Combining formal, non-formal and informal learning for workforce skill development

Appendix C: Examples of mentoring programs

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  The WITEM (Women in IT Executive Mentoring) program brings together different organisations to address issues that impede the advancement of women in the technology sector, including lack of management experience, exclusion from informal networks and stereotypes of women’s roles and abilities. The program also aims to accelerate the development of leadership skills in senior female technology specialists and professionals. Chief Information Officers, Chief Technical Officers, or IT General Managers are involved in mentoring female technology professionals who have been carefully selected for their experience, commitment and drive for progression from organisations including Centrelink, Deloitte, Department of Finance and Administration, Ernst & Young, NSW Department of Education and Training, Westpac and Woolworths. The program is coordinated by a specialist consultancy firm in mentoring and coaching services, the Orijen Group <http://www.orijen.com.au/women-in-it-embark-on-phase.aspx> (accessed 27 August 2007).
  
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  A mandatory formal mentoring program has been established by the New York Department of Education to comply with changes to legislative requirements for those aspiring to become a teacher in the state of New York. This program aims to help improve the teaching skills of beginner teachers (that is, teachers with less than one year’s teaching experience), and help reduce attrition rates. High performing teachers and educators are released from the classroom to work full-time as mentors with novice teachers.¹⁸ An evaluation of the program implementation in New York City region found that having mentors attached to the region rather than the school was the key to its effectiveness. It helped preserve confidentiality for individual teachers, kept the mentor quarantined from the politics of the school, and allowed the mentor to focus on the primary role of guidance and skill development. Also highly regarded was the professional development program undertaken by mentors before and throughout the program. However, mentors were frustrated when they were allocated to more than four schools as it reduced the amount of time mentors spent in working with the teachers (a key to effectiveness). Mentors also found that they needed to be able to develop good relationships with school principals and vice-principals while at the same time keeping confidential their work with teachers in these schools. In launching the new policy the Mayor of New York City said “We’ve worked hard to recruit the best and brightest teachers for our schools, and now we want to provide them with the wisdom and guidance they need to adjust to and succeed in their new careers” (New Teacher Center, p.6).¹⁹
  

1Non-formal learning refers to learning that occurs in structured programs but does not lead to accredited final qualifications.

2Informal learning refers to learning acquired through everyday work and life.

3See page 10 for an explanation of these terms.

4Formal learning refers to learning that takes place through a structured program of instruction which is generally recognised by the attainment of a formal qualification or award (for example, a certificate, diploma or degree. Non-formal learning refers to learning that takes place through a program of instruction but does not usually lead to the attainment of a formal qualification or award (for example, in-house professional development programs conducted in the workplace. Informal learning refers to learning that results from daily work-related, social, family, hobby or leisure activities (for example, the acquisition of personal skills developed through the experience of working as a sales representative).

5A training officer in a company may be required to attend formal training sessions to acquire specific accreditations to teach a certain set of skills which are part of a formal package. Quality assurance officers may also have to do the same to acquire formal quality assurance accreditations to undertake quality audits.

6Here the teacher does not move on to a new skill or concept until he or she is satisfied that all or the majority of the class has grasped the current skill or concept. Arrangements are made for students who cannot keep up to get remedial attention from the instructor or from specialist tutors, either during class time (preferably when the others are working on their own on some particular task) or after class in specially structured remedial sessions.

7Synchronous time refers to real time, while asynchronous time refers to situations where students access information (including written, video or computer-based learning resources) that have been prepared and posted at electronic addresses when it suits them.

8For example, teachers in South Australia must attend mandatory reporting training if they are to keep their registration. Registered teachers who may not be in service must also attend mandatory reporting sessions if they are to maintain their registration status.

9The United States Department of Labor estimates that 70% of all learning for adults is acquired informally.

10The total hours of employer-sponsored training decreased by 27% for casual workers in comparison with a 15% reduction for permanent employees.

11The Department of Education, Training and Employment subsumed components of the current Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology (DFEEST).

12The initial range of pathways are: CAD/Drafting, Manufacturing Operations, Laboratory Operations and Technical Officer. A new award, the Manufacturing and Associated Industries – Skills Development – Wages and Conditions Award 2004, has been ratified to cover employment conditions and pay rates for Technology Cadets. The Technology Cadetship will be expanded to certificate levels V and VI (diploma and advanced diploma), and may also articulate into Engineering Degree programs.

13Citigroup services 100 million consumers, corporations, governments and institutions in 100 companies with financial services and products, including consumer banking and credit, corporate investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage and asset management.

14HKUST was established in 1991 and its full-time MBA program is the only Asian program to be ranked by the Financial Times as one of the top 75 business schools in the world. It also organises the largest international exchange program in Asia and has 60 participating business schools from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

15Personal learning includes the following activities: acting as the prime carer for an elderly person; learning from an elder about Indigenous cultural activities; planning and coordinating a series of community events; managing the family household; officiating at a series of sporting events; volunteering (Meals on Wheels, caregivers, mentoring, peer support, SA Country Service, Royal Life Saving Society Australia, St John Ambulance Cadets); community development (support—refugees); environmental (Trees for Life); activism (Amnesty International, Youth Parliament); community arts (cultural learning); self-development (Scouts Australia, Guides Australia, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, Australian Airforce Cadets, personal skills); independent living (community access skills); performance (Trinity College London, Australian Music Examinations Board, drama performance, dance performance, music performance, public speaking); sports skills and management (sports coaching, sports umpiring, sports performance, sports management); recreation skills and management (recreational pursuits; for example, chess, personal enrichment); event management; work skills and career development (learning in part-time work, workplace skills, workplace knowledge, workplace responsibility, career skill development, career planning).

16More common for regular workers is the combination of non-formal learning with on-the-job practice. For apprentices and trainees it is the combination of formal and informal learning that is most common.

17This life skills component also makes use of psychologists who help trainees develop skills to face times when they feel overwhelmed by issues in the workplace or in life. Each field officer and trainer with the CITEA has undertaken suicide awareness programs, and all officers have been taught how to identify any potential problems as they make their regular visits. CITEA has implemented this program in conjunction with OzHelp Foundation.

18This action is supported with evidence from empirical research which indicates that ‘high quality’ teachers achieve far higher levels of attainment in students, than do ‘ineffective teachers’, and that it takes about five years or so for teachers to develop high levels of effectiveness.

19In 2004–05 the program in New York City selected 309 mentors (out of an applicant pool of 1600). Mentors were selected for their previous performance, advanced personal skills and ability to identify, articulate and develop high quality instruction, and understand diverse student populations’ (New Teacher Center 2006, p.5). Each mentor is paired with 17 new teachers and must ideally meet with each one for at least 1.5 hours every six school days. Thirty retired teachers are also hired on a part-time basis to help out as required. Mentors are also required to undergo ongoing professional development to better understand and implement their roles and responsibilities in guidance and apply standards-based assessment. It also aims to help mentors better understand and reflect on what it is about their own practice that is effective, and to convey these understandings to new teachers.