ERIC ED367847: Not Just a Number. Experiences of Workplace Learning by Workers in the North of England.

54 Pages·1992·0.98 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 367 847
CE 065 912
AUTHOR
Frank, Fiona, Ed.
Not Just a Number. Experiences of Workplace Learning
TITLE
by Workers in the North of England.
INSTITUTION Lancaster Univ. (England).
SPONS AGENCY
Leverhulme Trust, London (England).
REPORT NO ISBN-0-901800-18-X
PUB DATE
[92]
54p.; Foreword by Jane Mace. For a related document,
NOTE
see CE 065 911.
AVAILABLE FROM
Center for the Study of Education and Training,
Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YL, England,
United Kingdom (3.50 British pounds, plus 2 pounds
postage and packing).
PUB TYPE
Creative Works (Literature,Drama,Fine Arts) (030)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Access to Education; Adult Education; *Corporate
Education; Creative Writing; *Educational Attitudes;
*Educational Benefits; *Education Work Relationship;
Foreign Countries; *Unskilled Workers; Weekend
Programs; Work Attitudes
*England; Tuition Benefit Programs; *Workplace
IDENTIFIERS
Literacy
ABSTRACT
In April 1992, 16 individuals who were all employed
in manual or nonsupervisory jobs and who had all participated in
employer-funded advlt education courses offered partly or entirely
during work hours attended a weekend retreat in the north of England.
They spent the weekend talking and writing about their experiences
with work-based learning, its effect on their lives, and the broader
benef'ts of work-based education programs. This book presents the
collected writings of the weekend program's participants. The
writings are in various formats, including reports, essays, and
poems. In the introductory section, two participants describe their
involvement in workplace learning and its significance in their
lives. The writings in chapters 1 and 2 describe typical workdays in
the lives of service occupation and factory workers, and the poems
and essays i chapter 3 focus on the participants' reasons for taking
work-based adult education courses and the personal and career
benefits of the courses. The works presented in chapter 4 offer
reasons why giving employees access to education during work time
benefits employers and include points for employers to consider when
developing work-based learning programs. In chapter 5, participants
offer their views of the weekend retreat. (MN)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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Experiences of workplace learning
By
Workers in the North of England
)
LAN CASTE R
Edited by Fiona Frank
UNIVERSITY)
with a foreword by Jane Mace
3
I
Iston Hall, a big, old place
We went to learn at our own pace
Introductions and talks
Writing and thoughts
People from different walks of life
Bringing education to new heights
Expectations rising high
Do you think we will reach the sky?
Maria Smith
ISBN 0-901800-18-X
(This is my first attempt at poetry)
4
2
/
NOT
,
II'S A
NNBER
Contents
4
The Writers
5
Foreword by Jane Mace
6
Preface
Introduction: What is Workplace Learning?
7
9
Chapter One: Workers: carers
Chapter Two: Workers: in factories
21
29
Chapter Three:Learners
39
Chapter Four:Thinkers
43
Chapter Five: Weekenders
52
r
Acknowledgements
0
3
,
he Writers
1
Nursery nurse, Sheffield City Council
Carol Allcock
Becky Bailey
Domestic assistant, Sheffield City Council
Pauline Bailey
Packer, Brooke Bond Foods, Great Harwood
Brian Bentham
Floor standing boiler assembler, Baxi Heating, Preston
Jennifer Cussens
Ancillary worker, Sheffield City Council
Brenda Cutforth
Care Assistant, Sheffield City Council
Yvonne Davies
Packer, Brooke Bond Foods
Pat Goodman
Ancillary worker,Sheffield City Council
Annice Harrison
Production worker, Brooke Bond Foods
Jean Hewitt
Machinist, Brooke Bond Foods
Jackie Holden
Quality control inspector, Richards & Appleby, Skelmersdale
Richard Kedward
Home care worker, Sheffield City Council
Maria Smith
Cook, Sheffield City Council
Neil Thompson
Safety officer, Richards & Appleby
Margarzt Walsh
Packer, Brooke Bond Foods
Jean White
Home help, Sheffield City Council
.-.14.1
he Tutors
Tutor, Sheffield City Council 'Take Ten'
Graham Birkin
1
Fiona Frank
Research ASSOCiate, Adult Learning at Work projcct,
CSET, Lancaster University
Tutor, Skelmersdale College
Clare Gil lard
Mary Hamiltoa
Research Fellow, Adult Learning at Work project,
CSET, Lancaster University
Chris CYMahony
Research Associate, Goldsmiths College, London.
