Constraints and Challenges on Learning and Construction of Identities at Work

Abstract

This paper analyses and discusses different constraints on workplace learning, vocational development and formation of identity. We ask how the learning and development of vocational identities are related to the various learning constraints and restrictions present in the socio-cultural contexts of the workplace. The study utilizes 20 interviews of industrial designers and nursing staff in Finland. The data on the vocational students was collected with Internet questionnaires (N= 1125) from these two fields; technology and transport, and social services and health care. The results indicated that constraints on learning and professional/vocational identity development at work were mainly social in nature among employees as well as students. Therefore, we suggest that the most necessary conditions for workers' and students' learning are related to the feeling of "weness" that arises from individuals' active participation in the social community. Workplace Learning and Work Identities in Changing Working LifeWith increasing global economic competition and continuous rapid change in work organisations, most workplaces have become highly contested and unstable for those employed in them. Career prospects and labour policies that push workers into increased flexibility and mobility bring major challenges for workplace learning and the formation of work identities. At the same time, short-term managerial accountability and extremely narrow criteria for efficiency monitoring are being applied, even in areas where the nature of the work makes the use of such criteria inappropriate or misleading (Hodkinson and Hodkinson 2004). Evaluations of this kind have been considered especially inappropriate in work involving creative knowledge, as in design and research, and in human-centred jobs, like teaching and nursing-that is, jobs which are by nature open-ended and ill-defined, and whose central focus is on human encounters and the maintenance of supportive social relationships.Among employees, these tendencies have resulted in a loss of a sense of meaningfulness and deterioration in the conditions supporting a creative atmosphere (Alasoini 2005;Sennett 2006;Siltala 2004). Barometers, for instance in Finland, measuring perceived workload and perceived meaningfulness have shown that highly educated white-collar workers, in particular, have perceived a falling off in their working conditions (Julkunen et al. 2004), leading to the loss of a sense of meaningfulness in their work. A similar deterioration has been reported by publicsector employees doing human-centred work, such as health care and teaching (Kalimo and Toppinen 1997;Kirpal 2004b). Increased workload and the adoption of competitive models have also brought additional challenges with respect to workers' learning processes, and to the development of work identities.This deterioration in working conditions is taking place alongside with increased demands for learning and continuous professional development at work. Additionally, vocational educational and training (VET)...

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