A learning worker

In this changing world, it is readiness to learn that will be a major requirement. The period of cocooned learning is over. With so many new options and avenues opening up, it is the student- worker who will be the most productive member of society, says G. GAUTAMA.

The learning space must be shamelessly integrated into the workspace for an ongoing cycle of reflection, experimentation and action. If learning becomes more integrated into how we work, where does "work" end and "learning" begin?

Kofman and Senge in Learning Organisations

A LARGE number of students have just finished exams and have been thinking of the avenues before them. Parents and teachers have been searching their own understanding for the right kind of advice to offer the young. The slowdown in the computer industry has taken away the certainties just as the stock market crash has eaten away savings. The slowdown in industry has also been pointing to lesser number of jobs, retrenchments, voluntary retirement schemes, downsizing the workforce, golden handshakes and so on. To parents and the young, this must be ominous. One is left hoping for better prospects and some modicum of certainty. But this is the time of choices and there is the fear that the choices one makes now will have long-term consequences.

However, the world of tomorrow is growing increasingly different from the world of yesterday. There may be hidden opportunities. "It is a well documented fact in social psychology that when a social group of any kind feels threatened, they are much more open to change or to do things in a different way." (Thompson in Learning Organisations). It is necessary to look again at the whole picture. What options do the young have for Certification? How are these connected to work? What is education all about? Does it have any connection with the above two?

Most of the middle and upper class adults have been educated in schools followed by colleges. Sciences and mathematics have had a special attraction. We have acquired degrees and then found employment either connected with our degrees or otherwise. However, there have always been people who have certified themselves through distant learning programmes while simultaneously working. This has been the choice of those who needed to start earning and being productive at the earliest, those who could not afford the luxury of full-time student-hood. These options are still open and growing.

Some discussion is in order here. The advantage of the distant learning system has been that it offered flexibility to the individual and the opportunity of being gainfully occupied while educating himself. The disadvantage being that there was no peer opportunity except at "contact" classes. The quality of instructional material was also considered inferior.

There have been other programmes like the AMIE and the Examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. These have been consistently offering avenues for certification in a manner that one could learn on the job. In fact, being usefully employed is a part of the programme of certification. The college degrees offered by engineering and architectural colleges and degree colleges have rarely, if ever, kept this aspect in view.

There have been the lesser-known options, thrown up by the system to accommodate individuals who, in later life, decide to qualify themselves. Open university courses, based on an age criteria, permit one to qualify oneself by writing a masters level exam after (say) the age of 25 irrespective of the background. One can do the Std. X exam and write the M.A. History exam directly after the age of 25, if one so desires.

In recent times, it is possible for an individual to go through private computer schools like APTECH or NIIT and acquire Dept. of Electronics (DOE) certification which leads all the way up to a M.S. Engineering course in IIT's evening classes.

There have been the prestigious Management Institutes that offered one business skills, after a basic degree in sciences, arts or engineering. These have been now surrounded by a clutch of management courses at the Bachelors level all over the country.

The link between certification and work has been difficult in the best of times. After the influx of management courses and opportunities thrown up by these courses, the connection became tenuous at best. For instance one could do B.Sc. Physics and end up in a bank or, after a B.E. or B.Tech., market soap or ketchup. This confused issues about what to study in college.

The matter has been further compounded by the societal patterns visible. Every person in any job needs to learn to do things differently. Typing now means word processing which means willingness and effective use of computers and peripherals. And one is required to learn continuously - from drawing tables to AutoCAD, from ledgers to accounting software, from tabular presentations to linked worksheets, from library reference to Internet search skills. And business today is no guarantee of business tomorrow. Japanese corporations have encountered the trauma of learning new skills and new ways of working. Businesses have gone through upheavals. Net value has gone up and down. How does one prepare for this?

The first thing that adults need to see is that we may have a glimpse of what the future holds but our glimpse cannot permit us to see what the jobs of tomorrow will need. We must acknowledge that we are not much better off in predicting the future than the students who are passing out of school now. It is clear that the skills needed in the work place of tomorrow are: Ability to learn new skills; Ability to adapt to new circumstances; Ability to work together with others.

One hears a muttering in business circles and among organisation experts that the main work of most organisations will be learning. Learning will be required in an atmosphere of change. If that is so one will be required to learn and also be productive simultaneously. This means we will all have to be student-workers or worker-students. Any successful businessman or professional will tell you that he or she has always been a learner and a student. Therefore the luxury of full-time protected college education is being taken away and at the same time a golden opportunity is opening up. Working and learning are not separate. Young boys have made fortunes playing with programmes with persistence and imagination.

The student worker, the productive member of society, is here earlier than before. He will be pushing his way in with willingness, determination, persistence and youthful energy. He will be able to work as a way of learning and will offer time to employers for productive work. He will be able to do his work from home, or on his feet, or at an office, plant or shop. He will be watching the changing landscape. He does not have an investment in the past, in the status quo. His name is the future and he will not be turned away.

Thus the student of today must think of the options open before him and walk out of the cocoon of sheltered full-time student- hood.

If one surveys the landscape realistically, one sees that there are newer options that never existed before. The rigidities are breaking down. Consider the following facts:

Some leading medical schools in the United States do not ask for Biology as a subject prior to college. It has been said that a liberal arts background, with drama, history languages, etc., favours the training to be a doctor.

After a Bachelor's degree in Economics or History it is possible to find a British college, which will offer a bridge course and a 1-year certification or degree for Master of Engineering.

After a Bachelor's degree in Economics or History it is possible to find a U.S. college, which will offer a 2-1/2 year degree in architecture.

MIT, one of the most reputed universities, will have all their course material for over 500 courses available on the web in the next two months, for free use to anyone. Soon they propose to increase it to material for 2000 courses. Learning is more than accessing material.

Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor has put down $100 million to create a free online university offering free Ivy League quality certification to anyone from a housewife in Los Angeles to a cab driver in Mumbai.

Brainbench is a website which offers opportunities for testing online. Major corporations have started asking for such scores before employing workers or executives.

One needs to take one's cues from these and other portents. The direction the world is taking has changed definitely and surely. It is almost as if a page has turned. It seems that no one will be asking if you or I know some piece of relevant information. It will be assumed that with the access of information we will have the same information as another. However the question that will be asked again and again will be: "What can you do with the information you have?" It is clear that readiness to read behind information and learning the tools to handle information will be the requirements for the future. With the legacy of the past, adults little know what this means. The leaf has turned over. The young and the old are in the same boat.

The charts accompanying this article try to put in graphic form what the options look like. As a student, I received no such guidance. Probably no one thought it was relevant. However, with the landscape of today, I feel offering these charts to students is a way of sharing the possibilities and the questions. Most of all I earnestly want the young to experience the fact that options are not closed, making a choice does not close other options forever, that the future offers hope and widening rather than a narrowing. Last but not least, I would like the young to feel that liberal arts are among the best options for them, as future avenues are not closed down. I hope that, with the data I have presented, the young will be able to answer sceptical adults. One may hear that what is available in the U.S. and U.K. is not available in India. I hope it will be clear that what is today true in these countries will be a reality in India sooner than ever before, probably the year closes.

Education, learning and knowledge are the important endeavours of humanity. These are interesting and insecure times. And yet the possibilities are truly endless.

The writer is with the KFI, Chennai.

E-mail: gautama@mail.com

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