Research

Summary page

Research

Mix or match? New Apprentices' learning styles and trainers' preferences for training in workplaces

Context

The vocational education and training (VET) sector is committed to promoting a learner-centred and responsive approach in the pursuit of quality teaching and learning. This goal has been complemented by policies which promote the workplace as an authentic learning environment. Policy directions such as these have required shifts in thinking about approaches to facilitating learning, including how people who work with learners might be best prepared and assisted to carry out their role. This is particularly relevant for those for whom the training function is only one part of their work.

The concept of learning styles has been promoted as one way of providing deeper understanding of the diversity among VET learners, and as a means for enabling teachers and trainers to make more informed choices vis-a-vis their responses to this diversity. However, what has not been explored in previous research is the relationship between what a trainer might do to support learning in the workplace and how this fits with learners' preferred ways of learning.

Purpose and scope

This study aimed to examine the learning preferences of a group of New Apprentices (both apprentices and trainees) and the training preferences of their workplace trainers, and to explore the ways in which trainers take all these preferences into account when supporting learning in the workplace. It was designed to be exploratory in nature. Data on personality type and preferred and perceived learning/training environments were gathered from New Apprentices and trainers.

Interviews were held with 36 New Apprentices and 30 trainers drawn from three industry areas— community services, manufacturing and retail—in South Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Nineteen New Apprentices were male and 17 female, and almost twothirds were 25 years or younger. Thirteen were employed in manufacturing, 12 in community services and 11 in the retail industry. The mean length of time they had been employed in a contract of training was 13 months; as a component of their training, 17 undertook training with private training providers (including group training companies) and nine attended technical and further education (TAFE) institutes.

The workplace trainers were also a diverse group. Sixteen were male and 14 female, and two-thirds of the trainers were aged between 36 and 55 years. The mean length of time of employment in industry was 17 years, while the mean length of time they had been working with their current New Apprentice was 15 months.

Key themes and findings

Re-thinking may be required about the nature of workplace trainers

Workplace trainers in this study did not show the expected spread of personality types when compared with the literature on personality type by occupation. Research databases indicated that teachers tend to be sensing-thinking-judging (STJ) types. The workplace trainers in this study were located in a rather narrow band of preferences across approximately one-half of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers & McCaulley 1985) personality types. Two preferences, both of which cover intuitive-feeling-perceiving types (ENFP and INFP¹), account for 59% of the sample. (The New Apprentices displayed a far wider spread of personality type.)

While the findings cannot be generalised, and the interviewees self-selected for participation in this study, the results from the study challenge the stereotype of the kind of person who gravitates to a training role in workplaces. It may well be that those who find themselves in roles where they volunteer or where they are asked to assist others learn in the workplace, do so from motivations little related to their 'suitability' (as predicted by type theory) for the job. Other motivations (for example, to 'give back to the occupation', or being pressed into the role because of seniority) might be at work here. If this finding is more generally applicable, it may be that those who become workplace trainers are likely to have a wide range of personality types. Therefore, the recruitment, selection and training processes for this role may need to accommodate this diverse group's range of motivations, expectations and capabilities. A consideration of how they might best be supported to fulfil this role would also be timely.

Industry context matters

New Apprentices and their trainers shared relatively consistent views on their preferred work environment. Moreover, there was a close match between these preferences and the predicted preferences based on personality type. The data showed a strong preference for work environments characterised by people holding specific personal characteristics, rather than by specific features of the workplace itself. However, industry context appears to play a significant role in mediating New Apprentices' and trainers' perspectives on their preferred environments. New Apprentices from the manufacturing industry ranked features highlighting the workplace as efficient, supportive and providing opportunities to solve problems more highly than New Apprentices in the other two industries. Trainers in the manufacturing industry indicated very similar preferences for their work environments as their New Apprentices, with a strong focus on place rather than people. In describing their preferred workplace environment, New Apprentices from retail and community services placed greater emphasis on the attributes of people, such as being pleasant, committed, conscientious, cooperative and focused on helping others. This finding strongly points to the importance of workplace and industry cultures in shaping work environments, and that understanding these cultures and characteristics can make a significant contribution to establishing and sustaining effective learning environments within particular industries.

