This paper is written as a result of an intensive program concerning "Adult Education in Europe". The program was held in Montpellier with duration of three months. Students from all over Europe came here to follow the program and experience intercultural co-operation and communication. In the three months seven different topics concerning Adult Education were discussed and presented in different modules. At the end of every module little groups consisting of 4 persons had to discuss the handled topics and finally write a paper about their discussion.

This paper is a compilation of all the papers we as a group wrote each module. Our group consists of four persons and each from a different country. Liselotte Courtens is from Belgium, Enric Perez Cases is from Spain, Anne Berg is from Finland and Imke Abma is from Holland.

The structure of the paper is based on various aspects and these were formed in consultation with the group. The group discussed the topics that were presented each module. Our different ideas were discussed and the consensus that was reached was then synthesized to one main conclusion or reflection and this was put in the paper. The content of this paper is the result of the reached consensus within the group about the topics that we discussed.

The system we used to write a paper each module consisted of a discussion that was held every Friday. The main conclusions were noted and with this information two persons of the group were in charge of writing and typing the paper. We shifted the cooperation between the two persons so that all of us have worked together on a paper. After the two persons responsible for the paper were finished with writing, we discussed about the written paper: to give extra information, suggestions, implementation of extra information and to structure the paper. The two that were responsible would then retype the paper to finalize it.

The result of three month of group work is this final paper. The headings of each chapter refer to the seven different modules that were presented to us. Instead of choosing for a heading that will clarify our thoughts that are put down in each chapter, we thought it would be nice to let the headings refer back to the modules. This so that the reader can trace back the origin of our thoughts to a central topic in Adult Education.

Creating a paper in an intercultural group has been an experience with an enormous impact on all the participants of this group and this can be noticed when reading this paper!

This is an ideology of haves and have nots . We want to focus on the consequences of these two divisions. We define the « haves » of the society as a group that has a stable economic position. This means that they have a good educational back ground . They can work where they want to work and also have the ability to shift jobs. In this perspective they have the educational capital, as well as the economic welfare ( the financial capital ). The ones who lack educational experiencies are « the have nots » in this theory. They are put in the position of « structural unemployment », lacking educational capital and miss out on the economic welfare. The responsability of the Adult Educators is purely on the level of educational capital. This is impossible on the economic level (financial capital ), because the economic system is a huge force in society and an Adult Educator hasn’t got the power to change this process. The priority of education programmes has to rest on the have nots in the educational situation. The educator has to direct it’s focus to the poorly educated people. When creating equal opportunities on an educational level you converge the distance between the haves and the have nots and therefore converge or synthesyze the educational capital. By focussing on this issue of convergence you prevent duality in society and therefore concentration of capital (educational level and economic level). This is an utopie and could not be realized on a concrete level. This utopie is a concept of the « why ?-part » of the Adult Educators work. The theory of a critical perspective is the framework of our discussion on Information Technology in the Field of Education.

Information technology will evolve more and more in the field of education, because it will play an important role in the society of the future. There could be a new division between people, those who have access to information technology and people who haven’t. The education plays an important role in this presupposed divisions of haves and have nots. The education plays an initial role in equalizing this difference, because it should offer everyone the possibility to get acquainted with information technology . Objectives are the main focus and a good trainer decides on the objectives if multi-media should be used or not. If a trainer is working with low-educated people, then it will not always be relevant to work with complicated media, on the other hand this could be very useful. Stating that the trainer is responsible for the right choice of media according to the objectives stated.

In Adult Education, adults are supposed to have some basic skills concerning the use of computers. An aspect of Adult Education is that adults don’t need diploma’s to enter an education system.This means that not every adult has the required skills. The required skills are for instance the knowledge on how to work with different media programmes or the capacity to select information they need for ther education or the capacity to analyze the information (papers, texts, …). Children will be adults in the future and it is very important that they will develop those basic skills. The developing of basic skills should start whilst they are going through the compulsory educational system. In the primary school they can begin to work on developing their information-technology-skills. We found a way to realize this on a concrete level. We bring in a teacher that is specialized on developing basic skills of the children. This would be an « EDUCOMMUNICATOR », because he teaches them the use of computer and information concerning critical thinking about mass-media. He is specialized in the field of education and communication in a broad sense. Education at that age is still compulsory. If they become adults they’ll already have these basic skills.

The « educomunicator » can give lessons in : 1) basic skills, informatics, this in such a way that this will stimulate their critical thinking. These subjects should have to lead to self-directed learning ; so the childrens will get acquainted to the skills they need and can become self-directed. These basic skills could be :

• The use of computers.
• Knowledge of computer programmes.
• Searching skills

In whole the children are getting acquainted with information technologies and will be no longer see this as exceptional but as a necessity.

An underlying idea of this educational framework, is the idea that the children will learn to use the technologies and not abuse them ! As an example it is not good for the social development of a child, that he sits behind the computer all day just to play games. If the childs sees the computer as a device, wich you can work with instead of device you can work on and play on, the realisation of bad habits concerning information technologies will be prevented. Another example of the work the Educommunicator can do is to inform parents about information technologies and influence the children at home concerning the use of information technologies, like for instance computer use but this could also concern mass-media.

Adult learning strategies are different from children’s learning strategies, this presupposes « knowledge of yourself ». Self-directed learning implies responsibility. In primairy education children needs the « educomunicator » as the « responsibility » for helping them to learn to be self-directed. When those children are adults they will already be acquainted with the subject of « self-directed learning ». This is important because Adult Education offently presupposes a form of self-directed motivation. Another reason , that will support this opinion, is that teaching children basic media skills is easier than teaching adults, because they learn faster.

Website designs are for surfers/browsers and also for people who are willing to learn and are searching for a nice learning environment. The interface of a website has to be very logical. If you already have the need to learn, the interface of the web has to be very structured and there has to be an clear overview .

The internet shows so much data that it would be very nice if there were some tools , which will help you with the search. Instead of the normal search-engines, like for instance Alta Vista, these tools should be more specific. Maybe search-engines should categorize data (science from rubbish). But this is a difficult question, because what we may see as rubbish, someone else may see as interesting. Maybe the learners should learn more skills . Search-engines should develop more specific search equipment and at the same time people should learn more skills .

Now we arrive at the question : What are searching-skills ? Who is going to define these skills ? and who is responsible for the categorization of the websites ? Aren’t searching-skills basic dividing-skills, for instance knowledge of synonyms is a dividing-skill.

The information technology could be very important for Adult Education, but in different countries the basic-skills for using the computer differ, so when focussed on developing new information technology training-programmes for adults, you have to take adult traning-skills and knowledge of technology and the computer in consideration. As we stated in the beginning, the websites used for training purposes, should be neatly structured and easy to comprehend.

Considering the decentralisation of the company the intranet is a good tool for communication. The trainer-teams of France Telecom are not divided in regions, but in teams of expertise. On primairy basis the intranet was used as a tool for communication, after a while they expanded and used this intranet as a training device, in that sense, that they use resources from the intranet, « framework of training » to create their training. Does France Telecom use intranet to create needs, fulfill needs ? Do they use the intranet as Distance Education ? No, as far we know ! We see their intranet purely as a data-device, wich can be used as a resource. If this resource is mixed with pedagogical models there will be a « training », that can be used for educational purposses. If this described training is put on the web and people are able to work and learn with this program, then you can speak of Distance Education. The fact that France Telecom use intranet also as a Distance Education tool was not clear to us. Considering our broad definition of Distance Education we state that this was not the case at France Telecom.

It would be nice to get some information about the process of education of employees in France Telecom. How does its actually work. Is the focus going from off-the-job training to on-the-job training, because more responsibility of continuing training of employees is rested on first line managers. The amount of partime instructors working on the work place is growing, is it therefore that intranet is seen as a training device and not merely as a communication tool.

« Democracy in the bussiness will evolve with the use of intranet »

The questions stated in the following were raised during our discussion about information technology. We think they are nice to stimulate critical thinking about this topic and decided not to work out the questions, but just to leave them open.

Is the intranet a tool for more democracy in the company ?

• Relations between the employees are more levelled, because the information flow is accessable to all employees. So the hierarchial structure of the company will be less.

