Annual review

Hróbjartur Árnason:

What is so remarkable with… being an adult?

“Adults learn differently” was once said. In this article I examine how adults learn differently from children and the impact the difference might have on the structure and implementation of adult education both for and by mature students. I base my deliberations on the experience of many Icelandic adult education teachers and compare it to research and theory of adult students. The purpose is to cast light on a few issues that critically affect the effectiveness of adult education. The first salient feature is that adult learners are usually enthusiastic about their education, where their interest is normally in proportion to its perceived usefulness, and on the extent to which it gives them a tangible qualification. Adults use their experience in their studies, but as this experience varies in quantity and quality between individuals, it is important that is used creatively, so that all participants get the most out of their courses. The nature of ageing affects how adults learn, but does not necessarily affect their ability to learn – and the fact that they have commitments outside the classroom affects the teaching of adults. Adults’ lives can often be complex, which can be reflected in the classroom, and can disturb the student and sometimes even his fellows. As lifelong learning is becoming an increasingly larger part of the adult’s working day, it is important for employer and employee alike that this learning is implemented effectively. Understanding the main needs of adult learners is a key factor for success in adult education.

Gylfi Einarsson og Ólafur Jónsson:

Training and evolving in workplace

The article discusses education in the workplace and the changes currently taking place in organisation and content of workplace education in technical colleges and in colleges of further education. The authors of the article feel that education in the workplace is an inseparable part of a student’s school education and that it should take into account the objectives of the syllabus in the subjects in question. This serves both the interests of the students and of employers. The students’ interests are learning about employers’ demands and expectations regarding skills and competence in a given sector. The employers’ interests are fulfilled by the opportunity they have to include their demands and expectations for skills and competence in the student’s course and in the curriculum for the sector in question. Education in the workplace and school education are connected in many ways in Iceland.

Increasing demands on organisation of education in the workplace and on organisation of individual curricula for students offers the opportunity for closer links between employers and the school system.

Knud Illeris:

Let us break the ice

Years of being belittled in school makes it difficult for people with minimal education to take the step of returning to formal education and training. But fortunately, one can use very effective techniques to make this easier for them. The article describes the following 5 steps. 1. Establish a personal relationship.

2. Give yourself time for conversation.

3. Remember that real circumstances matter.

4. Take the participants’ experience into account.

5. Offer a variety of ways to evaluate learning.

Sigrún Jóhannesdóttir:

Transfer of knowledge or preparation for occupation?

“The value of an idea is in the using of it”, said Thomas Edison. One could say the same about vocational training. It is not worth much if it is not useful at work.

Relations between schools and the employment sector are often characterised by differing views on the role of educational institutions. Should they just present ideas and theories, or should they also help students use them? In today’s complex society, more and more emphasis is placed on a number of soft skills in the work place. This means that vocational training needs to address soft skills no less than job sector specific skills.

The way people see learning and teaching has to be influenced by these aspects. The old methods no longer suffice. We have to adopt new methods and approaches and rethink our perception of the learning environment. Pedagogy offers us a tremendous range of new ideas about ways to improve teaching work and increase the results of instruction. There are many ways to support and enhance learning, interest in learning and results from learning. They normally involve blending teaching methods that enhance soft skills with methods that build knowledge.

A pre-condition for being able to implement these ideas is positive attitude to change, not only among the directors of educational institutions, but also among trainers and students – and we need to support and encourage the drive and initiative needed to bring about change. The Education and Training Service Centre is keen to do what it can to help build quality teaching in the vocational education domain.

Guðmunda Kristinsdóttir:

The target group needs and desires

The target group of the Education and Training Service Centre is workers who have not completed formal further education. Here we pose questions about the target group’s needs and wishes for education. What do they want to include in job-related education, and how do they want the teaching to be organised? Do their wishes and needs match what we read in academic studies on pedagogy for adult learning? During the past two years, information on these issues has been gathered in the needs analysis project run by the Education and Training Service Centre. But the data is mostly from a survey of staff in the Icelandic fish processing industry. This survey showed that staff would like more training, which should be job-related and should address soft skills, but the staff emphasise most of all the need for varied teaching methods that involve activity and student participation.

Guðmunda Kristinsdóttir:

Vocational training for adults – What do we need to succeed?

What do we mean when we say that education is “successful”? Successful for whom? When we are discussing vocational education, the usefulness of the education needs to be reflected in the employee’s increased skills in the workplace, though of course it may also be useful in other environments. There are many factors that affect success, but here we will argue that the roles of trainer and organiser are predominant and that they have capabilities to facilitate the trainee’s transfer of course knowledge to the workplace. The article has practical advice for trainers that help both during the teaching and follow-up phases. It also indicates that in addition to training for professional and technical skills, it is necessary to train soft skills, not least to ensure that the individual can be successful in implementing the professional skills he has gained. 

Elísabet Arnardóttir og Guðmundur B. Kristmundsson:

Literacy research results

A study on adult literacy began in mid 2004 and is now being completed. Some of the research results are published in this article, particularly those relating to participants with the lowest scores on the reading tests. The RCBA test was used to assess reading, and there was a comprehensive list of questions in addition. The results show that there is a correlation between reading skills and the participants’ education. The proportion of men and women was about the same in the group, which is not the case with teenagers today. A large majority of those who were in the lowest 10% for reading skills, were older than 35. This group of participants seems to be well aware of its status regarding reading skills and they will also tend to have views on what might help them to improve their skills. They want methods to increase understanding rather than support for increasing speed. They are more interested than other participants in learning to use the computer for communication and in training for reading out loud. This group provided more of their own ideas than other groups about aspects of reading and writing they would like to improve, that is to say aspects that the researchers had not identified.

