work package 4

Co-creating and co-learning to improve competence on the unforeseen at work (WP4)

The work will be based on dialogue and engagement of employees (based on a selection of those who participated in surveys or case studies) in discussions, workshops and practical exercises. The themes to be discussed with managers will be based upon our analysis of findings in WP2 and WP3, which will provide information on the competence requirements and the learning environments among survey respondents and interviewees. We will use the concepts suggested from the literature study in WP1 and, in collaboration with employers, suggest learning processes by building upon principles of educational science as well as experiences from workplace learning. This work package will engage organisations in discussions on the importance of learning and understanding the unforeseen at work. The choice of themes for these discussions will be finalised after the completion of WP2 and WP 3. Concepts arising in WP1 will be considered, some examples might be learning by experimenting, learning in networks and interdisciplinary learning. Much of the learning studied in innovation research is informal and this must be approached in a different way from formal learning. It may be necessary to find ways of integrating new tasks into working processes, which will result in a better understanding of the unforeseen, or perhaps by engineering learning opportunities in daily work. It might be more appropriate to hold seminars or to try to integrate exercises on the unforeseen into ongoing development projects. It may also be necessary to consider how to motivate employees to consider the unforeseen. Main research questions:

1. How can we educate employers and employees, in the workplace, to help them better tackle the

unforeseen?

2. Can future literacy labs contribute to developing skills to deal with the unforeseen?

Task 1 – Selection of learning content from WP2 and WP3

Task 2 – Establish dialogue with Norwegian work environments on learning about the unforeseen

Task 3 – Propose new learning processes tailored to our business and public sector participants

Task 4 – Trial new methods and learning processes where applicable