“When planning for a year, plant corn.

When planning for a decade, plant trees.

When planning for life, train and educate people.” Chinese proverb: Guanzi (c. 645BC)

When planning for e-life, empower trainers and learners to engage in e-life.

The small business community in the UK and Europe is a growth sector and collectively the largest employer. European governments and the European Commission have been keen to develop a range of programmes to support this community as many small businesses are vulnerable to market pressures, ‘red tape’ and often suffer from lack of resources and effective business infrastructure. As engine of the European economy their skill assets and continuous up-skilling will be key to economic competitiveness and prosperity, particularly in the context of the knowledge economy. To training and learning providers the small business community represents a potentially huge market, yet one which is difficult to tap into. As a community of dispersed learners VLEs or elearning generally could provide important tools to help engage these potential learners.

Concepts and methodologies of elearning will have to take into account the needs of the small business environment and its learners in order to achieve a wider learning application. A learner driven pedagogy rather than a product driven one could be experienced as the real challenge as it may confront equal opportunities and the democratisation of learning environments, be it blended learning approaches or others.

A) When talking about learning it will be useful to describe learning and elearning to provide a better basis for analysis. What forms of learning takes place involving small businesses?

B) Before assessing how small businesses can be engaged in elearning one has to assess how they can be engaged in learning. What are the conditions under which small businesses engage in learning?

C) When talking about learning in small businesses it is appropriate to describe the wider context as this should inform the business decisions of those wishing to provide learning products and services to small businesses. What is the political and economic context?

Small businesses can be defined as having between 1 and 50 employees and are financially independent, that is it is not owned by a larger company.

Many small businesses engage in formal learning activities because of legal requirements, links to supply chains, new products, machinery or processes, customer demand, standards. Most of them don’t include learning in their business planning, should the latter exist. However, all small businesses engage in some kind of informal ad hoc learning activities and if a learning provider wishes to engage with small businesses than he needs to address one or both scenarios.

From research assessing the possibilities of engaging small business in HE learning environments (Uwe Derksen, Leonardo project Euromanager report, 2001) we know

· the majority of small business managers perform a ‘hands on’ role (93%);

· their primary learning methods are informal, experiential and/or through peer groups (88%);

· academic/professional qualifications are not valued highly (68%) as their relevance is a primary issue;

· issues such as limited time and resources, and short-termism within small businesses contribute to the lack of overall formal planning, including staff develop planning, and the poor take-up of training;

· identified barriers to learning include lack of perceived benefits and lack of appropriate training solutions targeted at small businesses;

· management training is a recognised need within small businesses as a means to improve effectiveness (65%) and/or to expand the business (66%), in particular into European markets (58%);

· access to the internet has increased rapidly (76%);

· cultural issues and preconceptions inhibit the relationship between small businesses and HEIs.

During our work with small businesses we also noticed through a process of formative evaluation that many small business managers and employees required

· extensive pedagogical support and guidance (learning how to learn, particularly independently);

· a learner’s and business needs assessment;

· support in basic and key skills; especially report writing (expressing ideas and concepts) and ICT skills (using the internet as resource and working and communicating in an virtual environment);

· the use of peer groups and “fellow champions” to facilitate learning, translate academic learning concept and provide additional transfer of experiential business knowledge and information.

· a “long” acclimatisation period into an academic learning environment;

· “gate-keepers” to build up trust and mutual understanding between the learner and the training provider;

· in the beginning applicable and relevant knowledge that can be used in the business almost instantly;

· the provision of additional access to resources useful to the business (e.g. unlimited access to the internet at the campus and learning centres) and information provided by guest speakers (real or virtual);

· regular face-to-face meetings;

· the use of peer-group language and cultural values;

· a blend between online and “traditional” learning and formal and informal learning, work based and college-based;

· personal tutors;

· learning content and methodologies that were structured around the business and less around subject areas (i.e. the business is the practical extension of the learner, this is particularly the case with owner managers)

· a flexible learner centred curriculum;

· negotiated learning: the solutions to problems are explored in partnership with the tutor/lecturer and peer group members;

· a learning situation that was a local social experience and process;

· general business support as added value;

· a demonstration of tangible benefits;

· to be valued for their aims and ideas: (the business often being the extension of their personality and life);

· to build capacity to learn and learn to learn, this would include the capacity of the business itself as the development of the learner effects the relationship with his or her colleagues in the business testing their own expertise and knowledge.

Some of these findings have been borne out by other research: “Professor Ian Draffan, Head of e-Learning Services at UfI, highlighted the importance of developing a sense of community amongst online learners. To achieve the UfI ideal of flexible, ‘roll-on, roll-off’ access for learners and to add value to the learning experience, creating tutor groups in stable learning communities are key to retaining learners by active tutoring”.

And “if the benefits of technology are to be realised in terms of improved learner motivation, achievement and retention, as well as widening access to non-traditional learners, then effective learner support strategies must be at centre stage. Research shows that the quality of support for learners is key to their recruitment, retention and achievement, particularly for those non-traditional learners who may lack motivation and experience of learning.

To underpin online provision in the ‘roll-on, roll-off’ model envisaged by the University for Industry, learner support is even more important: to overcome isolation, provide personal feedback, help with technical problems, and permit the social interactions so important to effective adult learning” (Marchmont Observatory, December 2000).

If one accepts that many small businesses don’t have a formal learning culture than it is understandable that the introduction to a learning environment can be an initial daunting experience. Building self-confidence and empowering the learner are key to creating an appropriate learning environment.

In terms of the elearning and small businesses the challenge is the ability to support an environment of “blended learning “ where “blended” means the support for formal and informal learning, to facilitate the exchange of practical information and knowledge, peer group and negotiated learning, on- and off-line learning, empowerment to contribute to ones own learning environment and to challenge existing provisions. The tendency was to move away from consumer-orientated and supply-led learning environment towards a democratically orientated and need-based learning environment.

Interestingly the questions that need to be answered by businesses when engaging in learning and elearning: Which competencies do our staff need in order to ensure continued success in the market place?, What kind of knowledge do we require for such success?, How can the internet be utilised to access relevant learning content?, How do and can we need to organise work based learning?, Which partners and programmes are available? and Which media competencies do our staff require? (see Web Based Training in Kleinen und Mittleren Unternehmen, 2001), also need to be addressed by the learning providers themselves.

“Give a man a fish and you can feed her for a day. Give a man a fishing rod and teach her how to fish, and you can feed her until the fishing rod breaks. Teach a man to fish, and then how to make a fishing rod from locally available materials, then she will eat for as long as there are fish to be caught. Organise the man and her neighbours into a common property resource management scheme and they will be able to fish at sustainable levels. Support them in organising themselves, and they will be able to decide if they wish to earn their livelihood by fishing, or by some other means”

could translate into

“Give a man some learning content and she will learn for a day. Give a man the source of learning content and teach her how to work with it together with some learning provisions and she will be able to benefit from it as long as it remains relevant. Teach a man how to access learning content and learning provisions generally, then how to find appropriate resources relevant to her need, and she will benefit as long as the resources are available. Organise the man and her neighbours into a managed learning network and they will be able to learn at sustainable levels. Support them in organising themselves, and they will be able to decide which learning environment and which learning content is most appropriate”.

© Uwe Derksen 2004

SOURCE: http://www.solt.info/forum_posts.asp?TID=6

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4. Download: Meeting the training needs of SME’s: Is e-learning the solution?
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