Labour Education and Employee Development Schemes

Labour education is the kind of trainings that are found in the places of work. They may be offered through the company arrangements or may be through personal initiative. The main reason behind it is to enhance the working skills in the organisation arising from the improved skills acquired through the process. This article is going to focus on the labour education that is becoming very useful are widely applied in most of the organisations in the world. The article is also going to look more into the employee development schemes that have led to the growth in this educating sector.

It is a challenge to identify the significant employee learning scheme that is significant and is different from the day-to-day kind of learning. Some of the studies that try to explore this area are normally referred to as the supervisor prompting (Tarvid, 2016). The same studies do not focus on the knowledge that is from the employee because most of them look at the learning process and the company training. This ends being a problem to tell the difference of the learning since there seem to be no boundaries between the learning that have been from the employee’s side or the one that is company oriented.

There are examples of cases that have looked into different sectors on the topic of the learning process and where it generates from in the training that is held in the unions, companies, informal and the far from the workplace situation. In the examples in these cases, it was common that it was hard to identify the learning that was workers initiated. There are some issues that affect the taking over of the training at the workplaces. One of the major reasons is one to pay for the knowledge, in this case, if the training takes some money to get it may discourage the worker from undergoing it, especially if the organization does not come in to compensate. Gender and the ethnic divisions that are on the job may also determine the learning of the labourers. In some of the workplaces that have ethical problems, they have low cases of training conducted which is due to the individualism in the area (Spencer & Kelly, 2013).

However, there are also some minor factors that affect the labour education. Examples of such are the accessibility of the learning to the workers. In areas where it is hard to get the education from has few workers undertaking the same. The other known issue is the casual workers in the companies. For the casual workers to undergo the training is usually hard because they feel they are not even assured of the permanent job, and this demotivates them (United States, 2008).

Some of the common components types or ways of learning are the informal learning. This is where the workers do not necessarily have to go to learning classes or sessions but just are taken through observing kind of learning. The other common type is the knowledge sharing process (Spencer & Kelly, 2013). In this cases the experienced workers act as the educators and the employees who either just got the job or are not conversant with the kind of job are helped by the professionals. Sometimes the learning deals with huge issues at hand such as the management issues. In this sector, the employees learn on how to handle some situation and this helps regarding replacing the managerial vacancies. This helps the workers to have an active representation in the decisions made by the management. Studies have shown that for the employees that were involved in the management made them guarded and felt trusted in the company. The results of this kind of feeling were that they became even more loyal.

Recently there has been a development of a union called Union Learning Representatives; it is well known in the UK. Its major objective is to connect the worker to opportunities that are occupying. Mostly they are providing the learning opportunities. For four years only 10% of the representatives bargained for the learning process provision (Froy et al, 2010). It is common that partnerships agreements are taking over than the bargaining kind of Representatives. This is because for them they value looking closely at the employer rights and sometimes deny formation of a union so as they can form their unions. For one to understand unions, they have got to understand the contradiction of the union which can be put as the force of opposition or to accommodate the members. Independent active unions may give the best opportunity to practice democracy in the place of work and involve themselves in the collective bargaining, and this is normally referred to as the industrial democracy.

Nowadays the unions have less influence in the economies that are well established. This is because there have emerged new methods of attaining the training and other forms of representation as well. These methods have become popular for them is known to involve the workers in various participations (Spencer & Kelly, 2013). For example, they are usually notified of the changes to be made in the company but not given a chance to make the decisions. It has been observed that where there are increased opportunities involving the workers by participating is common in the organizations that do not recognize unions.

As earlier stated that labour education is the training that is given to the representatives and the members that are given by the worker’s unions, the extent of the condition is different in different countries and unions. The training is basically to ensure the members have an active role in the union and help the members to understand policies of the union. The train may also be on the laws and managerial techniques in the union. This training help to share common goals and campaign and bring out the voluntary force. Education is the ranked among very crucial adult education, and this sector is growing (Spencer & Kelly, 2013). However, there has been an inconsistency due to the division that is between the adult community educators and the worker’s educators. Most of the members in the unions learn on the training while they are working and this is called incidental learning.

