Avhandlingen, som är en kvalitativ studie, rör yrkesgruppen undersköterskor inom hälso- och sjukvården. Syftet med studien har varit att studera och bidra med ökad kunskap, dels om villkoren för lärande och kunskapsbildning i arbetslivet, dels mer specifikt om undersköterskors arbete, arbetsvillkor samt villkor för lärande och utveckling på arbetsplatsen. Avhandlingens teoretiska referensram utgår från tidigare forskning och teoribildning om arbetsrelaterat lärande som kunnat sammanfattas i en modell, i vilken fyra olika grupper av faktorer, som är betydelsefulla för lärande i och genom arbetet, beskrivs. De fyra är: 1) Arbetets och organisering 2) Formell och icke-formell utbildning 3) Sociala aspekter och 4) Individuella faktorer. Tre olika sjukvårdsenheter; en akutsjukvårdsenhet, en barnsjukvårdsenhet och en operationssjukvårdsenhet, samtliga vid ett större sjukhus, ingår i studien. 17 undersköterskor och 5 vårdenhetschefer har intervjuats. Avhandlingen visar att undersköterskor som verkar inom akut eller traumatisk sjukvård också har ett varierat och oförutsett arbete, vilket ger dem goda möjligheter till lärande och utveckling. Vidare har undersköterskor som arbetar med uppgifter inom vårdens kärnverksamhet möjlighet att lära i arbetet. Avgörande i sammanhanget är att dessa arbetsuppgifter uppfattas som intressanta, meningsfulla och stimulerande. Lärande underlättas för de undersköterskor som arbetar vid en vårdenhet där de görs delaktiga i vårdarbetet och arbetsgemenskapen. Undersköterskor som arbetar tillsammans med andra yrkesgrupper kan ha möjlighet att lära i arbetet. Även delegering av arbetsuppgifter har betydelse för möjligheterna att lära. Avhandlingen visar också att undersköterskor kan hindras från att lära i arbetet om den sjuksköterska som de arbetar närmast (i vårdpar eller i team) inte tillåter dem att utföra vissa arbetsuppgifter. Det framkommer också att undersköterskor som saknar intresse, eller ork hindras från att lära och utvecklas i arbetet. Undersköterskor har begränsade möjligheter att delta i, och utvecklas genom formella läraktiviteter. Kursutbudet är litet och en del av de kurser som erbjuds rör inte vårdens kärnverksamhet. / The dissertation, which is a qualitative study, concerns auxiliary nurses in the health care. The aim of the study has partly been to generate knowledge about the prerequisites for learning and knowledge development in working life and partly to specifically study the work of auxiliary nurses, their working conditions and the prerequisites for learning and development in the workplace. The dissertation’s theoretical frame of reference is based on previous research and theories of workplace learning and have been summarised in a model. Four different groups of factors that are significant for learning in and through the work are described. The four groups are: 1) Work and organisation 2) Formal and non-formal learning activities, 3) Social aspects and 4) Individual factors. Three different health care units – an emergency care unit, a children’s unit and an operating unit – in a large hospital were included in the study. 17 auxiliary nurses and 5 care unit managers were interviewed. The dissertation shows that the work of auxiliary nurses involved in emergency care or the treatment of trauma is varied and unpredictable, which creates good opportunities for learning and development. Further, auxiliary nurses who are involved in core care activities are able to learn on the job. What is crucial here is that these duties are perceived as interesting, meaningful and stimulating. Learning is facilitated for auxiliary nurses who work in a care unit where they are involved in both the work and the work community. Auxiliary nurses who collaborate with other professional groups may find it easier to learn on the job. The delegation of tasks also affects the possibilities to learn. The dissertation also shows that auxiliary nurses can be prevented from learning on the job if the nurse with whom they work (in a nursing pair or team) does not allow them to perform certain tasks. It is also clear that auxiliary nurses who lack interest or stamina are prevented from learning and developing. Auxiliary nurses have limited opportunities to take part in and develop through formal learning activities. Few courses are available for auxiliary nurses, and those offered are seldom dealing with core care work.

