Symposium - Organising learning and professional development at work

Recent insights from the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands

On 19 May 2009 the symposium 'Organising learning and professional development at work' took place at the Open University of the Netherlands in Heerlen.

Today, all kinds of professions are confronted with more complex and more knowledge-rich societies. Lifelong learning is essential in order to enhance and update people’s professional knowledge and skills and consequently for the quality of organisations. Indeed, employees are increasingly taking on the role of continuous learners, especially at work.

For the same reasons as in other professions, lifelong learning is important for teachers. Lifelong learning is also known in education as the professional development of teachers. One could argue that professional development goes a step further than learning. Although the necessity for continuous professional development in schools is universally acknowledged, it seems hard to organise in many countries.

This symposium gave insights into this topic from two different viewpoints:

How learning at work is organised in professions other than teaching. An important area of research is the workplace as a site for learning. ICT (including the internet) is increasingly used to support this learning at work.

How the professional development of teachers (at work) is organised in the UK and the Netherlands. What can we learn from each other?