Core labour education is based on the courses provided by the union such as the grievance handling, health courses and management strategies and many others. The biggest task for the courses is to connect the society to the working stations (Organization E. C.-D, 2006). As earlier stated the courses help to get active participation of the members and they are known to be given by the labour unions, federations, central or collaborations with educational bodies. The liberal studies supplement courses that are offered and mostly act as the base for the research on the activities of the union. For examples mostly it is the universities that collaborate with the unions to help in the research. The unions are becoming more and more involved in the giving of basic learning skills or for the vocational reasons. In some cases, the union literacy method of training is used, and it is helpful for the immigrants and the illiterate people, and this allows them to learn irrespective of them being in that condition.

There have been new developments in the labour education and is mostly targeted on the union representatives. For examples where the unions were not allowed. Things are changing because in such areas formation of unions was not allow giving an example of South Africa. There also has been development by training the recruiters. This has become useful to curb the decline of the influence of the work unions and the patterns that had started coming up. There also have up of campaigns that helped in assisting the members in recruitment and negotiation.

Employee development schemes are the schemes that help in the funding of the workers to undertake the educational training hat they choose to. They help in the motivational of the workers to involve themselves in the learning process. This helps the workers to take on new activities that benefit them. This is the fact that was established for the organizations where they were told that for them to be very successful, they have got to be education centres for the workers. This in return helps to improve and to develop their human resource skills. However, it is not clear of the interest of this which is between employee development or general agreement, and this tries to justify that even if the education is not work related it is necessary.

The union on its side views the employee development scheme as a fund body that is key to helping the workers even if the training is not directly related to the sector of the job. This could be through paid time off work, and they may go ahead to fund leisure, academic and personal requirements. The union is involved in the negotiation and monitoring of the scheme to ensure it meets the set goals. Examples of such schemes are the Ford scheme and is seen as the private employer-employee scheme forerunner. Different companies have different schemes, and this has led to the division of the schemes into three categories. The first being the single scheme in which the involved company comes up with a scheme for their group of workers. Secondly, there is the coordinated scheme in which few companies come together to have one scheme for all their workers. Thirdly there is the multi-scheme in which there is a learning scheme which gives support to the other organizations by linking up their scheme, and this way is more connected than the coordinated scheme. The features of the employee scheme are the voluntary participation, training access, learning and the work passed the module. Mostly the training is done in time out of the usual working time, and the employee and the employer negotiate on a certain range and may add a certain fee. The learning may be outside the place of work to ensure personal and vocational development.

The Employee Development Scheme has many implications and from studies, it has been evident that the employers who agree to support the scheme have a better shot in the delivering to their companies. This is through the increased participation. The motivation and the boost of the self-confidence gives a more positive attitude, and this increases the commitment to the work.

In conclusion the education development schemes can be incorporated in the organisation’s workers benefits. This would be entitled to all the employees and through it, it empowers the employees. The managers should take up the methodology since in this way it motivates the workers and leads to the democratization of the work place. It has also been proven that it opens the workers up to bring out their talents, innovation skills and their passions in the work or organisation as whole. Finally, it helps to initiate the implementation of the company and the betterment change since they learn and are equipped with knowledge and this helps to come up with new ideas. The article has accomplished its objective of researching on the labour education and employee development schemes.

References

Froy, F., Giguère, S., Local Economic and Employment Development (Program), & Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010). Breaking out of policy silos: Doing more with less. Paris: OECD.

Organization E. C.-D. (2006). Skills Upgrading: New Policy Perspectives. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Spencer, B., & Kelly, J. (2013). Work and learning: An introduction. Toronto: Thompson Educational Pub.

Tarvid, A. (2016). Agent-based modelling of social networks in labor-education market system.

United States. (2008). Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2009. New York: Skyhorse Publishing.