Event coordinator/planner.
Chrissie Gladwin (photos on page 8, 22,25, 26, 32, 34, 38)
HE PHOTOGRAPHER'S
Mary Hamilton (photos on page 6, 9, 10, 18, 39, 43,44, 45, 46, 47)
Barbara Madoc (photos on pagc 21, 24, 29, 31, 36)
ci
4
Writing is a means to reflect, to express ideas, and to share experience.
FOREWORD
To write is to release a kind of energy. Some of the knowledge and
feeling that was buried inside us is now outside, for us and for others to
BY JANE MACE
see on the page.
Few people in everyday paid employment have the chance to practise this
of writing
use of writing. On the contrary: for most people, the idea
down what we think and feel holds a kind of terror. Part of the terror is
to do with an idea that writing is a kind of evicl,,(nce: proof of our ability to
think properly. Tf* (ear is that we shall be found out as poor thinkers,
caught out as bad spellers, shown up as wrong in our use of English.
This book is a lovely celebration of getting back to the good that writing
work of earning a
can do us; and how the work of writing fits with the
during a
wage. It's a book about work and about learning, written
weekend meeting of people who know about both.
In the late 1980s in this country, in other European countries, and in
North America, there has been a good deal of public talk about training at
work, and about finding out what the training 'needs' of workplaces
might be. In real life, it is still the minority who get the kind of training at
work which offers a genuine opportunity for workers to reflect, to express
ideas, and to share experience (which are also the business of the best
kind of literacy education in the broadest sense.)
The pieces in this book tell something of what this opportunity can mean,
when it happens. The weekend during which it was put together was
itself an example of good 'training' - an event in which people met as
equals to compare notes, offer mutual support and recognition, and put
together proposals for improvements.
Written by people with first hand experience of those few courses that do
exist for people in manual work, this is not a solemn textbook, a glossy
It's a
report, or an impersonal policy document on workplace training.
collection of ideas, comments and discussion on this subject, intended to
I think it will; and I think that
encourage more discussion in other places.
the recommendations in Chapter Four make important reading for any
organisation or policymaker aiming to make training at work an effective
use of workers' time.
9ane Mace
Goldsmiths' College, London, June 1992
5
In April ;992, sixteen students and five tutors, together with three
children and two creche workers, spent the weekend together at Alston
Hall, Longridge, near Preston, in Lancashire. This book is a product of
that weekend.
The purpose of the weekend was for the students to talk and write
about their experience of work-based learning. All of the sixteen
worked in the north of England, in manual or non-supervisory jobs, and
while they workcd for different employers, what they had in common
was that all of them had been on adult education courses partly or
wholly in work time and funded by their employers.
In this book the workers speak about the profound effect that taking up
education as adults has had on their lives. Some of the pieces arc about
the weekend itself; some describe the students' working day; and the
section 'Thinkers' looks at the whole issue of access to education in
work time, and discusses some points which the students suggest
employers should have in mind when thinking about setting up such
schemes.
Whether you are an employer, a tutor, 1 college principal, or a worker
thinking about taking up thc opportunity of workplace learning, if you
get something out of this book it will have achieved its purpose.
Fiona Frank
on behalf of
The Editorial Committcc - Carol Allcock, Becky Bailey, Graham Birkin,
Brenda Cutforth, Fiona Frank, Clare Gillard, Pat Goodman, Annice Harrison,
Jean Hewitt, Chris O'Mahony, Maria Smith, and Margaret Walsh.
The Editorial committee cannot, of course, be held responsible
for any of the contributors' views expressed in this book.
May 1992
6
.40
AitSSW
4$"N
What is workplace learning? Two workers' stories.
The possibilities are endless
I thought I would just be a cleaner
For three of the ten weeks we were split into three groups. I chose 'The Greening
until retirement. But now going on
Don.
of the City'. Included in this was a visit to the canal and local river, the River
courses I feel I can better myself.