Sigrún Kr. Magnúsdóttir:

Adult education in Iceland

Though adult education and training, both in the formal school system and outside, have always played an important role in Iceland, they were not included in the discussions on the development of education at a national level until very recently. One could say that adult education is an amalgam of two elements, on the one hand formal education, courses and educational offers, and on the other informal education of various forms. The article briefly reviews the history of adult education in Iceland and its current environment.

Fjóla María Lárusdóttir:

Educational promotion in workplaces

Last winter, the Education and Training Service Centre ran the “Encourage Education at the Workplace” course, which is a 100 hour distance learning package on advisory services, for representatives from companies and institutions. The course is intended to train participants to advise colleagues about ways to develop their skills, e.g. by providing information about available courses and about ways to get the services of training and employment advisors. It is hoped that the training will establish contact people in companies who can inform and encourage general staff to participate more actively in lifelong learning.  

Arnbjörn Ólafsson:

ALL—Accreditation of lifelong learning

During the last two years the organisation Mennt (Educate) – which is a forum for co-operation between the employment and educational sectors regarding the development of education – has coordinated a pilot project dealing with a quality accreditation system for providers of non-formal education. The project, which was supported by the Leonardo da Vinci Programme, was formally completed in October 2005 and was implemented jointly with the English School in Iceland, Voksenoplæringsforbundet in Norway, Open College Network of West and North Yorkshire in the UK, Lava Legato in Holland- and Studio e Progetto 2 in Sardinia.  

Pétur Einarsson:

Assessment of effectiveness of training

The processes of job-related training and education have a causal relationship. You can see the process as a chain, which by nature is no stronger than its weakest link. The process begins with a needs analysis where the gap between existing and desirable performance is defined, which may lead to intervention in the form of training and eventually to some kind of assessment of the effectiveness of the training. The main subject of this article is the last step in the training process, which is evaluation of effectiveness. Much of the deliberations in this article are from my master’s thesis, which dealt with the evaluation of the effectiveness of vocational training. I also blend in my own views and feelings on the matter. The aim of the article is to pose questions, but not necessarily to answer them.

Hans-Inge Persson:

The National Centre for Flexible Learning (Nationellt centrum för flexibelt lärande (CFL)) was established by the Swedish government in connection with its policy on lifelong learning and re-education. The role of CFL is to facilitate access to lifelong learning and re-education and to make learning more flexible than it is now, in two major sectors in Swedish adult education – i.e. in organising education for workers and in local government adult education operations.

Two characteristics have developed in CFL, operations and methods. The methods used by the institution have aroused well-deserved interest, most recently with the “European e-learning Award 2005”.

Bjarni Ingvarsson og Fjóla María Lárusdóttir:

The Education and Training Service Centre received a Leonardo Da Vinci grant of ISK 30 million from the European Union’s vocational training programme for a project entitled “The Value of Work”. The project aims to develop methods to assess real skills of individuals in the employment sector. The Education and Training Service Centre will coordinate the project. Partner organisations are from Denmark, England, Cyprus, Slovenia and Sweden.

Agnethe Nordentoft:

Evolve competances in workers education

Two words, two worlds, two eras: Improving skills and workers’ education – two ways of understanding the concept of adult education that may or not be the inverse of each other. Improving skills is a modern mantra. It suggests progress, productivity, a conscious use of resources and an unremitting demand that adult education must provide return on investment, be useful and ensure the best basis for competitiveness on the market and in the scientific community.

Workers’ Education suggests broad human qualities that are the glue that holds our democratic structure together, where there is time and opportunity to deepen understanding of whatever subject the individual may choose on the basis of his interests and needs, education that gives the individual the opportunity of a richer life in all the fields of human activity. In this way one can see workers’ education as a general education. Many consider the expression “workers education” to be hackneyed, that it is to say retrospective or from another era.

The article asks, “Does it make any sense to talk about improving skills in the context of workers’ education?” The answer is yes. But it means settling many accounts, historical, financial and philosophical.

There is growing consensus today on how important it is that workers’ education makes a contribution to the improvement of skills in society as a whole. The emphasis is on focussing on the individual as a whole. There is a need for all of us to improve our skills and to make use of all their facets, for our own benefit and for society as a whole.

Bjarni Ingvarsson:

Learning and working – hand in hand for evaluation of real skills

Work places have long been places for learning. Staff skills are very important and evaluation of these skills is the key to effective learning, so that the needs of the employee and employer go hand in hand. There have been rapid developments in recent years, so it is important to make use of new methods such as research and advisory services in the workplace and the evaluation of real skills.

Ásmundur Hilmarsson:

Good preconditions for e-learning

In February 2005, the Icelandic Bureau of Statistics conducted its 4th survey of the extent to which homes and individuals used computers and the Internet. This was a telephone survey. The sample was 2000 individuals who were in the age group 16-74 at the start of the survey, and were all residents in Iceland. Participation was a little over 81%. Results showed that the use of computers and the Internet was both general and varied, which is a good environment for distance learning through the Internet.

Ásmundur Hilmarsson:

Drop-outs from further education

The Icelandic Bureau of Statistics estimated drop-outs from further education from autumn 2002 – autumn 2003 by comparing numbers of students registering at the beginning of the period with the number of those remaining at the end. Results showed that 4100 students had either stopped or had taken a break from their learning. Dropout rates were lowest for students in full-time day school education, and highest for students in part-time distance learning. Dropout is higher among men than women and higher in vocational education than in academic. Dropout is also highest in the early stages of further education.