Is intranet really a subject of democracy ?

We first want to talk about the migration policy: the possibilities and restrictions (2.1). After we have taken the migration issues into account, we move on the society with its diverse cultures that are the result of migration. We think that society has to move towards a multicultural society, defined as a place where different cultures meet each other and where there is an interaction in between them.

This movement can be described by focusing on intercultural learning processes (2.2), through which a multicultural society can be reached. We end our discussion about this topic by focussing on those processes in connection with the role of adult education.

2.1 Migration policy: all about economics?

We had a discussion starting from the following statement: «Cultural problems are often not just about culture. It is also about economic competition covered up in cultural terms«.

Our discussion then, focussed on two aspects. We first talked about the migration policy on the global country level. Then we talked about the impact of the economical situation on the integration of individuals.

In multicultural societies the main focus in the migration discussion or disputes is most of the time related to the economical aspects ( life-standard, social security system, unemployment level) within countries (Europe). The other aspect besides the economical one considered in our discussion can be thought of as a humanistic one; having more to do with issues related for example to the safety of individuals. There is often a connection between the economics and the immigration policy, which is not only about stream in (Can they come?) of migrants but also about their integration (How do they fit in, when they have entered the country?) (See chapter 2.1.2).

We could make the distinction between the two kind of arguments that are made when relating or discussing about the migrants entering to our countries: the economical one and the one, that we here call the humanistic one. First we can notice the economical arguments when the question of flow of migrants is posed. There is the fundamental argument that immigration should be limited because of the responsibility that the government has to take for the people in its own country. For example, when unemployment rates are high, people get afraid that immigrants might take their jobs. But, the government has not only the responsibility for its own people but for immigrants too. That is why they should not let people come into the country if there are no jobs. The low life-standard which is a result of unemployment, has also to be taken into account. Here the question of ‘solidarity’ between groups within a society is posed.

We want to point out here a distinction between two groups of immigrants with different economic positions. At first, there are immigrants entering the country that already have a well paid job and a high position (e.g.: German immigrants in Spain, Russian immigrants in Finland). On the other hand there are immigrants entering in low economic positions, without having a job (e.g.: Moroccan immigrants in Spain, Somalian people in Finland). The first mentioned are often people that have a job before entering the country, while the latter ones don’t bring money into the country and acquire help. Therefore a policy of migration is always about limiting the number of migrants, the ones who need help.

When thinking realistically, there are several arguments speaking on behalf of limiting migration into a country, as noted above. But the next question is then, what should be the norm to set those limits? Some say that economical aspects, e.g. the amount of jobs, should give direction to the amount of migrants. But we have problems upon that item, we want to bring a humanistic aspect into the picture. For some people it’s better to live here and be safe than to be in their own country. This humanistic aspect is usually overruled by the economical one in the discussions related to migrants.

There ’s no clear solution for this problem. But we think, as adult educators, besides focussing on the education processes, we have to give signals to the government and try to reach a dialogue with them, taking part in the debate. This also implies that we have to take this economical arguments seriously and try to look from different perspectives.

We here want to sharpen the distinction we mentioned above, between two groups of migrants. We want to state that their personal economic situation is strongly related to the integration level. The question can be raised if the economic situation causes non/integration or if non/integration results in worse/better economic conditions. We think it’s important that policy pays attention to both questions.

It looks like there is an other factor that is important here. The distinction within the group of immigrants between those people who are less educated and the ones that are highly educated, seems to be a condition for integration. Education is here seen as a key to optimize the personal situation and improve integration. We want to point out that cultural differences are often seen as the cause of integration problem, while it is often a bad economical situation that is the cause, not primary the differences between cultures. The role of adult education is discussed later on.

As explained above, we think it’s important that a society stresses the richness of diversity, by focusing on a multicultural perspective, where interaction of cultures enriches the way of living together.

We first want to note that we are talking about a proposal, which takes both formal and non-formal adult education into account. Secondly, we want to stress the importance of the flexibility of both adult education and adult educators. Adult education has to be able to adapt his goals and his offer in order to the needs of the community. Adult educators also have to be flexible while taking into account the cultural background of the migrants and working with them, by focussing on the interaction between the different cultures.

Talking about migrants and adult education often depends upon the way ‘culture’ is defined. Culture can be defined in different ways (Stavenhagen, 1997).

One definition deals with the view that culture is an accumulated material heritage of all the groups in society. According to this, individuals should have an equal access in society to this accumulated cultural capital. Development should therefore aim at increasing that access.

We can also see the culture as a process of artistic and scientific creation. This view implies that people should have a right to freely create their culture and freely enjoy these «creations«. This implies that we should increase the opportunity to «create« culture.

The third view of culture sees the culture as a total sum of the material and spiritual activities and products of a given social group. Stating this, the social groups define themselves from other similar groups. This position or definition argues that every cultural group has its own right to maintain and develop it’s own specific culture, no matter how it relates to other cultures. This refers to the right to have a cultural identity. So, instead of concentrating on how to accommodate or assimilate or only adjust people into a society, we should give people the freedom to develop and maintain their own cultural identity and take into consideration the work that can be done in the society, in trying to change it towards tolerance and finally towards multiculturalism. Therefore we state that adult education has to concentrate on different levels. At first adult education has to focus on the work with the immigrants, secondly on actions within the society and third on the signal function of adult education towards the government.

Before starting any work with the migrants or developing any programs for them, there should be knowledge of and respect for the previous (learning) experiences of the migrants. The contents and the methodologies of different kinds of programs should be planned in relation with the needs and expectations of the migrants. It’s of great importance for adult educators to know about context of migrants.

At first there is the reduction of the family-structures. In Moroccan families, not only the parents take care for the children, but other members of the family take responsibility too. Next to that, the pedagogical relation with the children normally is based on discipline and authority. Taken the loose family-relationships and the democratic style of parents in Western countries into account, this results in experienced contradictions for the children. Other important topics are: modification within the father-child relation, problems with conduct of migrants, desire of social mobility, problems within the school.

From this point of view the adult educator has to pay attention also to the parents. For example, research has shown that identity-problems often are related to the degree in which the parents are integrated in their society. Identity problems are arising, while there should be no need for that because they have access to two groups in society. It often happens that people, when leaving for another country, take the norms and the values of their culture with them as they were, at the time they left. As a result of this they raise their children with the values of a society that meanwhile has developed. Those parents do often not acknowledge that evolution and this causes problems in the lives of their children.

Adult education, besides helping the migrants ‘adjust’ to the economic, political and social life of that country which they are entering, have to pay attention to the society also. In trying to diminish or get rid off the prejudices and ethnocentrism, we should promote people’s awareness and understanding of different cultures and nations by for example (like in Spain) organizing conferences about several topics including the daily racism, reasons of the migration, the role of the woman in different cultures and histories, geographies and cultural aspects, building centers for cultural encounter, creating cultural and leisure activities and creating co-operation concerning those centers and activities. These different kind of activities could and should be organized so, that the majority people too, have the access to these happenings or activities and therefore come to get to know the immigrant cultures, their history and habits. The aim here is in moving towards the multicultural identity and society in which people can live not only next to each other and without any wars, but have an opportunity to learn from and respect each other.

As mentioned above, we think adult educators have to play a part in the debate of migration policy. They are the ones that have to work with the people, both from minority and majority groups. They have to signal, to give signs about experienced, noticed problems and advise policymakers.

In Finland and in the Netherlands migrants are approached from the kind of negative point of view, concentrating on the problems migrants are having. In Spain and in France (like fex. the field visit of A.R.E.L showed) the migrants are approached from a more positive point of view: different kinds of activities are organized which are focused on expressing several aspects of their own culture. Belgium is located in the middle of these perspectives because there is plenty of neighborhood work that takes into account the culture of migrants but on the other hand government policy focuses on the problem-groups, setting out priorities.

Beneath we worked out two ideas. The first one is a program design for courses with migrants applying the theory of Schäffter towards different target groups and therefore can be situated within those strategies that focus on migrants. A second point poses a future question.

Here we get into the subject of designing programs a little bit deeper. We note that this model can be used both in formal and non-formal education processes.

