Jan 28, 2005 - development in small and medium enterprises. ... recommendation is made to improve this deficit the company is reluctant to commit its staff to ...
Hamburg, Ileana / Lindecke, Christiane, 2005: Lifelong learning, e-learning, and business development in small and medium enterprises. In: Szücs, András (ed.) / Bo, Ingeborg (ed.): Lifelong elearning: bringing e-learning close to lifelong learning and working life; a new period of uptake: proceedings of the EDEN 2005 Annual Conference, 20-23 june, 2005. Budapest: Univ. of Technology and Economics, p. 79-84 Lifelong E-Learning EDEN 2005 Annual Conference, Helsinki http://www.eden-online.org/
LIFELONG LEARNING, e-LEARNING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES Ileana Hamburg Institut Arbeit und Technik, Gelsenkirchen, Germany Christiane Lindecke Arbeitszeitberatung, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
1 Introduction With the 21st century many new challenges for enterprises and employees arise as well as for society as a whole. Markets globalise, new information and communication technologies speed up trade flows, customer requirements become more complex and individualised. In this context businesses have to adapt to new requirements and customer concerns more quickly as well as new work relations and organisational forms have to be developed. The basis for new competitive strategies is the ability of enterprises to identify key skills particularly for their business and to encourage their development for all employees. The term »lifelong learning« refers to these challenges and it calls attention to the fact that learning is and will be a process that doesn’t stop with a diploma. Companies are forced to develop their human resources permanently. These are some major challenges of lifelong learning and all enterprises should increase their investment in this process. The Expert Commission for “Financing Lifelong Learning” set up by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research shows that this requirement “arises from three objectives: (1) stimulating economic growth and improving competitiveness; (2) promoting employability of individuals and (3) strengthening social cohesion” (Bosch, January 2005). Life long learning and the acquisition of knowledge for work tasks which have to be organised within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is more complex than the provision of access to courses and traditional learning opportunities. It presupposes communication or direct face-to-face contact between individuals, needs instructors, pupils, places – and most important: time for learning and understanding. E-Learning which offers many benefits within the process of lifelong learning especially in the small and medium companies must be firmly embedded with the idea of lifelong learning. In addition e-Learning supports the achievement of the Lisbon objectives “by facilitating knowledge and skills acquisition, by providing flexible learning opportunities for students and citizens, personalising learning and by creating new collaborative learning opportunities. E-learning is an efficient and cost effective tool for fostering workforce development, it can lead to cost savings through better utilisation of a users time, efficiencies in personnel resources in institutions providing education and training as well as reductions in physical requirements.” (E-Learning Industry Group eLIG) Therefore it was expected that e-Learning would increase its share in companies training activities. But performance and reputation of e-Learning have not lived up to the lofty expectations set by the early realization of the enormous potential benefits of this marriage of learning and technology. For example, in 2000 the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) prognosticated optimistically that the world of vocational training would change within 1000 days making the
transition to the e-Learning age. But the reality in companies shows another picture. In the last years it seems that the quality standards of the e-Learning products are likely to decline and the use of eLearning decreases. One problem could be the (non) human factor. Initially, e-Learning was seen mostly from the administrator’s perspective, not from the student’s point of view and interests. ELearning solutions tend to be seen as an opportunity to cut costs by automating the learning process, cutting out staff by going directly to the learner, reducing inventories of books and reducing building requirements. But results of some projects in this field and experiences of Business Advisors involved in developing a training needs analysis in SMEs show that often when a skill is identified in a SME and a recommendation is made to improve this deficit the company is reluctant to commit its staff to training even when there might be a commercial advantage to be gained or there might to be zero cost to the company concerned. In this paper after a short presentation of the situation of skills development in SMEs and reasons why these companies do not apply e-Learning to support lifelong learning (part 2) in this context, results of some projects like the ongoing European project ARIEL are given (part 3).