I
We looked at pollution, learned how to test for pollution, and about how it is being
can put my view of things over even if
tackled. There was 2 visit to a pond that had been cleaned of pollution by a
other people do not agree. Also I very
voluntary group called Sheffield Wildlife. One visit took us to a countryside unit at
rarely say 'I can not do that' not
Loxley where a site has been made so school children can study different wildlife
without trying anyway. I do not put
and plants.
myself down as much, because I now
do things that I would not have
The Take Ten course covered a lot of things too numerous to mention in this
dreamed of doing this time last year. I
experience. On one of the
report. For our homework we did a diary of our day's
also think things through more. The
weeks Fiona Frank came and told us about the research she was doing on
courses I have been on in the last year
workplace education which has led to this weekend course at Alston Hall,
have given me more confidence in
Longridge, Preston, putting together all our experience on workplace courses from
myself to do more.
different cities.
The first course I went on started in
The Take Ten course also led to a weekend course on Women's Studies which was
April 1991, it was called Take Ten.
in
held at Northern College, Barnsley. Our Take Ten tutor ran this; it took place
One day paid leave per week for ten
November 1991. On my last day at Take Ten, Val White came from Northern
weeks, Sheffield City Council runs
College and told us about the courses they ran.
this course, with tutors from Loxlcy
College in Sheffield. Take Ten is run
That is how, in January this year, I wcnt to Northern College for a week's course,
three times a year. Loxley College
for me
the first one of three, called ',earning to Learn. Sheffield City Council paid
also run 'Take Fifteen' for part-time
the coursc, who were paid for
to go on this course, thc same :s the othcr people on
workers. On the course I was on we
The programme
by their Council. A lot of the course was writing and group work.
learned about our council and how it
Notes,
headings were Using Libraries, Using Books, Reading Techniques, Taking
is run. We looked around the Town
Working in a Group. They have 2 creche so students' children can be with thcir
Hall, went in thc council chambers,
MUMS.
talked to some councillors about
things that we were interested in, sat
And last but not least I have been on a two day Al DS course, and four day course
in a sub-committee meeting, and
for people who work in Residential Units, both in Sheffield.
looked around the publicity depart-
ment. We were also shown around
Both Take Tcn and Northern College award credits for their courses, in recognition
the buildings that were going to bc
of thc programme of work done.
used for the World Student Games
and asked questions about the Games
to their Deputy Leader.
9ennifer Cussens
9
7
A chance to work
English GCSE. The fim) then
While many people took advantage of
I began working for Brooke Bond
informed us that they would pay the
the courses others held the attitude
Foods seventeen years ago as a part
fees for anyone taking courses which
that they were a waste of time or they
time machinist, making Oxo cubes.
would help with any future careers.
lacked the confidence to try them.
This was four evenings a weck.
They also had interviews with each
From the firm's point of view they
This fitted in very well with my
member of staff to try and sort out
had production figures to meet and
family commitments. Then 2S my
what kind of work people would be
orders to fill so they can't afford to
daughter grew older I transferred to
looking for. The outcome of this was
have shop floor workers on courses
days as this seemed easier rather than
that courses were arranged in Caring,
indefinitely. At one time the Friday
looking for another job.
Computing Isnd Catering which we
afternoon classes clashed with the
attended on Friday afternoons in our
overtime and it was difficult for
However, two years ago all the
own time over a fifteen week period.
people to choose between the two.
workers (about 400 people) were
The firm also offered a two day job
But I'm quite prepared to give my
called into the canteen and we were
search skills course and a communi 2-
own time up. It shows you're
informed that the factory would be
tions skills course which were dont in
prepared to put something into it
moving to Worksop in 1992, and that
the firm's time. The courses were
yourself.
we would all be made redundant.
either held in the training room at the
This news was met by a wall of
factory or at Accrington College. I
The result of all this activity for me, is
silence 23 people tried to take in the
attended the two day job search skills
that I have gained confidence, learnt
fact.
course and the computer course.
new skills, learnt to deal with new
situations and now thc future holds
This, obviously, made me think
more promise than it did two years
seriously about my future. I had to
ago.
face the idea of starting over again at
45; not by choice, but being forced
My priority had been looking after my
into it and knowing that employers
family and for the first time in years
wanted younger more qualified staff.
I'm doing something for myself.
I at least had had previous experience
I think that on shop floors all over
both in applying for jobs and doing
Britain thcre are workers who have
different types of work; many of my
talents that lie dormant because they
colleagues had only ever workcd for
are not given the opportunity to find
Brooke Bsind Foods. Some had
1.
out what their capabilities are.
started straight from school on the
recommendation of a relative and had
never written a C.V. or application
/
letter.
.'''
I decided to enrol for evening classes
V
and as I had previously worked in an
lean Henfrltt
office I chose word-processing and
1 0
8