In the following we describe a fundamental process that we find necessary for constituting a learning process. We assume that the fundamental aspect of a learning process is situated in a learning incident.

The person, who is about to receive the information has to be able to extract valuable meaning from it. In order to get in contact with the information therefore, the person has to have at least a surface of sensitivity. We can describe this boundary as a contact zone, which is a meaningful aspect in educational situations. The contact that we are pursuing in the following, is the relationship of knowledge: the still unknown but in principle knowable.

Referring to the ’sphere of selfhood’ as a universe of meaning, as it is said in the model (Schäffter, see appendix 1) selfhood needs strangeness for its constitution. In short, strangeness is a ’challenging promoter’, that may challenge one’s identity. Strangeness occurs on various levels of selfhood and challenges different levels by causing irritation. By stating this, we must take in consideration the fact that the irritation occurs when at least two entities, unknown to each other, meet: the sphere of selfhood with its own developmental process on various levels and its own temporality will then interlock with another sphere of selfhood, also with its own developmental process and temporality.

Only when the contact, the irritation has occurred, you can state that there can be a strangeness involved. Stating that the two entities become aware of the strangeness, aware of a friction, aware of their differences and thus aware of their own identity, then this will be the framework of a critical incident where irritation is met!

If you see this ability of being irritated by new experiences, by her entities as basic assumption for intercultural learning, you will probably favor the idea of this following ’multicultural and multi-linguistic interdependent curriculum design’, where different spheres of selfhood are explicitly taken into account.

PP= program planners (adult educators)
P= participants
C= curriculum
ES= education situation
AT-LS= appropriate teaching- learning styles
1= planning
1’= collaborative planning
2= designing
2’= content input

This multicultural and multi-linguistic interdependent curriculum design-model that is shown can be used as a design appropriate for a program that is focussed on immigrants and their integration in society.

This model is based on the idea that language skills are necessary for survival in a new environment. In a lot of European countries language programs exist especially for migrants, but they do not always meet the needs of the migrants.

This model is also based on the idea that when working with a multicultural group, multilingual input will insert an intercultural educational frame in the most liberal sense. By stating this, the focus will not be on the various languages the participants speak, but on the one language they learn. This may sound as a paradox, but when participants of various backgrounds are put together their only means of communication will be the language they are thought. Therefore the multilingual input will be from the background of the participants in the model. Continuing on this subject this model implicitly suggests the use of a bottom-up process in designing the curriculum. Therefore the model has taken into account the aspects of the needs and motivation of the participants as a necessity. The necessity for building an environment where learning can occur. The program planner or the adult educator in this example has his role as a designer of the framework where the education has to take place. He is merely a facilitator, a creator of an education system. His duty is to guide, facilitate and in some aspects of the education process to educate.

By using this model we want to stress the importance of ’participative planning’ in adult education, and in working with migrants in particular. We think this is important because as educators, not speaking their language and not knowing really their habits it’s even more difficult to analyze the needs.

The subject of this module was Community Education a concept that was very unfamiliar to some members of our group. In Finland this concept of education is not known and therefore very hard to comprehend at first. The concept of social movements also raised some questions, for in Spain it is very much integrated in the society and to join a social movement is culturally and traditionally bound. In Finland there is a lack of participation in social movements. Belgium has a lot of social movements too and there the level of participation is acceptable, in comparison with Holland, Belgian people are more involved. We discussed what role the education plays in a community and what role the Adult Educator has to play in community education.

If you take the concept of liberal education as a concept for community education then you will acknowledge that there are various ways of acquiring knowledge within an educational framework. This educational framework doesn’t have to look like the framework of formal educational systems at all. The educational framework we are talking about here consists of a learning cycle that is very fundamental and necessary for the framework in order to refer to this as educational. This cycle concerns information transfer that occurs within a collected and designated group of people. The information transfer has to lead to knowledge before you can call this cycle an educational cycle and therefore an educational framework. Whether the knowledge, that is conceived, is on an abstract level or concrete level doesn’t matter. To clarify this last sentence we will describe what we mean by abstract level and concrete level. Acquiring knowledge on an abstract level implies, on community level, knowledge about norms and values of the community, knowledge that will lead to better understanding of the situation and situational aspects concerning the community. If we describe a community educational process where people learn to create things and practice their knowledge in the community, we will refer to this as concrete knowledge.

If we return to the various ways of acquiring knowledge within the described «educational framework» or « educational cycle», we like to point out that this acquisition of knowledge, we are talking about here, has to do with a community of people! People differ from each other; therefore you can state that their learning strategies to acquire knowledge will differ also just like the goal to acquire knowledge. Community education as a whole is focussed on increasing the viability level of the community. An important aspect for communities so they can grow and evolve, is the acquisition of knowledge by the people, who live in, work in and have leisure activities in the communities.

The reason that we talk about dynamic interaction and not only about interaction is linked to the fact that we see the input into interaction processes as an input that should consist of various aspects. For instance an input that originates from a motivational internal or a motivational external side. As an example you have the adult educator to help people of a community get motivated or you have people of a community that are already motivated and can help in motivating others of the community. The reasons to join in on the interaction could be plentiful and meaningful for the participants. Therefore the interaction is very dynamic, because it can originate and vanish spontaneously. The community education can stimulate and give guidance to the interaction processes and can even result in new interaction processes within the community. The community education can be a stabilizing factor for the interaction processes by structuring the communication and supplying possibilities for knowledge acquisition concerning the community. The goal of community education should be improvement of the viability level of the community and improvement of citizenship of the members of the community. All the strategies and interaction processes should lead to this main goal when concerned with community education.

We see community education as a process where different actors play an equal role! An equal role in the sense that there will be no need for authority in order to get an educational process started. The Adult Educator is a professional actor in this field. The professional role can be declared from the fact that the Adult Educator has to act as a professional facilitator. He has to facilitate the needs of the other actors apparent in the community educational process. This facilitating role can be divided in a passive facilitating role and an active facilitating role. Before we continue the discussion we like to define and make a summarize of the division in the facilitating role.

1. PASSIVE FACILITATING ROLE OF THE ADULT EDUCATOR

• He is a supplier of information
• He is an expert; knowledge on a professional basis
• He is a feedback supplier
• He has organizing skills (management skills)
• …This summary is not completed, but contains the main points we find necessary for the role of Adult Educator in the community.

The Adult Educator incorporates an amount of knowledge and skills that can be used by the community, when it is needed. The role is passive because the Adult Educator doesn’t have to take the initiative, he has to be there where the people can find him and ask him to supply them the needed and relevant information. The community has to know that they have the opportunity to ask advice when needed. In this case he is not playing an active role, his role consists of being available when there is a need from with in the community.

• Initializing role (he has to get things started)
• Empowerment; by means of communication with the designated persons or groups and using the expertise to help people find their own solutions
• Be an example for!
• Detective ( search for the originating of problems)
• …this summary is not completed, but contains the main points we find necessary for the role of Adult Educator in the community

The Adult Educator has to see the people as experts of their own situations and not abuse his professional skills in order to help them! The communication between the Adult Educator and the community will have to take place on an equal basis. The Adult Educator has to take into consideration that opinions differ and that there has to be a level where agreement can be reached. His role is active because he is in this active role the one starting a process that has to lead to involvement, care and solutions, in a community.

In the beginning the Adult Educator should make a diagnoses of the community. He has to evaluate on an economical, social & cultural and demographic level of the community, so he can create a map of the «situated» community. He has to find out the competencies and deficiencies of the community and can do this with the help of needs- analysis. This needs-analysis should be realized on an equal basis and can be the perfect tool to find out what the needs are of the people from within the community. The Adult Educator has to start working on the basis of the competencies of a community and use these competencies to fight or diminish the deficiencies of the community.

At the end of the process of working in the community, the Adult Educator has to realize as a professional that he was needed to help people structuring their ideas within the community, but that his duty is finished. The community is the objective and the Adult Educator is a bystander that will never integrate in that community where he was appointed to help. He is there only to jump into the community when needs are formulated.

The goal of community development is to reach a viability level within a community and to reach a level where the community has the capacity to help itself and handle changes without professional input of an Adult Educator. If this level of viability can be reached in a community than the job the Adult Educator fulfilled was successful. Successful in that sense that the input of a professional is no longer acquired and therefore no longer existing!