The university sector at the beginning of the 21st Century is shifting in response to national and global changes in the role and purpose of Higher Education. Some universities, including the University of Hertfordshire, have chosen to focus attention on engagement with business and commerce. This practice based research examines the experience of academics in relation to the new challenges posed by this strategic development. There are three threads of investigation; interviews, examination of key concepts and the practitioner dimension. Drawing on a qualitative and constructivist approach, individual interviews with a range of business facing academics explore their experience of engaging with new activities. My perspective, as a manager of business facing academics, provides an important thread and situates the work firmly in the practice context. The implicit expectations arising from strategic positioning as a business facing university are examined. A conceptual framework is established with a focus on the nature of business facing activity, including its relationship with traditional forms of teaching and research, learning through work in the Higher Education setting and the idea of an enabling local context. The research found that amongst those undertaking business facing activity, academic identity is a fluid and multi-faceted construct reconfigured through experience and learning in the workplace; by its nature not easily defined, labelled or bounded. The challenge for universities is to nurture and sustain individuals in the creation and use of academic identities, in order to meet the undoubted challenges to come. This requires a forward looking, inclusive and innovative stance, resisting the temptation to judge current academic identities by the established notions of the past. Management of academics involved in business facing activity requires a more flexible, trusting and individual approach than is traditionally seen in universities.

Syftet med denna forskningsöversikt var att undersöka vad aktuell forskning säger om hur en kompetensutveckling kan införas i en organisation för att få resultat/effekter för medarbetare på individ, grupp- och organisationsnivå. Detta utifrån den föränderliga värld vi lever i idag där organisationer står inför ständiga förändringar. Forskningsöversikten gjordes utefter 10 vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultaten visade att det är viktigt att inventera kompetensen i organisationen och göra en planering. Även kommunikation och reflektion sågs som framgångsfaktorer.

This research explored the factors that influence whether Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), who support the learning of pupils with very complex learning needs, are equipped with the necessary skills to help these students learn. A significant feature in the delivery of educational support to pupils with low incidence needs is that it is LSAs who provide the majority of educational instruction and, furthermore, these paraeducators work with only limited supervision from class teachers. It therefore follows that if high quality educational assistance is to be available to pupils, then those undertaking the majority of this support need to have appropriate pedagogical knowledge. I explored this complex subject by undertaking a workplace ethnography at a single special school over the course of an academic year. In my ethnography, I used a number of data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews with teachers, LSAs and therapists, as well as participant and non-participant observations. The limited literature on the topic of LSA learning concludes that they are not being provided with the learning opportunities they need for the demanding work they do. However, because of the scarcity of information in the literature pertaining to the development of this important group of the educational workforce, I needed to look to the literature on organisational learning more broadly to inform my work and relate it to my own area of interest. The lack of priority given to non-formal learning was a key theme across these texts, with opportunities for participative learning emerging as an important feature. However, this aspect alone could not explain the reasons why these paraeducators did not have access to learning provision appropriate to their needs and so I looked to other theories of workplace learning. The conceptual and analytical approach of the Working as Learning Framework (WALF) (Felstead, et al., 2009), with its incorporation of the concepts of systems of production, discretion, and learning environments and territories, offered me the opportunity to scrutinise the situation regarding the learning and development of LSAs from a wide perspective. Through my adoption of the WALF I have identified the influences that shaped the workplace learning environment of the LSAs at the special school. In doing so, I have added to the limited research on this important and yet inadequately understood group. Although my study focused on one special school this research can inform how the abilities of paraeducators in different educational settings can be developed, because of my adoption of the theoretical standpoint of the WALF. Furthermore, by applying the WALF, my thesis has utilised workplace learning theory to make an important intellectual contribution to the discussion about how high quality educational provision can be delivered. My thesis is also apposite, because the number of children with more complex learning difficulties is increasing and these individuals require specialist paraeducators to be appropriately equipped to meet their needs, whether they are being educated in special or mainstream schools.

<p>The focus of the study is the teacher in the under-resourced schools in the townships of the Western Cape. The purpose is to discover how teachers learn to cope under adverse working conditions.</p>

This thesis examines retail bank workers’ informal learning practices in a major Canadian bank under conditions of rapid organizational restructuring and ongoing automation during the mid- to late-1990s. Based on a national survey of bank workers’ learning practices and ethnographic fieldwork in three branches, the thesis’s key findings are as follows. The poor learning environment in the branches, combined with the bank’s adoption of a formal study training policy, are at odds with both empirical surveys of adults’ informal learning practices and with adults’ preferred ways of learning at work – which are predominantly informal in nature. There is also evidence that informal on-the-job learning is being displaced and crowded out by work-related formal study via the “substitution effect” (Livingstone, 2010, 424). The heavy formal study pressures are heightened by the lack of trade unions and job security, and the vulnerable position of many women workers, particularly those without higher education.

