Are positive learning experiences levers for lifelong learning among low educated workers?
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the theory of planned behaviour and social learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of training participation and learning experience on the beliefs of low-educated employees about their self-efficacy for learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Low-educated workers of three different organizations (n=359) filled out a questionnaire at three different points in time, with a half-yearly interval. Regression analyses were used to establish the effects of training participation and learning experience on learning self-efficacy.
Findings
Training participation alone did not affect low-educated workers’ learning self-efficacy, but a positive learning experience did contribute to workers’ post-training learning self-efficacy. These results support the relevance of positive learning experiences.
Research limitations/implications
Follow-up studies could focus on the effects of learning self-efficacy for subsequent learning activities, establish which aspects of training contribute to a positive learning experience, and include contextual characteristics that may predict learning self-efficacy.
Practical implications
To stimulate learning among lower educated workers, it is necessary that they have confidence in their ability to successfully complete their training. Trainers and training developers working for this specific target group of lower educated workers should aim to provide training that is a positive experience, besides being a learning exercise.
Originality/value
The study is the first to analyse the longitudinal effects of training participation and learning experience on post-training learning self-efficacy among low-educated workers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors like to thank the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, the three participating companies for co-funding this research project. Also the authors would like to thank Dr Ernest de Vroome at TNO for his assistance in performing the analyses for this study. Finally the authors thank the participants of the 8th International Conference of the Dutch HRM Network in Leuven for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
An earlier version of this paper was published in Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken (in Dutch): Damen et al. Leve lang leren: het effect van een positieve leerervaring op de self-efficacy van laagopgeleiden. Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken, 29 (4), 376-390.
Citation
Sanders, J.M.A.F., Damen, M.A.W. and Van Dam, K. (2015), "Are positive learning experiences levers for lifelong learning among low educated workers?", Evidence-based HRM, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 244-257. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-01-2014-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited