The section Professional Learning & Technology focuses on how to support the learning and development of (future) professionals. Lifelong learning has been embraced as the key to employability, economic success, and dealing with the continuous changes the workforce is nowadays facing. For example, the energy transition, the digital transformation, the increasing complexity of health care, as well as large-scale technological innovations: all require people to keep on learning and developing themselves. This does not only take place at the individual level but also in increasingly multidisciplinary teams and across organizational boundaries, with more and more novel ways of organizing and working together emerging on the organizational landscape (e.g., learning communities or living labs).
In our work and research, we collaborate with many companies and partners in the health, technology, and education sectors. Together, we try to find answers to questions such as:
- What can we do, as an organization, to facilitate talent development and lifelong learning?
- How can we support teams to become more self-directed, creative, and innovative?
- How can we ensure that changes are successfully implemented and sustained over time?
- How can technology help us support our workforce’s continuous learning?
- What are new ways to organize work, and how can we tap into the advantages of cross-functional and interorganizational work while not falling into the typical traps?
Collaborating with us can take different forms. Often, we set up new research projects together with a consortium of interested parties. In this way, we ensure that project goals are relevant to the professional field and designed in such a way that they deliver helpful new insights and tools that our practice partners can use. It is also possible to commission research or consultancy work with us. Moreover, collaboration can also be integrated within the education we provide, including the Master Educational Science & Technology (with a specialization on Human Resource Development) and the interdisciplinary Bachelor minor Professional Learning in Organizations. Our students often work on practical cases formulated by the professional field. In addition, the majority of students in our Master's program prefer to conduct their graduation research at an external organization.
Do you think we can do something for each other? Please contact the section chair Prof. Dr. Maaike Endedijk or the thesis coordinator Dr. Mireille Post-Hubers.