Individualization is recognized as an ongoing process in postmodern societies and as a result of this community enforcement is diminishing. On the other hand there is a growing concern for quality of community life. The role of community education is to improve on a collective basis this growing concern of the people and the taking on responsibility by the people. In comparison with the traditional society the postmodern society consist also of interdependencies between the people, but the differences are the bounds between the people, formerly they were based on social classes, religion and various more social institutions. In the new-society those bounds are not that influential anymore. In a way there is more space for individual freedom, because the social control has diminished, as a result the insecurity in life has increased. Even when all those changes are apparent, there is still the need of people to feel responsible for other people; the need to belong is still very strong and integrated in our rationalized lives!

With the increasing individualization processes on the one hand and growing concern for community life on the other hand, there is an increasing process of mobilization and mobility going on in postmodern societies. We defined the process of mobilization as an abstract process, meaning that mobilization implies a goal, for example «expression of community feeling on certain topics, social or political topics» and mobility implies a distance. Connecting the process of individualization in postmodern societies with the increasing process of mobilization and mobility, we draw the conclusion that we have to take into consideration that communities nowadays in general consist more of fast shifting networks of personal relations in comparison with the more traditional communities. The need to belong to groups and in this case communities is very much alive and this expresses itself in the increasing process of mobilization, trying to use certain social and political topics to create a feeling of belonging to…

We came up with a new concept of a community when in the colleges current approaches of the community concept were discussed. Five points of entry where discussed concerning the investigation of community (Baert, 1999). The focus of attention has been on:

1. Participants
2. Territory
3. Social activities
4. Social relationships
5. Feelings

Our concept is focussed on (5) feelings; the community as sentiment, which can be divided in significance and solidarity. We see this entry as a necessity for operationalizing the concept we came up with. This entry acknowledges the need to belong to certain groups and acknowledges the dynamic aspects that are inherent to communities and especially to our concept of the community. A community that is increasing and apparent for the postmodern society and the globalization that is taking place.

Instance Community a concept that can be defined as:

1. No traditional social boundaries, because of time dependency
2. Short term- long term (existence)
3. Level of commitment towards the community
4. Economical level (short term investment- (intensive) long term investment)

1, 2 &3 are focussed on engagement

The concept of instance community is based on the fact that the existence of a community can arise at every given moment and is at first a short term community, meaning that while it is being created that it one day will be finished again. The existence of that community can be extended and then it can become a community with a long-term view. By stating this you will have to take into account that the originating purposes and views of this community are essentially focussed on the short-term existence.

The level of commitment also differs in comparison with the regular communities. The level of commitment is mainly based on the necessity of people to belong to that community and the active role they have to play to become a member of that community. The approach is more individualistic and so are the motivational aspects on first hand.

The economical level is based on the investments that are made within the community, in contrary with communities that have a tendency to exist longer, the investments that are made here have to have direct results and are therefore short-term investments. This kind of way of investing in the instance community needs a different approach. The decisions are to be made on short-term basis and to make those decisions with the people of the community you will need co-operation and involvement. The engagement level is higher and more fundamental in comparison with local communities in general.

On an economical level you can state that the investments that are going to be made within this community are probably short-term investments and oriented to a goal that is quickly reached, because the long-term investments are a risk considering the fact that the community will vanish by itself! Or has the capacity to vanish by itself!

The civic society is an abstract term we use to define a neutral place where interaction can take place between the state and the individual. We used two models that are visible in modern societies.

In the first model you see that the State has no influence on the market. The Market here is the main place where the individuals meet each other and interaction takes place. The individuals create the rules, supply money and facilities, for instance education. This kind of system is very liberal and gives a lot of opportunities for people to develop their initiatives. Considering that they have time and money on their side!

In the second model you see that the State has influence on what we call the civic society. The intervention of the State is necessary to help those in society that does not have the money or capacity to organize themselves. The State only intervenes at a level where it implements rules, money and facilities (education) in order to help those that are not heard of in the first model. This model is taking into account that the market may be not the right place where interaction should take place, and suggests at the same time that the civic society where people can be heard and can get organized is a meeting place where even the State should take part in.

The community within the civic society can be seen as a place where citizenship can be practiced and realized. The community is a terrain where communication and participation between the individuals is executed. The interference of the State should be realized to a certain degree within the civic society and the communities play an important meeting place for the State with the individuals. On a local level the State can interfere and implement rules, money and facilities that are asked for by the community at stake here or that are necessary for individuals that need help. The community is a place where policies of the State are executed and at the same time a place where individuals can express their opinion considering the policies and can be heard! The community is a place where mobilization can be realized and all this within the framework of the civic society.

In relation with the case study (see appendix 2) we did during the course, we offer a possible solution concerning the employability of the community. In the following we made a summation of the plan. Before creating a plan you need certain starting conditions to get information about the designated community.

• Evaluation and diagnosis; by a local government concerning the community
• Attain an Adult Educator; for a professional input - Coordination

- External view on the problems of a community

• Develop a community center; for instance in the school, because the amount of children is decreasing and the empty spaces can be used and the people can find this place and use the community competence, for instance the women associations, that are active in the riverside district. The function is based on free time activities, creativity and for example sporting events and the goal is to create more social relations and possibilities to meet each other.
• Create an arena to discuss the problems of the community; this is really important so there will be a place where issues concerning the community can be discussed.
• Create a magazine of the community; implicitly this will be a channel for diffusion of information and goods. The main goals of this magazine are:
• Distribution of information (resources, services, activities,…)
• articles to create awareness of the problems in the community
• opinion articles (citizens can give their opinion and persons with a certain expertise can inform the inhabitants of the community via this local newspaper)

The goal of this intervention is based on finding solutions for the high level of unemployment in this community. The solutions should lead to reintegration of the unemployed in the labor market. An idea is that there should be an association of employers and unemployed people of the community, so that there will be a place where interaction between them can take place and that they can form an information board concerning the needs of the companies and the needs of the employers and employers to be! This is important for the information flow about the innovative projects of the industries that are going on. When an association can systemize the information from the industries and from the employers and unemployed, than there is the possibility to direct the needs towards each other and consensus can be reached, concerning the need of the company for employers that know their job and the need of people to find a job

As we stated above it is necessary that there is a great form of social participation and self-organizational features should play an important role in creating possibilities to find a job. We discussed about the political perspective that is at stake and came to the conclusion that the meso level of collectivism is an important perspective, because it recognizes the connection with problems and concerns about societal participation in the Civil Society ( Theo Jansen,1997). The main idea behind this is the need to reinforce the participation of citizens. This perspective is focussed on the rising costs of social services that hinder the enrolment of citizens in civil organizations. This perspective urges new enrolment possibilities, while acknowledging the paradox of the «unaffordable welfare state». The professionalization of social services led to higher costs. By motivating volunteer work in social services the costs will lower. The strategy behind this perspective is focussed on recruiting more volunteers to maintain social and cultural services to the aim of supporting citizens who want to take the responsibility for the civil society. In our initial conditions we integrated traditional perspectives as well as innovative perspectives linked with increasing the employment in the community. In the traditional perspective adult education has the role in creating possibilities for the unemployed focussing on responsibility, personal capacities and wants via means of volunteer’s work. By this they will get motivated to organize themselves in the community. The innovative perspective is focused on stimulating critical discussions and look for different organizational principles within the community! Give opportunities to create self-help groups and independent neighbourhood groups, the role of adult education is more a role of an agent for critical debate and to stimulate the opposition within the community towards complex social-cultural professional bureaucratic organizations that execute to much power in the civil society. If you look at the initial conditions presupposed above you would recognize the two perspectives within the meso level of collectivism we used to fundament our ideas with, concerning unemployment. The need to organize the unemployed in this community is also recognized in this perspective. In our opinion it is important to organize the unemployed together with the employed from the community, so that they can form a strong social organization in the community. This organization can negotiate with the food, new-technology industry and the local government.

