself emerging from giving the interviewees the opportunity to ‘tell their stories about transitions’. The interviews reflect a number of different pathways by which workers in their mid-career (typically technicians and associate professionals; clerical support workers; service and sales workers; skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; craft and related trades workers) reach the position of performing middle-range jobs in the labour market.

Expected Outcomes

The study will provide information on the following issues: • Knowledge base: knowledge acquired through education and training; acculturation; experience, social interaction; reflection; practice with feedback; episodes, impressions and images that provide the foundation for informal knowledge; work process knowledge; learning to apply knowledge in different and/or more challenging contexts. • Also learning and development associated with improving task performance; role performance; situational or contextual awareness and understanding; teamwork; personal and/or group development; decision making and problem solving; judgement. • Significant learning and development transitions: learning as an apprentice, trainee, becoming an experienced skilled worker, role of CVT; HE; adult education; • Significant learning experiences of value in making career and labour market transitions • Nature of support • Future development • Learning from previous changes and transitions and moving forward The differences in biographical accounts about learning and transitions in the five participating countries will be explained with reference to the socio-political and socio-structural background in each cultural context.

References

Alheit, P & Dausien, B (2002) The ‘double face’ of lifelong learning: Two analytical perspectives on a ‘silent revolution’ in Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 34, No.1, 3-22 Alheit, P & Merrill, B (2004) Biography and Narratives: Adult returners to learning in Osborne, M, Gallacher, J & Crossan, B, (eds.) Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning, London, Routledge Antikainen, A (1998) Between structure and subjectivity: life histories and lifelong learning in International Review of Education, 44, pp 215-234 Biesta, G & Tedder, M (2007) Agency and learning in the lifecourse: Towards an ecological perspective in Studies in the Education of Adults, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp132 - 149 Brown, A. (1997). A dynamic model of occupational identity formation, in A. Brown (Ed) Promoting Vocational Education and training: European perspectives, Tampere, Univeristy of Tampere, (pp 59-67). Brown, A., Bimrose, J., Barnes, S.- A., Kirpal, S., Grønning, T., & Dæhlen,M. (2010). Changing patterns of working, learning and career development across Europe. Brussels: Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2010/warwick_en.pdf Elder, G. H, Kirkpatrick Johnson, M & Crosnoe, R, ‘The emergence of life course theory’ in Mortimore, J & Shanahan, M (eds.) Handbook of the Life Course, New York, Kluwer Academic Publishers Field, J (2000, 2006) Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order, Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2004). Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(1), 14–38. Merriam, S B (2005) How Adult Life Transitions Foster Learning and Development in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 108, pp3 -13 Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.-P., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., van Vianen, A. E. M. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3), 239-250.

Author Information

Antje Barabasch (presenting / submitting)
Cedefop
Research and Policy Analysis
Thessaloniki
Alan Brown (presenting)
Warwick University, UK

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