This thesis examines retail bank workers’ informal learning practices in a major Canadian bank under conditions of rapid organizational restructuring and ongoing automation during the mid- to late-1990s. Based on a national survey of bank workers’ learning practices and ethnographic fieldwork in three branches, the thesis’s key findings are as follows. The poor learning environment in the branches, combined with the bank’s adoption of a formal study training policy, are at odds with both empirical surveys of adults’ informal learning practices and with adults’ preferred ways of learning at work – which are predominantly informal in nature. There is also evidence that informal on-the-job learning is being displaced and crowded out by work-related formal study via the “substitution effect” (Livingstone, 2010, 424). The heavy formal study pressures are heightened by the lack of trade unions and job security, and the vulnerable position of many women workers, particularly those without higher education.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att behandla vilka explicita och implicita strategier första linjens chefer har för att åstadkomma lärande i vårdarbetet. Uppsatsen har en kvalitativ ansats. Tidigare forskning visar att lärande i arbetet är en framgångsfaktor för de flesta organisationer. Forskning och utveckling gör att behovet av lärande ökar. Den varierande utbildningsbakgrund som personalen har gör att cheferna måste komplettera, utveckla och underhålla personalens kunskap vilket tar mycket tid. Ökat lärande gör personalen mer anställningsbar. I studien intervjuas åtta första linjens chefer. Ett fåtal chefer har en nedtecknad tydlig strategi för lärande. Chefens roll har förändrats då lärandefrågor tar allt mer av deras tid. Utbudet av utbildning är störst för sjuksköterskor. Undersköterskor/skötare får sin utbildning mest genom internutbildning. Cheferna tvingas till ständiga prioriteringar eftersom resurserna är begränsade. Lärande i vårdarbetet är intressant eftersom det är en multiprofessionell organisation. Det finns möjlighet att lära av varandra. Ett önskemål är att lära genom tvärprofessionella team där läkarna är viktiga, men det fungerar inte. Patientfokus är starkt och det gör att personalen väljer bort utbildning när tiden inte räcker till.

In this study we aim to investigate what employees at a callcenter see as prospects, opportunities and barriers of learning within a company. To answer the purpose of this essay, two questions were formulated; "What opportunities for learning does employees experience in the company?" and "How can learning in the workplace improve for the sellers?". First, we present what previous research has highlighted regarding workplace learning and learning within the callcenter industry. Afterwards we present ten semi-structured interviews with leaders and sellers within a telecom company in Stockholm. The material from the interviews was analyzed on the basis of previous research and theories in socio-cultural learning. The result shows that there are many conditions and opportunities for learning within the company and that the learning promoted in the workplace, is largely shaped in adaptive oriented way. To further promote the learning of the employees requires a development of their acting-space and the organizational culture within the business. / I denna studie syftar vi till att undersöka vad medarbetare vid ett callcenter ser för förutsättningar, möjligheter samt hinder för lärande inom ett företag. För att besvara syftet har två frågeställningar formulerats; "Vilka förutsättningar för lärande upplever medarbetare inom företaget?" och "Hur kan lärandet på arbetsplatsen förbättras för säljarna?". Först presenterar vi vad tidigare forskning har belyst angående arbetsplatslärande och lärande inom callcenterbranschen. Vi genomförde därefter tio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare och säljare på ett Telecom bolag i Stockholm. Materialet analyserades därefter utifrån tidigare forskning och teorier inom det sociokulturella lärandet. Resultatet visar att det finns många förutsättningar och möjligheter för lärande inom företaget samt att lärandet som främjas på arbetsplatsen är till största del av anpassningsinriktad form. För att ytterligare främja lärandet hos medarbetarna krävs en utveckling av handlingsutrymmet och organisationskulturen inom verksamheten.

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine HR executives' perspectives on employability enhancement for employees and how it is operationalized in their workplace. The exploratory questions that guided the study were, What are the perspectives of HR executives regarding employability enhancement for employees, and In what ways and under what conditions is organizational support of employability enhancement demonstrated through workplace learning initiatives? The conceptual framework for this study is based on Clarke and Patrickson's (2008) list of assumptions concerning employability as the premise for the new employment contract. Data collected consisted of background questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, organizational documents, and researcher reflective journal notes. Cross case analysis yielded four major themes of "Shared Responsibility," "The Power of Learning Attitude," "Assessment for Growth," and "Resource Availability." These four themes include discussions of the roles and responsibilities for employability, desired employee learning attitudes, recommended assessment activities, and conditions affecting development opportunities provided by organizations. Implications for organizations, their employees, and HRD professionals are described. This study contributes empirical research on today's employment contract based on an employability model from the organization's perspective. It also adds to the body of literature on employability rarely focused on, employability enhancement for employees.