Next to this collectivist perspective we see another perspective also very actual in this proposal to create jobs and this is the Neo-Liberal perspective or Utilitarian perspective, we recognize this one because the managers of industries play an important role, if not the most important role in this discussion. They have the power concerning industrial know how and they have the jobs! The neo-liberal perspective or utilitarian is an individualistic perspective which primary concern is that individualization is not radical enough and that the interventions of the state and social-cultural pressures is not acknowledging the freedom of the individual to be responsible for his or her own life history. This perspective acknowledges only political and social interference if it is there to prevent or remedy the social exclusion of persons who are unable or unwilling to make a living. The neo-liberals see the problem of social exclusion as something that is associated with the vulnerability and risks of the labour market that will lead to unemployment and poverty. This perspective sees the rational self-interest of the individual as a factor that will motivate the individual from within in to participate in economic, political and social life, in short, in civil society. In our proposal we see the importance of participation in order for the unemployed in the community to motivate their rational self-interest! This perspective is focussed on the individualistic perspective of our proposal. This perspective is also interesting because it focuses on the importance of training. It is also interesting because it acknowledges the importance of the executing power of industry, which has the money to finance the training.

When we integrate these two perspectives we acknowledge on the one hand social mobilization of the employed and the unemployed in organizations and on the other hand the power of the food industry and the important role they play in creating also possibilities to offer jobs and training for the unemployed and the employed (to stay employed) in the community. We stress the importance of social organizations in the community, because in order to link the two forces (the social organization and the industry); the social forces and economical forces there should be an area where interaction between the two forces can be constructed in order to develop concrete strategies focussed on diminishing the unemployment and increasing jobs that are fit for the unemployed. The civic society can be a place where communication is constructed between the organization, the industry and even the local government. When there is an area where communication on equal basis can take place, then there is a place where constructive communication can take place, because equality is a fundamental aspect for constructive communication. In the communication between the organization, the industry and the local government an agreement has to be reached in the form of a contractual responsibility of training for all the parties involved. If the industry takes up the most responsibility of training, it can effectively locate the needs from within the company and reflect them to the organization that can mobilize people to fulfill the needs of the company with the help of training. The training can then lead to jobs in the industry. Therefore it is important that in agreement with the organization of the unemployed and employed, the industry frameworks or structionalize the training. Another possibility is that the organization of the employed and unemployed create training with the consent of the industry, but still take up most of the responsibility for organizing the training. Then the main focus will be the financial aspect, which is necessary to provide needed training. The local government can play a role in this case and subsidize or offer professionals (for instance adult educators) to help with the training. In any case the role of the government is limited and only a bystander role to regulate and mediate the interaction between the two parties.

In creating job possibilities in the Riverside district we acknowledge the importance of the organization and the industry. The training mentioned is an effective tool to decrease unemployment especially when the training is based on the needs of both parties and mutual agreement considering job offering and on jobs in general. Training is seen as a tool that will bring the different needs of the party’s closer towards each other.

The social issues that are at stake in the Riverside district are concerned with increasing independence. This is also an issue the Community Social Service is focussed on, but they don’t have a concrete plan to execute. When focussing on mobilizing the unemployed and creating possibilities for them to get a job, the independence level will increase also within the community. Another aspect why we focus on the unemployment (an economical aspect) is the fact that we see this aspect inherently linked with the social aspect concerning vandalism for instance. When unemployment decreases, we are convinced that vandalism will also be reduced especially when the increasing collectivist responsibility is realized in this process! We realize that this plan is not worked out and has an idealistic undertone, but we think this is a good reflection that can be used as a fundamental aspect in realizing job possibilities for unemployed citizens.

Trough the description and analysis of an educational institution, we dealt with several topics that ‘consultants’ (adult educators) meet. We first give a quick draft of the organization, followed by an analysis of the organization structure and the climate. Starting from the data of this first analysis, we try to deepen the change-processes within the organization. Finally we try to look to the organization from a ‘interventionist’ point of view. We want to note here that this is based on the perception of one person. The organization at stake, was the organization where one of the students did her traineeship, during three months. By this, it is important to take into account the limitation of this single perspective into account.

After that, we discussed about the focus of change-processes within organizations. We pointed out that changes could be reached both on the level of individuals and on the organizational level. Taking different opinions into account, we tried to synthesize both perspectives pleading for a balanced policy.

At last, we got a look to the learning processes, using the theory of Kolb. We pointed out some pragmatic applications of this theory.

We will talk about an organization called CVL, - which can be literally translated as Center for Life Formation- an education center. The main goal of the organization can be described as ‘being a client-oriented organization for formation that supports and guides disadvantaged young people in developing their personal and/ or social and / or technical (labor oriented) skills and attitudes’.

The center is divided in different sub-units.

A first sub-unit is responsible for the ‘general formation’ of young people who are subscribed in an alternating system of learning and working. This learning implies technical skills and also more general educational topics such as numeracy, literacy, work attitudes. It is, in fact, an educational (schooling) task. This taking over of educational tasks by centers in the social-cultural sector is an important fact here. We discuss this later to clarify the organization culture.

A second sub-unit takes care of general formation of special target-groups such as low educated young mothers and youngsters that work in protected workplaces.

The third sub-unit is about a kind of ‘neighborhood-work’ with youngsters. Young people of the neighborhood can take part in activities during their free-time.

Another unit is recently set up and is a project of individual counseling for unemployed youngsters. Here again, we refer to a later discussion about the organization culture.

A last division is setting up a new ‘youth-house’ for youngsters that are participating in an alternating system of learning and working, but haven’t got a job caused by a lack of both technical skills, work attitudes and motivation.

Then, there are several projects, where the center is participating in, but that can not be acknowledged as different divisions: courses for refugees, video-projects, setting up networks for further cooperation, …

Using the organization theory of Mintzberg, that describes different organization structures, we identify this institution as an organization with a simple structure. The form of the organization is characterized by a small top, the absence of a middle structure and a large operating core.

We want to point out some strengths and some weaknesses of this structure. The concentration of the knowledge and the power within the top of the organization leads to a flexible decision making, which makes it easy to quickly adapt to a fast transforming environment. On the other hand, we note a dependency towards the central person who has the decision-making power, which also can result in taking a dependent position of the employees.

We acknowledge the fact that Mintzberg formulated his theory in terms of forces instead of labeling 5 vast structures. When we try to describe this model by means of forces, we note a remarkable tension. The organization can be characterized as strongly cooperative, direction-oriented, innovative and based on concentration towards several targetgroups. When we look to the organizational forms to which the forces ‘direction’ and ‘innovation’ refer, we notice a tension: the conditions within the entrepreneurial organization and the adhocracy tend to exclude one another. This field of tension can be analyzed in terms of ‘change’. We therefore refer to 4.1.4.

When we try to describe the organizing principle within the organization with the use of metaphors, we meet again this tension. The organizing principle is a mix of ‘culture’ and ‘brains’, a mix of cooperation and reflection with the goal towards optimization.

If we look to this climate, we notice a strongly people-oriented climate. The organization strongly depends on the individual competencies. This also means that there is a supportive, relation-oriented climate through respect for the rules.

Another aspect here is the orientation towards innovation. This relates to several topics within the organization, as discussed later on. The fact that, during the last year, three new divisions (projects, programs) were set up shows the trend towards extension, adapting to the environment and orientation towards innovative projects.

The weakness of this organization, if we look to the picture, is the lack of goal oriented information. This is shown in the organization by the importance of informal information channels and the lack of well developed communication-channels.

We mentioned the tendency within this organization towards innovation, research, coming up with new projects and towards a project-oriented way of working. We therefore want to make some remarks about the existing organization and the differences with the concept of the learning organization, which is enhanced by the staff. We there point out some aspects where these two ‘forces’ (direction and innovation) meet and where they contradict.

Looking to the organization structure, learning organizations tend to work with a levelled (flat) structure that is build up through the implementation of multi-dimensional, autonomous teams that are characterized by extended, both internal and external feedback-systems. The existing organization has a lack of efficient feedback-systems and the autonomy of the teams is, because of the entrepreneurial direction, experienced as ‘pseudo’-autonomy.

To handle the emerging changes of the environment, a climate that has less attention for rules, but tries to reach a ‘learning climate’ is experienced as a necessary condition. Here we have to take into account the formation of the employees: they all have an educational schooling. Orientation towards evaluation, quality and reflection about own learning processes is part of the existing culture.

