How hands-on employees themselves make a difference
UT researchers Maaike Endedijk and Britt Wiefferink seek the answer to that question. In collaboration with companies and educational institutions, they developed an innovative approach in which learning and working go hand in hand: the Learning Community.
Hands-on learning, at the centre of work
A Learning Community is not a traditional training course, but a temporary learning group within a company. For ten weeks, six to eight employees from different functions work on a practical problem that plays out in their own workplace. They are guided by a facilitator and supported by an expert from a knowledge institution.
‘We really work with people from the floor,’ says Wiefferink. And that makes all the difference. Employees are really allowed and able to change things in their company. ‘They are heard.’ That sense of ownership is essential because learning only works if the subject is relevant to their daily work. Wiefferink: ‘That was demonstrated by a Learning Community around making the profession of mechanics more attractive. There, employees started working with recruitment. Not relevant at all and it didn't get off the ground.’
This was also evident at Wassink Installation. There, employees worked together on a new way of working with refurbished parts for central heating installations. Employees' first experience with a Learning Community produced tangible and sustainable results. By keeping the chosen theme close to the day-to-day work, enthusiasm grew and the solution really became embedded in the company.’
From scepticism to enthusiasm
In the beginning, there was scepticism. Employees wondered what they would learn in a ‘group’. But after just one round, many companies wanted to repeat the programme. They saw how their employees grew, how new ideas emerged and how innovation became firmly established in the organisation. ‘Only when innovation becomes firmly established in the organisation do you start making progress together,’ says Endedijk.
The participants themselves are also enthusiastic. An employee with thirty years of technical experience found it refreshing to actively contribute ideas: ‘A Learning Community is not a class where you sit back, but you are at the wheel yourself. You participate based on equality.’
More and more Learning Communities
What started as a pilot has grown into a broad movement. More than 30 Learning Communities have been set up at installation companies within this project, and that number continues to grow to now over 100. More and more companies across the country are starting Learning Communities. Thanks to practical manuals, workshops and tools provided by the project, companies can now also start Learning Communities independently. ‘We have made all the necessary knowledge openly accessible. So, in principle, anyone can start a Learning Community,’ says Endedijk.
The success lies not only in the concept, but also in the way it is implemented. A good facilitator provides a safe learning environment and helps participants share their expertise. ‘I know other things than you’ then becomes not a contradiction but a starting point for cooperation. The facilitator does not have to be a technical expert himself, the opposite actually. A facilitator asks questions that make others think.
The key to success
Yet it is not a foregone conclusion that a Learning Community will succeed. There are preconditions, such as a concrete and feasible issue, involved participants, and above all, that good facilitator. In cooperation with Saxion University of Applied Sciences, the researchers are working on a quality register and training for facilitators. The role of this process facilitator turns out to be crucial for the success of the project.
What started as an initiative of several researchers at UT and Saxion grew into a national movement thanks to the efforts of a broad network of partners. Thanks to cooperation with ROC van Twente, Windesheim, Wij Techniek, the Pioneering Foundation, Techniek Nederland, ISSO and seven installation companies from Twente, it was possible to scale up.
What all these partners hope is that the approach sticks. That companies learn how to create their own learning space for their people. So that innovation does not become added work, but is part of daily work. The project won the national Learning Culture award from the LLO Catalyst. With new grants, the concept is now being further extended to other sectors and regions.