New Apprentices and trainers have different perspectives on their preferred learning/training environments

New Apprentices' ratings on a number of features of the workplace-learning environment indicate a substantial emphasis on the quality of the relationship with their workplace trainer. Apprentices also indicated a strong preference for an environment that provides correction, feedback and encouragement, and where their status as learners is acknowledged. While trainers also indicated preferences for similar environments, they particularly preferred an environment where they could influence work processes and so facilitate New Apprentices' learning. Examples of such influence include organising tasks to match New Apprentice abilities, arranging tasks in ways that facilitate their being learned by New Apprentices, and allocating time to enable New Apprentices to interact with other workers.

Matches and mismatches in New Apprentices' and trainers' preferences by personality type (and by implication, learning style) were also noted in this study. This is not unexpected and illustrates how frameworks such as the Myers-Briggs (personalities) Type Indicator can be used to develop a fuller appreciation of differences in personality, and of the potential impacts these can have on workplace relations and on the construction of effective learning environments.

However, any model of learning styles can only contribute a partial explanation of what might be needed by New Apprentices to support their learning. Preferences for particular learning environments are also informed and shaped by New Apprentices' status as learners (as well as workers), and the quality of the relationships with their workplace trainers. Workplace trainers, however, appear to take a different stance, preferring to concentrate on manipulating particular aspects of the structure, flow and type of work available to New Apprentices—for example, determining in what order tasks might be undertaken or making decisions about the pace at which a task might need to be completed. In this way, trainers can support New Apprentices' learning.

New Apprentices and trainers have different perspectives on their perceived learning/training environments

New Apprentices indicated that the most desirable features of their learning environment were: opportunities to practise skills learned in off-job settings; encouragement to tackle more difficult and complex tasks over time; and talking with their trainers about their job. New Apprentices noted that these features were only occurring some of the time in their workplace training.

For trainers, there was a large gap between their stated preference and actual workplace practice. Their preferences included: talking with external providers; working out learning goals with New Apprentices; negotiating access to learning resources; going to work-related events with their New Apprentices; and talking about differences between what New Apprentices might be experiencing at work and what they are learning at the off-site training environment.

Workplace realities influence what is possible in creating preferred learning/training environments

In relation to both New Apprentices and trainers, there was evidence of their preferences being weakened by the realities of their workplaces. Trainers perceived that the incidence of the preferred features (such as manipulating the structure and flow of work) was less frequent than considered desirable in their workplaces. Even where there was a strong match in the preferences of the New Apprentices and trainers, it seems that the nature of the workplace plays a key mediating influence. Given the primacy of work over educational matters, the gaps between trainersí preferences and perceptions of occurrence tend to reflect the realities and practicalities of the workplace. Furthermore, what New Apprentices might reasonably expect in workplaces to accommodate their status as learners appears to be mismatched with the realities of the workplaces and what they might reasonably expect of trainers in those environments.

Conclusion

Promoting quality learning environments in the workplace relies upon understanding the likelihood of mismatches between trainers' and New Apprentices' preferred learning environments, and thus ensuring the implementation of strategies to manage these differences (for example, ensuring that trainers communicate effectively with New Apprentices). Notwithstanding these mismatches, the research revealed the following key issues in relation to New Apprentices' and trainers' learning preferences, preferences which could be usefully considered in future policy development.

Learning preferences offer a useful starting point for considering how those engaged in supporting New Apprentices' learning in the workplace might approach their role. However, understanding how the nature of work shapes learning and training activity in any given context must be taken into account. The role of interpersonal relationships in the workplace learning environment is also substantial and influential.
Important features of New Apprentices' preferred learning environments are the quality of relationships with trainers and acknowledgement of their status as learners.
Attention needs to be paid to training and support which specifically addresses the capacity of trainers to manage the flow, structure and shape of work as a key part of their role in supporting learning of New Apprentices at work.

¹For an explanation of these types see table 1 on page 18 of this report.