The style of leadership within learning organizations is directing, pointing out long term goals that function as borderlines. The responsibility and decision-making is given to teams and the individuals within the teams. This is an aspect that creates a big tension within the existing organization. Coming from an entrepreneurial organization structure, there is always the tendency of the manager to control the outcomes and to keep power over the decision-making process. Here, the two forces meet and contradict: the manager of an entrepreneurial organization is a workaholic, that of a learning organization emerges a ‘hands-off’ management.

A process of change occurred in the organization, although it was not always recognized as such. By comparing the organization with the concept of the learning organization, we have already described the main ongoing process: the manager feels the need to move towards a ‘learning organization, but handles this change-process implicitly. The change-process can be described on different levels.

At first, staff was changing: a young woman took over the guidance of the organization. This was not an internal promotion, but someone that was not familiar with the organization was getting in. At the mean time, the organization was expending, having four new people working there (which is quiet a lot if you realize that the whole crew exists of 20 persons, administrative personnel and logistic support included). We want to describe this ‘change’ as a process that is ‘normal’ within organizations: people come and go. Although we want to mention this, because we think it is important in this kind of (small) organization. The manager has got a lot of direct influence on the organization as a whole.

Then, with the shift of staff, new ideas and ambitions were ‘entering’.

The organization structure changed: vast teams were set up, every team had to choose a coordinator (1) and new teams were implemented because of the participation within new programs and projects (2).

We describe these structural changes as a result of market-changes. The pressure from the market was felt: the organization had to handle new situations, had to adapt to the expectations from the environment. The main targets were getting in new projects to survive, to be competitive and implementing a new system of working, because the law had changed.

At last, as a result of the other aspects, the direction/orientation of the organization was changing. And with it, the vision/mission got challenged too. Because of the product of this organization, namely education, this became a hot-topic. The vision upon the function of education (emancipation? adaptation?) and the methodologies were questioned.

Generally spoken, we could state that, because of changes in structure, strategy and regulations a change in vision occurred.

We take the four innovation models of Bouwen and Fry as a general framework to look to these innovation processes. Next to describing how changes were implemented, we try to point out another direction that could have been more successful in handling this process.

Here comes the interesting point. Now, because of the power-oriented intervention, the personnel couldn’t express their doubts, uncertainty’s and expectations: compliance and passive ‘followship’ were the result. The start for resistance was given: new projects were questioned, policy got criticized and uncertainty was expressed. Here we meet a consequence of the change in structure that was implemented by means of the same Power model: the responsibility and the autonomy that was given to the several teams was experienced as ‘false’ responsibility, because the only thing they could do was following, adapting, producing.

This brings us to the heart of the problem: the ‘vision’ of the organization was shifting. The staff wanted to implement a more market-oriented way of thinking and wanted to create an environment were innovation and knowledge-building was given chances. The problems that raised from using a Power model to introduce change, led to a situation that could be predicted. This situation needed a different intervention from the beginning: employees had to be taken as serious partners within planning the long-term strategy of the organization.

This doesn’t mean that the Power model is never the right tool to introduce change. We even want to state that for the structure-change, this was an appropriate model, taking the circumstances into account. But the change-process had to be followed by what is described as the learning confrontational model, because of the new direction the organization took. We think, the innovation triangle that describes the continuity, the novelty and the needed transition is here a tool to think about the future. Thinking about what is already there, reaching for future goals and then trying to enhance transition, involving the people. Taking the qualification of the personnel into account, the application of this learning confrontational model has a high level of chance to succeed. The attention for learning processes on both the task- and the relation-oriented level are already inherent on the organization-culture.

We want to note that, in this confrontational model, we think the confrontation only as a starting point. The sense of confrontation normally is a fight, where at the end, one actor wins because he has more power. This implies negative behavior for the communication resulting in defensive reactions. The feeling of an uncertain future or insecurity results in self-defended reactions and by this it disturbs open communication. We then think of confrontation in a static sense, which has no motivating power to start a process. Therefore we would rather bring the word ‘challenge’ into account. Challenge has a positive sense, is a dynamic word, implies a process of change, refers to a way to be better. The change takes a positive mean. The continuous process of feed-back and communication becomes a way to transform, using the dialog and the discussion.".

Starting from the growing attention for Human Resources Management, we want to point out some questions about the use of persons as human resources.

In the current society, we notice an environment that is in continues and high speed change. Organizations have to deal with this ever changing market. The environment is a market that is one of competition and growing pressure from outside. Businesses refer, as we saw in the field visit, continuously to sports to describe this world (note here that it is mostly forgotten that sports take only a short time of high competition-stress, but that businesses are working on long time perspective in continuous competition). Continuously handling new situations is the main concern of enterprises.

The question then is, how do organizations deal with the change-process? There are two ways of thinking.

The first level is about focussing on people, dealing with consequences of this evolution on an individual level. Here we want to refer to the attention within companies for the whole development of people. Programs of stress-management, self-confidence training, assertivity training… are results of these actions.

On the other hand, you can work on a second level try to change the organization too. Work situations can be adapted to people. Change programs for organizations are here the result. We note here that we realize these things are not evident, just because of that external pressure.

We think that policy within organizations has to try to integrate these two ways of thinking. Working on the individual as well as on the company level has to be integrated. This is not so evident, but we think this is the most efficient way of working on a long-term basis. It looks like the focus now, is on the individual level. This is a topic that is also related to the tension between solidarity and individualization. A lot of issues now, are handled on an individual level, where they used to be of a common concern. Illustrative here is the diminishing power of trade unions, for example in the Netherlands and in Belgium (in Belgium a little bit less because of the services they offer such as filling administration forms and arranging payment).

We looked to the model of Kolb from a pedagogical point of view. Learning implies going trough the four different phases. We conceive this model as an upward going spiral of repeated learning experiences.

To conclude, we want to stress the necessity of the planning of change-processes. Before implementing changes within organizations it is necessary to research the conditions in which change can be handled optimal. We refer to the dangers we noted above, by using the Power model to introduce change.

We consider it as a necessary condition to first reflect upon the question ‘which strategies are prospected as the more adequate to reach the agreement of the people to involve in the change-process’. This involvement is needed to transform the (natural) negative behavior of people in front of change into a challenge for them. Another important aspect to reflect upon is the focus of the change-processes. The importance of the decision to change organizations or people has to be discussed seriously. That ‘s why we stress the pro-active reflection and planning strategies, to reflect upon both focus and strategies of change.

This module was about in-company training. We discussed the in-company training in the context of a broad defined multinational. We used this imagined company as a tool to define the position the in-company training has to attain in our opinion. We deliberately choose for a company that is involved in software business, because this sort of organizations are in a competitive market and they have to keep developing in order to have some influence on the quick changes of the market. In order to keep up with the speed they will need a successful development of products and services in their organization. Therefore this kind of organizations are in our opinion ideal for the concept of "learning organizations" and the training department plays an important role in these organizations. This is an ideal model of an organization we invented to use for our ideas about in-company training.

We describe a model where continuous learning is apparent and a vital aspect in the organization. Learning in the company is a necessity and not only for the persons self, but also for the company as a whole, so that the employers stay up-to-date and are motivated to work on the effectiveness of the whole company. The company is depended on the knowledge, know-how and the skills of his employees, when they enter the market they need to be ready for the competition and should be ready to fight it! By learning faster than the competitors the company will accelerate in the process of development. Continuous improvement means that every giant leap towards improvement can be seen as an opportunity to learn and prepare for the future leap. By stating this you will recognize the cycle of learning and that this is inherent of development.

To obtain and sustain competitive advantage in this new environment of the ever changing market, organizations will have to learn better and faster from their successes and failures. They will have to continuously change their attitudes towards the developments already made and transform themselves into a learning organization. A learning organization has to give the employees the opportunity to continuously engage in new learning processes. The department of training could play an important role in these learning organizations by not only adjusting to the needs, but also by initializing learning environments where the needs can be created. The needs that can be created could be the needs necessary for the giant leap towards improvement and therefore the future positioning of the company in the market. An idea behind this way of interpreting the actions that training departments can take, is the idea that learning organizations should include existing creativity potentials of the employees in a constructive way so that this can be used in the process of production of goods (software here!) and services. The task of the training department is to spot those potentials, combine them en insert them in a constructive way in the process of continuous improvement. Here you will have noticed that we see the training department as a department that is very necessary in the organization, but by stating this we don’t underestimate the other departments, for they play also an important part in the continuous learning strategies of the company. We see the training department as a department that will have to have the overview of all the learning processes that are going on in the company.

