Snježana Đurićić
The primary purpose of vocational education is to develop and acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that are relevant to the labor market. Relevance in relation to the labor market implies that vocational education programs contain the knowledge, skills and attitudes that employers require; they acknowledge their market value and are willing to participate in their development, implementation and evaluation[i].
Today, the belief that knowledge and skills are the key to success of any company is fully embraced. Personnel training centers in companies aim to train their students, i.e. adults, to perform certain types of work. This type of education is utilitarian; it is oriented towards providing training to perform specific tasks and to improve the clearly defined competences. Thus, it is more flexible in terms of time, while the learning itself is more empirical and based on practical work; in other words, it is less abstract and theoretical.
Adult participation in such programs is conditioned by their interests as well as their previous experience, ‘input’ knowledge and skills and individual motivations and learning styles.
To meet these requirements and become recognized as centers that offer quality execution of relevant training programs, either internally within the company or externally in the market, training centers in companies should, among other things, ensure having competent training leaders that excell in the profession in question but also in teaching approach and are in possession of appropriate skills for working with adults.
… Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Is this true?
The process of learning and teaching adults is very different from the process of teaching children and youth. The differentiating factors do not concern only differences in age, but also social and economic status, education level, life experience, motivation level, etc.
The needs of the labor market in the current conditions of accelerated changes in the content of work and technology cannot be met within the concept of ‘workforce training’ that is based on the adoption of a number of operations and steps necessary to perform work activities in the production process, or within the short-term educational activities[ii]. Different lifestyles, combined with advances in information and communication technology, are increasingly drawing focus to lifelong learning, in order to respond more successfully to the explosion of knowledge and dynamic contexts.
Theoretical reviews have shown that the massification and extension of (compulsory) education cannot in itself improve the social and especially economic efficiency of education. Due to the ever-faster pace of scientific discoveries, technological innovations and social changes, knowledge is becoming outdated more rapidly. The half-life of knowledge that forms the curriculum of those professions that are based on sciences (for example: medicine and technology) is constantly shortening and has already dropped to 4-5 years (of course, basic knowledge in these professions does not become obsolete at the same pace). (..) The solution is found in lifelong learning that takes place outside school with the help of non-formal education, self-education and informal (experiential) learning.
Pastuović N (2006), Educational sciences, Vol. 8, no. 2
The role of trainers who are oriented towards their trainee (ie. an adult) is:
– to help participants understand how resources are used,
– to help participants take responsibility for their learning,
– to help students decide how best to learn,
– to help participants think about the learning process and what they have learned
– to make learning as active as possible. [i]
Having in mind that motivation plays a very important role in this process, it is of exceptional significance to apply the principles of adult learning, to encourage natural motivation and to use facilitation skills to increase student motivation and spark goal-oriented behavior.
On the other hand, “How to teach?” is a technical and technological question that needs to provide an answer to which procedures, methods and forms of work are appropriate for the participants. The more the content is related to the profession and the learning outcomes are related to professional knowledge and skills (i.e. what and to what extent the participants are ultimately able to apply in the appropriate context), the more deeply the forms of work and teaching aids are embedded in the targeted technological processes, procedures and work machines or equipment.
The advantage of learning in the workplace is that it “… is not only related to immediate work competences, but it is also focused on future competences. It is an investment in general abilities of employees, but also in specific and technical abilities”, in order to use their knowledge and skills wherever it is needed, regardless of place and time. [ii]
Head of the training center in the company stands between the profession and the Renaissance man
What if I train them and they leave?
What if you don't, and they stay?
Competence is the ability to apply knowledge, skills and personal, social and methodological capabilities in the workplace or during the learning process, both in personal and professional development; the European Qualifications Framework describes competences as responsibility and independence. [iii]
The competences of professionals dealing with adult education are numerous. As this set of competences should be applicable to all those working in adult education, it implies not only teaching activities, but also all other activities, such as program development, training center management and the like. In other words, adult education teachers should not only be able to answer “how” but also the questions “where, who, what and when.” For the same reason, the same person is not expected to possess the full set of competences; based on this set, different profiles can be developed for individual roles within training centers. A profile consists of three elements – the activities that someone should be able to perform, the context within which those activities are performed, and the competences that are required to perform them[iv]. We can distinguish the following parts of the andragogical process:
1) assessment of educational needs,
2) education planning,
3) organization of education,
4) conducting education,
5) evaluation of education,
6) leading the educational process,
7) management of the educational process. [v]
The procedure for examining the educational needs in professional training and development of employees, which is not a novelty, consists of four phases: (a) analysis of work, (b) profiling the work or determining the knowledge and skills needed to perform work, (c) knowledge and skills assessment; (d) comparing the existing and the required knowledge[vi]. Thus, andragogical skills within the assessment of educational needs would include, for example, the ability to understand and recognize the educational needs of the company and different target groups or individuals, i.e. to identify discrepancies between current circumstances and those to be achieved. Establishing maximum compatibility between the competences required in the work and the competences acquired in the education process is a basic principle of the development of vocational education and training programs. [vii]
All parts of the andragogical process carry a range of andragogical competences that are inherent in each training center in relation to its purpose, size, scope, urgency to meet the needs for training to which it intends to respond, orientation towards the internal processes or providing market services, and finally the overall context of action.
The roles and responsibilities of leaders change significantly, from those which are closely related to responsibilities during training such as andragogical issues and profession-related teaching, to those concerning broader educational functions and secondary processes such as training management and cooperation with other organizations, especially vocational schools, technical faculties, research centers, etc. These new roles require further adaptation of their competences and capacity building in management and coordination.
Regardless of the purpose or mission, vision and business strategy of training centers in companies (e.g. strengthening the strategic position and ensuring the competitive advantage of the company, optimization of existing or introduction of new technological processes, expansion of production and, accordingly, training new and improving the competences of the existing workforce, or perhaps providing vocational training and development services to others in the labor market), the training center owners should pay special attention to the human resources that carry out training processes in training centers, especially to their competence, their job satisfaction and their continuous professional development, in order to maintain quality assurance of delivered services and achieve the most successful fulfillment of the aforementioned purpose.
[i] Osnovne andragoške veštine: kako efikasno raditi sa odraslima, Priručnik za nastavnike, preuzeto sa http://drugasansa.rs/?page_id=109
[ii] Kulić R. i Despotović. M (2010) Uvod u andragogiju, IV izdanje, Svet knjige, Beograd
[iii] Principi i standardi obrazovanja odraslih u Bosni i Hercegovini, Službeni glasnik BIH, br.39/14
[iv] Žiljak O. (2011) Andragoška profesija i andragoške kompetencije – aktualna istraživanja, Andragoški glasnik, Vol.15, br.1
[v] Idem
[vi] Kulić R i Despotović M (2010) Uvod u andragogiju, IV izdanje, Svet knjige, Beograd
[vii] Despotović, M (2016), Priručnik za razvoj programa stručnog obrazovanja i obuke
[viii] Despotović, M (2016), Priručnik za razvoj programa stručnog obrazovanja i obuke
[ix] Kulić R. i Despotović. M (2010) Uvod u andragogiju, IV izdanje, Svet knjige, Beograd
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