2 SMEs, lifelong learning and e-Learning The important role of the private sector for economic and social development of all economies is known. SMEs are universally acknowledged as »engines of growth«, and they generate more employment opportunities at the lowest cost per new employment. But SMEs, have now come under severe pressure in many countries as they lack required capabilities to be able to take advantage of new opportunities opening up before them as a result of the globalization process and to remain national/international competitive. SMEs have a couple of specific organisational needs and characteristics: These companies have a dependence on a limited number of people (often owners and managers are one and the same person) and there is almost always, a close relationship to customers and business partners. If they don't acquire, maintain or improve their business skills continuously, their competitors will benefit and business will move elsewhere. The impact on the workplace and the business while staff is absent on training, cannot be under-estimated, given that there are over 18 million individual enterprises in the EU, of which over 99 per cent fall within the definition of SMEs. The European Bord of Life Long Learning CEC found that lifelong development of skills including business know-how depends on implementing the following measures: • Identification and anticipation of skills and qualification needs, • Recognition and validation of skills and qualifications, • Procuring of information, support and guidance, • Finding resources. The identification of skills and qualification needs should take place both: at the enterprise level and at national/sectoral level. In the last case the collective analysis of skills needs and of the development of vocational or professional qualification is a priority referring to young people in the context of their career guidance and integration into working life. It is also important to employees in the management of their careers and their capacity to remain in employment, to job-seekers and to companies in terms of their competitiveness (CEC, 2004). In enterprises the process of identifying skills and qualification needs should become a main axis of human resources policies covering all employees of the SME and being an issue for in-depth social dialogue. The delivery of business skills by using e-Learning has many advantages for the SMEs in comparison with conventional training delivery techniques. Delivery costs are considerably lower and staff will not be off site during training. Downtime would be minimised and productivity would be maintained. Training could take place at any time and could be scheduled to take place during slack periods of the working day. Training courses could also be provided immediately almost on an à la carte basis, rather
than waiting until the required number of participants has been gathered for a conventional, face to face, off-site course. But it seems that e-Learning until now only takes place within big companies. Outside of the IT sector there is little activity going on in SMEs, related to e-Learning. "SMEs often agree with the need to put training in place," remarked Gordon Gough, Chair of the Institute of Business Advisers in Northern Ireland, "but they are slow to implement any training plan. On-line delivery may encourage adoption but the training providers need to get the benefits message across accurately." (ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2004) Many of the perceived problems are, however, based on misconceptions or prejudices born out of a general suspicion of an educational process in such companies where it is not teacher driven. They are afraid of high costs and overhead for the content maintenance. Another difficulty for SMEs is that most of them do not have a suitable infrastructure for learning. Staff will not in general be allowed to take time off for study when it is necessary, and very often will not be funded to undertake further training. Moreover SMEs do not seem to be very interested in e-Learning because of the e-Learning products which are mostly standard products. Standard products are not adapted to the specific needs and demands of SMEs. For big enterprises it is possible to use standard products for some tasks and goals while getting tailored products for specific needs, mostly in cooperation with an e-Learning manufacturer. For SMEs this strategy is too expensive. One approach to solve these problems is the so-called "Mass Customisation". This concept is based on modules of the teaching units. Sometimes it is even necessary to “destruct” produced e-Learning units and to rebuild them into modules. Another important aspect for high quality and “payable” products is a "Content-Sharing-Platform" (see for example, the results of LERNET at www.lernet.info). Another obstacle in radically changing the way how training is delivered lies in the organisational culture, especially the learning culture (Wade, 2003). In short, the problem is not the technology or the delivery of e-Learning but with the learning culture. Every company has established an own learning culture. It is the way in which the organization teaches its employees to learn and be supported along the way. Two aspects are important in a learning process: the content being presented and skills to master and apply that content once the experience is over. Typically, skills to master and apply content are what make up an organization's lifelong learning culture. So the companies need to understand the type of learning culture they have created and they are supporting. If it is a highly dependent one, they need to start introducing skills that foster a more independent approach. They need to introduce the correct learning options that support their current culture in the best way possible. One solution for making the transition to an “electronic” lifelong learning culture easier is to blend traditional learning delivery with e-Learning solutions (Hamburg et al., 2004). Professionals, managers and trade unions play a crucial role in this process. 3 Examples Our first example refers to a group of projects funded under the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) Innovations Fund in the UK which is designed to make higher education work better for students and business. They focus on improving links between higher education and employers: • OPUS: Understanding the Future: Bridging the Information Gap between employers Higher Education and e-skills aims at increasing higher education's ability to respond to changing demands of employers in IT services by ensuring that the industry better understands and responds to the needs of higher education in terms of its labour market intelligence and careers information; and that HE staff are better equipped to advise students about opportunities in the sector. • Northamptonshire Business Environment Forum is an organisation that offers short courses both for students and employees from SMEs. It will encourage and equip students to work in local SMEs and offer continuing professional development that encourages lifelong learning for SME employees.
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Virtual Hothouse Centre for Enterprise is an e-based business incubation centre which supports the development of new business opportunities initiated by students and graduates from East Midlands HE Institutions by accelerating the development of ideas and offering support through on-line mentoring and resources. Professional Training for Construction is a model for flexible delivery of education and training which will allow learners without previous experience of HE the opportunity to learn at their own pace and at times and places which suit them. Developing Learning Organisations - Risk Management Alternatives is a model for cooperation between academic practitioners in the arts and humanities, and employers in a range of sectors, which will enhance the employability of graduates in the above disciplines, and will support cultures of learning within and between employing organisations.