In the following we created a model of the structure of an imagined multinational. This model we will use, to explain our idea’s about the position of the training department within the company and the influence they execute or should execute.

1. RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
2. PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
3. SALES DEPARTMENT
4. TRAINING DEPARTMENT

We are thinking about an multinational organization which operates in the high-tech business in different countries, planning, developing, producing and selling software products. Within this organization there are different departments like research-, production-, sales- and training departments. Each department has it’s own head manager, who should play a role in the strategic planning of this high innovative organization. Between these different departments communication channels are provided to organize and facilitate their co-operation, which is very essential in this fast developing and changing organization. When efficient and productive communication channels are developed and created, opportunities of creating awareness of the developments and changes, within the different organization levels, will be increased; the different departments will be more aware of the changes that occur in the other departments. There should also be a possibility for the employees to have an access to information and to know what is going on, is changing in their organization in order to be prepared or in case they have some ideas of their own, to be used and to participate in the development process of the organization.

«Training is the systematic process through which an individual is helped to master defined tasks or areas of skill and knowledge to pre-determinate standards». (HARRISON,1989)

«In-company training can be defined as the process focused on eliminating the differences between the competencies one employee can offer and the competencies required for his job». (EDWARDS,1983)

In in-company training there are certain aims, set by the organization and the training department, when they execute some power in this area of making decisions concerning the aims of the organization. We state this explicitly because in a lot of companies the training department has no influence on stating the aims. If you look to our model we integrated a form of influence on the aims by giving the training department more responsibility in this area. We stated in our model that each department has a head manager selected from the staff, also the training department will have a head manager. All the head managers are assembled in the commission board. By stating this the influence of the training department is relatively high concerning the general strategic planning of all the departments.

There are also certain objectives of training, these are often defined only by the training department. These objectives are goals that are set for a training and we see these goals as results that should lead to the general aims that were set.

The first two definitions noted above consist of a broad view concerning the in-company training. These two definitions contain two objectives of training, these are

1. To prepare progressively to execute tasks of growing complexity and/or responsibility.
2. To update knowledge skills and attitudes to face the changes in the work environment. The second definition also integrated a third objective, which is:
3. To transform training in a focus of personal satisfaction and professional improvement as well as in a solution for the job’s needs.

In the second definition competencies of employees are integrated, these include skills and attitudes. The attitudes are based on the emotional aspects of the employees and therefore you can sate that satisfaction and professional improvement is partly dependent on the attitudes of the employees. The first definition doesn’t acknowledge this aspect as a part of training processes. From another point of view we acknowledge the fact that the third objective is disputable and dependent on the actors that are involved. As a training department it will be necessary to acknowledge the third objective in the designing of training programs. On the other hand stating the third objective as a goal for training, to the head of an organization, or a head board of the organization, is asking for difficulties, because the goal is an abstract one and not directly linked to the concrete results of improvement. However we see job satisfaction as a great motivational aspect that should be inherent to all training!

In-company training should include at least all three objectives as general goals. Awareness concerning the job satisfaction of the employees should always be a prerequisite of the training's that are going to be designed by the department of training.

As we discussed above, the training department in the model is responsible for the training and the implementation of initial training. The department should take care of the needs of the organization and its departments concerning training. The policy of training should be focussed on several aspects. These aspects are clarified with the use of a model created by Pilar Pineda.

This model consists of 4 policies:

1. competence development: on the developmental and investment side
2. improvement: on the developmental and expense side
3. adaptation to job: on the expense and adaptation side
4. promotion and retraining: on the adaptation and investment side

The training department as we described takes part in the strategic planning of the company (head manager is in the board of commission) and has information about the division of the company's budget. Because of the influence they have on this level within the organization, we think that the main part of the designed trainings should be focussed on the developmental and investment side of the company and therefore a main part of the policy of training should be concerned with competence development within the organization. This organization model we defined as a learning organization is another reason for focussing a main part of the training policies on competence development. Because of the high competitive environment of the market this organization is in and because of the need to adapt to the needs of the market (customers, users of the products) the company will have to invest in future processes to stay with or ahead of the rest of the market. Therefore a big part of the trainings should also be focussed on promoting and retraining of employees. The other policies should also play a part in the trainings or should also be goals of training. Improvement training policies could arise from competitive market reasons and the adaptation to job policy could arise from the need to cope with the changes that occur in the market. These four could all be strategies the training department can choose from. We emphasize that the greatest amount of trainings should however stay focussed on competence development policy and promoting and retraining policy. Sometimes the market urges the company to be very short termed and demands of the company that it will have to change his strategies on a short notice. If this happens the training will have to focus a great deal on «adaptation to job-training». The training department we defined in our model has influence on strategic planning of the company and can prevent this kind of demand on training policies, that are mainly focussed on «adaptation to the job». Again we point out that increasing the influence of the training department in the strategic planning of the company will lead to more effective training policies and prevention of harsh training demands forced upon the organization by for instance the market. The concept of a «learning organization» implies effective training methods and policies and being ready for changes. The organizational structure is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition. We realize that a lot of other aspects play an equal important role in realizing the ideology of the learning organization.

The training team of an organization should consist of experts in the field of training and development. The tasks or competencies necessary for the job as a trainer are administrative, consulting, designing and instructing competencies. These competencies are not to be seen as separate jobs that are available in the training department, but have to be all integrated in the skills a trainer should have. By stating this we see a trainer as a flexible person with different competencies and abilities to adjust in various situations. To create the most effective training team we chose for a flexible working force that is not structured in a hierarchical way. The training team should appoint one as a head manager that will take place in the board of commission. The criteria for success in implementing training's and post evaluation processes on the training's is based on shared common sense, within the training department and especially within, of course, the whole company. Successful changes and innovation processes depend on this. Frequent meetings should acknowledge a horizontal structure, where the trainers are assigned to different tasks. These tasks can change on a monthly or yearly basis and should be distributed by means of democratic decision making. There should be co-ownership of interaction tasks and shared influences on the outcomes of decisions. The basis for making decisions is on a consensual agreement within the team. There will be no formal hierarchical structure in the training department, but that doesn't mean we don't acknowledge an informal hierarchical structure. We stimulate the informal hierarchical structure that will occur; it ‘s a possible course that the experts that are longer with the company and have the know how of the companies structure will take on the lead and can help other trainers on an informal level with the tasks that will have to be executed. Changes within the training department are more easily implemented if you don't have a formal vertical structure and the meetings on an equal basis. This is an example of a characteristic of a learning organization. We are discussing the structure of the training department in our model, but this does not mean that we find it important for the rest of the organization to be structured the same way as the training department.

We find it very important that the training department should act as an example for the rest of the company!! Why? Because as a training team you will experience the informal learning environment and because of the shared responsibilities the motivational level will be very high in the training department. Therefore the department can act as a real life example within the company where it has to develop the trainings.

As stated above, a criterion for success in implementing trainings in the company, is the post evaluation. This will make clear if the trainings were successful and are implemented on the work floor. An effective method of post evaluation will be the construction of «mentorship systems»: these systems have a controlling function and are effective systems that can be implemented in the different departments. The mentors can be employees that will have the responsibility within their own department with checking the effectiveness of the trainings on the employees. These mentors can report to the training department, the needs for training and also the actual and effectual results of the training's on the employees in their own department. By setting up an effective mentorship system you will need an efficient communication channel within the company. And this again is one way of bringing the perspectives of the training department and the employees closer to each other!

