Linda Ahlgren

Lifelong learning through SMEs: exploring workplace learning in the UK

Purpose – The primary objective in this paper is to examine the role of small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in promoting and/or hindering educational opportunities to adult employees in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on 12 case studies of SMEs in England and Scotland, which form part of a larger European Sixth Framework Programme research project. Interviews were conducted with employers, line managers and employees participating in formal educational programmes, and were contextualized with policy documents and literature on lifelong learning and workplace education.Findings – This paper highlights and explores findings related to human resource management (HRM) and the participation of employees in formal education, and the experiences of companies in providing educational opportunities to employees in England and Scotland. The paper argues that employers have a key role to play in driving and investing in employee training and development. However, the current focus of emplo...

Equity and lifelong learning: lessons from workplace learning in Scottish SMEs

Workplace learning is identified by UK and Scottish governments as an important means of achieving social mobility, and therefore producing a more equal society. However, there appears to be a patchwork of provision and funding arrangements, making it difficult for employers and employees to identify suitable routes. Analysis of large scale survey data at European and Scottish levels shows that existing inequalities are further entrenched by differential access to and participation in workplace learning, where those with existing high levels of qualification have far greater opportunities. This paper draws on data drawn from an EU Sixth Framework funded study of lifelong learning, focusing in particular on case studies of six Scottish SMEs which are used to identify some of the reasons underlying inequalities in access to workplace learning. Whilst all of the SMEs had a positive approach to employee development, they differed in the type of work they undertook and the composition of the workforce. Employees in knowledge intensive organisations were immersed in a culture where on‐going learning was an expected part of working life, and was driven by both employers’ and employees’ expectations. By way of contrast, more traditional manufacturing and training organisations had a more restricted approach to learning, encouraging employees to undertake courses which would give them the skills to do their jobs more effectively, but with less focus on their wider growth and development. All firms treated lifelong learning with some degree of scepticism, ultimately prioritising company profitability over individual employee development and seeing the two as sometimes at variance. Given the Scottish government’s desire to promote the demand side of skill development, the barriers posed by employers’ attitudes need to be addressed, particularly in relation to lower‐skilled workers in manufacturing firms, who might have less intrinsic motivation, but are also less likely to receive encouragement and support from their employer.

Religious Education in Primary Schools in Scotland: Consensus or Uneasy Truce?

Aspects of identity based on religion and belief have increasingly come to be recognized as major forces driving social action. In the light of ethnic and religious tensions in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, questions have been raised about whether there has been too much emphasis on the diversity of social groups, including those based on religious identity, and too little emphasis on the building of shared values and social cohesion (Levey and Modood, 2009; Weatherell, 2009). This research considers the role of schools in multicultural societies, in particular in relation to their teaching of religious and moral education (RME). Current experiences of religious education in Scottish schools are located within a broad historical context. As a result of the sixteenth century Reformation in Scotland, there was a radical break with the established Catholic tradition, leading to the domination of a form of Protestantism imbued with a strong streak of Puritanism. Immigration from Ireland, which took place throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, led to the establishment of strong Catholic communities in the industrial heartlands of the west of Scotland. Catholic schools were established to meet the needs of these new immigrants. In the 1970s and 1980s, the collapse of traditional industries, such as shipbuilding and coalmining, had a major impact on all communities in the west of Scotland, irrespective of their religious identification.