Older workers’ experiences of adult education and workplace training in an Irish manufacturing facility – insights from an exploratory study

Brennan, Warren (2021) Older workers’ experiences of adult education and workplace training in an Irish manufacturing facility – insights from an exploratory study. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This research was conducted to investigate the experiences and perceptions of older workers in an Irish manufacturing facility towards adult education and workplace training. Research was carried out used semi-structured interviews with eight interviewees. The purpose of the research was to examine the reasons why older staff choose to participate in or abstain from adult education and what their reasons are. It seeks to establish if their previous experience in education shaped their current attitudes and looks for their opinions on how to improve the opportunities available to them. The research and interviews were conducted during the Covid 19 pandemic, so the research also sought to incorporate the experience of older workers adapting to the migration of most of the training to online technologies due to social distance measures. The Covid experience was factored in as some research claims that older 50+ workers might even be more affected by the pandemic than younger workers (Ayalon, et al., 2021).

Several different theories related to the experience and perception of older workers to training opportunities were studied to devise a series of questions devised around the literature. The main subjects covered in the questions were motivation to train, barriers to participation, previous experience in education and experience of training during the pandemic. Erikson’s theories regarding the 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development were considered as a framework to use when considering what questions to ask in the interview process, in particular his findings on generativity vs stagnation. The research was carried out used semi-structured interviews with eight interviewees.

The findings showed that the main subjects covered in the interview questions were major factors impacting upon participation or abstention from education, however there were also factors discovered such as the perception that they had a lack of access to comprehensive information regarding the availability of course funding and what the procedure was to apply for training.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	L Education > LC Special aspects / Types of education > LC5201 Education extension. Adult education. Continuing education D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > Ireland H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Manufacturing Industry H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Training and Development
Divisions:	Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning > Master of Arts in Educational Practice
Depositing User:	Clara Chan
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2022 15:28
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2022 15:28
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5285

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