The implementation of the concept «learning organization» in a multi-national is difficult to realize in real life. Learning organizations in the ideal situation focus on the learning processes of the employees. We acknowledge the fact that in real life the main concern of the multi-national is to accumulate as much knowledge as possible in order to be competitive on the market and make a good profit. This doesn’t mean that in this process of competition and keeping up the organization will continuously acknowledge the learning needs of his employees. Therefore we think that the realization of the concept of learning organizations is an Utopia, especially in multi-nationals, that often express themselves as adhocracies. On the other hand we don’t want to put our idea down as an Utopia, but like to see our idea «about a multi-national as a learning organization» as guide that may change certain presupposed ideas concerning decision making within a company, concerning the structure of a training team within a given company or concerning the value that communication can offer for a company.

Beneath, we describe the two dominant policy models, using some key words which point out the main characteristics that differentiate them from each other. We realize that this is not an exhaustive enumeration, but we think it gives a general picture of the two models. Within our group we tried to describe this models by using a ‘role-play’technique. We wanted to experience another debate between neo-liberals and social democratics, by preparing two-by-two one discourse. This summary is the result.

The first model we describe is called the neo-liberal welfare reform model. This model has its origin in the crisis of the welfare state In order to renewal that welfare, the role of the state is the one of withdrawing itself out of the public policymaking and distributing the responsibility within the civil society. The neo-liberal model is focussed on the social functioning by means of giving the responsibility to the civil society and private initiative. Learning is seen as having an individual function, as a process that is meaningful for the actors involved. Because of the different kinds of meaning attributed to learning compared with the one attributed to education, it is seen that the learning can’t be controlled and therefore can not be an object of a public policy. But even tough the learning cannot be an object of a public policy the same way education can, it doesn’t mean that the government and other institutions have to be bystanders: they have a significant part in creating and guaranteeing opportunities for learning as a function of individual and social life. The role of the state is therefore to organize autonomy and to allow a wide range of lifestyle choices. States no longer engage themselves in policymaking but instead their role shifts in to one of formulating the strategies: it is a kind of no-intervention policy. When the political environment is the kind where there are a lot of individual choices and autonomy allowed for individuals from the part of the state, there is a market in the field of education that is called quasi-market. The quasi-market describes the fact that there is an illusion of free individual choice : people can’t make wrong decisions in the fields of education because there exists in the market some guarantee for the individuals, provided by the government. The state tries to balance the competition.

Learning considered as an individual function becomes located in the fields of culture, lifestyle and civil society itself. We can talk about 'learning as a way of life'. Learning described in the neo-liberal welfare reform model from such a point of view, doesn’t acknowledge the policies that have learning as an objective. Besides the fact that the model sees the learning as a process unique for every actor, they also attribute learning into the fields of work and training so that the competitiveness and the growth of both the individuals and the society can be improved, resulting in the decrease of social exclusion.

6.1.2 The social-democratic model

It’s not easy to give a clear-cut picture of the social-democratic policy. We will try to set out of few guidelines to explore this model, while pointing out a few weaknesses at the same time.

Within social democratic policy, education can be seen as an instrument towards emancipation, solidarity and democracy. These values are thought of as very important for a state to reach equality of rights and opportunities within society. (an equality that can lead to the possibility of choice for everyone)

Between the state and their members, civil society turns out to be an important ‘midfield’, that is established by the state. This civil society guarantees communication between state and citizens, gives people the opportunity to participate, to take responsibility and to take part in the community. These principles are thought of as essential in the light of the values (which are inherent to every policy) social democratic policy is related to. When putting forward the welfare state as ideal society, the redistributive role of the state is seen as important to reach basic equality of opportunities.

Therefore it is obvious that this policy can be seen as one that needs strong government intervention, control systems and a lot of provisions. The financial cost of this is then the most heard critique.

After a three years transition-period, the constitution of Spain became a fact in ’78. After that, there was an evolution towards a strong social-democratic policy which resulted in the extension of a strong civil society, when the state subsidized a lot of projects. In the last four years, there has been a tendency towards a more left policy again. Illustrative here is the withdrawal of the welfare state by lowering investments for the welfare-department and increasing the means for topics as ‘defense’ and ‘repression’.

In Belgium there is by tradition a strong social-democratic policy. A shift towards neo-liberal discourses within social democratic policy is here also recognized. Several actions for example in the framework of decentralization have to be approached carefully. Where decentralization is a social-democratic action, it tends to be an instrument towards de-regularization and diminishing state-responsibility. Another example here is the increasing money input for formation in the field of employment. Within the state budgeting the topic of 'unemployment' is directly linked with 'formation'. We see here, that formation is used as a strategy to rise employability and therefore employment-rates.

In Finland there are signs of both policy discourses in the field of education. We notice a movement towards ideas of neo-liberalism, within social-democratic practices. In-company training for example is used as a strategy for competitiveness on the market but is mainly financed by the government. We even see neo-liberal practices in that sense that education-policy in university for example is restricted the last few years: strong selection criteria when entering, lowering study-time with a limit of five years.

In Holland, organizations take in specialists to provide learning possibilities within the companies and focus on the employees for them to develop market skills. This is in relation with new managerialism of the neo-liberal model and also an instrument for the economic competitiveness in the market.

Under this headline we will examine the contradictions and paradoxes between the discourses and practices of the two policy models described in the beginning of this chapter: within the social–democratic discourse we can find neo-liberal practices and within the neo-liberal discourse it’s possible to notice social-democratic practices. Searching for and looking at contradictions between these models can be done in different levels, in mega-, macro-, meso- and micro levels and few of the levels are discussed in our examples. To clarify and facilitate that task, we take up the scheme delivered us during the lessons.

When we described the two policy models, we characterized the progressive social democratic model by the statement that lifelong learning is meant to redistribute learning opportunities and to diminish the gap between less educated and well educated people. Education then, might be a tool to garantuee equal opportunities for people in the labor market. Although the actual attention paid to both in-company training and vocational training for unemployed people, shows the use of education and training as a strategy to strengthen the position of either the company (meso-level) or the nation-state (on a macro-level). This neo-liberal practice turns out to be the result of a social democratic discourse, trying to provide equal opportunities. An interlinked tendency we mark here, is the growing priority-policy. This redistributive role of the state focuses on special target groups. In fact, this turns out to be a neo-liberal practice.

A second example concerns the Open University system that started from the very democratic idea that everybody could have the opportunity to achieve his learning goals, and combine learning and working. Hence, looking to the participants, the main part consists of the already high-educated people. The polarization-gap between rich and poor is strengthened because of the market-orientation that was introduced: internet is an often used tool, entrance fees are high, … The practices within an organization then, can be conceived as neo-liberal.

Starting from a neo-liberal discourse, one can see participation in education as a free choice and individual initiative. Individuals can freely compose their own learning trajectories themselves, they are the consumers of an educational market. By stating this, everybody is free to participate in both formal and non-formal (vocational) training. Not only the learning part becomes your own responsibility but also the choice to rise your employability using education as a tool, is perceived as an individual choice and therefore an individual responsibility. If we now look to several practices, we meet some contradictions. When the state, for example, forces (in return for a minimum income) unemployed people to participate in training, to get equal opportunities in the labor market, we perceive a very social-democratic practice. The state takes responsibility for the employability of his citizens. Another example within this context is this law in France where enterprises are forced to invest for a certain percentage in training. Here we are confronted with the fact that education is used as a tool that can be seen as a strategy for economical growth.

Beneath, we add some reflections when talking about policy-concerns. We pick up these reflections because we think of them as tools to deepen the perspectives. They helped overcome the exploring of the borders recognized in the different models. The first reflections were used as a starting point for a discussion about the two models. The reflections afterwards were mentioned in this discussion.

Education provides inequality

Equality and equity are the concepts often referred to when talking about the aims or policies related to the fields of education and learning. We find this contradictory and even frustrating: Why are people always talking about the concept of equality, when concerned with education, while it is always used as selection criterion?

Using education to improve personal development or the development of the whole community, implies ‘knowledge’ of what is good or bad. Therefore you have to compare and by this, acknowledge the inequality of education levels in training, formal education, community education, etc. They are instruments for selection and improvement and therefore instruments to create inequality. When staying focussed on ‘education’ or forms of education you will always be busy with developing means and goals that will undermine the process of equality in society. Therefore we are wondering the reason for trying to put the blame of unemployment, inequality, etc. always on the economical factors instead on giving the responsibility to the ideologies and practices of the educational system.

Education within several discourses?