The second example ARIEL - Analyzing and Reporting the Implementation of Electronic Learning in Europe - is an international joint project funded by the European Commission in the framework of its e-Learning Initiative. The project investigates e-Learning and life long learning for SMEs concerning didactic approaches, benefits and fields of application. Another theme is the evaluation of the impact of previous EU programmes in the field of electronic learning. On this basis ARIEL will build scenarios of the future development of lifelong learning, based on e-Learning in Europe. An important part of the project activities is the dissemination of the results to SMEs, providers of further education, regional economic development agencies and political actors in the countries involved. ARIEL is coordinated by the IAT and has cooperation partners from Ireland, Italy, Hungary and Romania. ARIEL’s tasks include systematic gathering of relevant information concerning ongoing e-Learning activities in Europe, in-depth analysis of these activities and dissemination of information to targeted audiences. ARIEL hereby focuses on lifelong learning solutions and concepts for SMEs which aim at improving their work and supporting their integration into the European market. ARIEL started in January 2004; the following activities have been carried out till then: During the kick-off phase (01/04 – 03/04) the overall project co-ordination has been installed including the setup of an BSCW Server for information exchange between the project partners and the development of the project website (www.ariel-eu.net).The website functions as dissemination instrument and is available in five languages. Currently the website contains information about the project objectives, proceedings, organization and results, about the participating partners and project meetings. In addition, various documents and articles regarding the topic eLearning in SMEs’ are available for download. The content is frequently updated.. During the second phase of the project (04/04 – 09/04) an evaluation scheme has been developed, eLearning related material collected and e-Learning projects monitored. In this context the first step taken was the sifting of 842 projects which are documented in the database e-learningeuropa’, of which 411 projects (48.8 %) aim at the target group SMEs. Here it was shown, that the descriptions of the projects deviated clearly from each other regarding the content and the informational depth. Therefore the need for additional in-depth research arose. Next to an email questionnaire the website has been used for the acquisition of comparable information about e-Learning projects in Europe. For this purpose an online questionnaire had been developed, available in five languages. The following part presents the main results of our e-mail-survey concerning relevant facts for lifelong learning. The response rate to the online questionnaire was filled in by 114 project leaders. The results that are should in figure 1 scan be summarized as follows: 1. The project aims vary from the development of e-Learning Applications (51 entries) over the support of e-Learning processes (42 entries) to the implementation of e-Learning (46 entries). 27 projects stated other than the above named targets. Blended Learning is on the fourth place with 26 entries – this could be an indicator for the increasing relevance of these concepts. 2. 81 projects (23.48 %) defined SMEs as major target group 3. As different as the project aims and their target groups are the expected results and outcomes. Concepts for e-Learning and vocational training are the leading targets, followed by Networks and Software. Concepts and Approaches for life long learning are the expected results for 34 projects – which is the fifth rank. 4
Conclusions
Many SMEs carried out work in various social settings which plays an important role in peoples´ live. Therefore in order to make a contribution to business improvement of SMEs by lifelong learning, this has to be embedded in their work organization from an economic, human and social point of view. A lifelong learning culture of SMEs that could support this process is missing in most SMEs and it remains open how such a culture can be developed. Another important aspect that should be improved is the use of e-Learning in SMEs that can make an important contribution in continuous vocational training particularly for acquiring business skills because this is missing in most of them. At policy level European and national programmes have paid more attention to the importance of the Internet and of digital technologies for ecommerce and B2B in SMEs and very limited attention to the use of ICT for learning, particularly of e-Learning. So despite of the recognition of the need for policy to support and develop lifelong learning and e-Learning in some European States a considerable number of outstanding policy issues remain. Also questions like “How labor market policies can recognize, support and reward lifelong learning” should be answered because in many European countries policies in these two areas are separated. References 1.
ELIG (2005): e-Learning can help Europe become the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the World by. PRESS RELEASE
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BOSCH, G. (2005): Financing lifelong learning into the future - The Expert Commission's most significant findings Posted on 28/1/2005
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CEC-LIFE LONG LEARNING
(2004): http://www.cec-managers.org
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ATTWELL, G./DIRCKINCK-HOLMFELD, L./FABIAN, P./KÁRPÁTI, A./LITTIG, P. (2003): E-Learning in Europe – Results and Recommendations Thematic Monitoring under the LEONARDO DA VINCI Programme. Report. Impuls 010. Bonn, Oktober
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E-LEARNING FRAMEWORK TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER FEBRUARY (2003): White Paper E-Learning Framework on the Web sun.com Page 2. Table of Contents Introduction http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/ whitepapers/pdf/framework.pdf
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HAMBURG, I./LINDECKE, CH. (2004): Blended learning - chance for vocational training in small and medium sized companies. In: Jutz, Ch./Hirt, M./Rizek-Pfister, C. (eds.): 6th International Conference on New Educational Environments: the know-how hub for blended learning and media didactics; Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 27-30 september, 2004. Berne: net4net
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HAMBURG, I./LINDECKE, CH. (2004): E-Learning für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen: eine Untersuchung europäischer Projekte. In: Pangalos, J./Knutzen, S./Howe, F. (Hrsg.): Informatisierung von Arbeit, Technik und Bildung: Kurzfassung der Konferenzbeiträge; GTWHerbstkonferenz, 04./05. Oktober 2004. Hamburg: Techn. Univ
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WADE, R. (2003): What happens when you hear the term ‘Blended Learnings’? In: http://www.elearningeuropa.info/doc.php
What is the projects aim?
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Figure 1: Results of the projects
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