Using apprenticeship as a model of learning for

Using apprenticeship as a model of learning for graduate development: a case study of a medium-sized software engineering company Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin ESRC Seminar Series, Warwick IER September 18 th 2013

Professional Formation through Apprenticeship • Apprenticeship as a model of learning common to: surgeons, artists, journalists, electricians, chefs • Journey varies – start point – end point – employment status – but aim is supported formation of expertise within a community of practice – platform for further progression • Is the model really understood or merely used as a metaphor of experience?

Concept of the ‘Knowledge Worker’ • Bell (1973) – KWs enter workplace already formed – theoretical knowledge • Front-loaded concept – but what happens to them in the workplace? • Apprenticeship traditionally located within a VET paradigm + journey towards intermediate level expertise • Contemporary workplaces more fluid – pressure on employees to self-manage their skill formation (Warhurst et al 2004)

Expansive-Restrictive Workplace Learning Environments • Workplaces situated within Productive System • Organisational Goals and Workforce Development • Valuing of Expertise and Trust • Opportunities to Expand Learning - innovation

Software Engineers • Cutting-edge UK company, Employee Benefit Trust (annual performance-based profit share) • Interviewed 26 engineers, directors and other staff, plus observed work and recruitment process • Restricted growth strategy to maintain original goal of making quality products

Workplace ‘space’ • Company HQ in England, base in US, offices in Edinburgh and Chester and some ‘homeworkers’ • Open plan – kitchens on each floor stocked with fruit, biscuits, drinks • Subsidised canteen open from 7. 30 am (for breakfast) – some staff eat all their meals here • On-going social events, gym/tennis club memberships, touch rugby, squash – sport equipment on many desks – ‘healthy male’ atmosphere • Virtual space – intranet holds ‘folders’ to deposit ‘live’ ideas, solutions

Japanese Concept of ba (Nonaka et al, 2005) ba is a Japanese concept for a time-space nexus: “It is a concept that unifies physical space such as office space, virtual space such as email, and mental space such as shared ideals”

Apprenticeship Model Management as ‘pedagogy’ • HQ is ‘mother ship’ - all training in-house and largely ‘on-the-job’ - rotating teams • Intensive performance review process - 3, 6 and 9 months for newcomers - every 9 months for all • After first year, an engineer becomes mentor for newcomer, demonstrates ‘teaching’ skills and progresses to managing up to 5 people • Software engineers cross 3 identities: professional (as engineers); personal (as ‘techies’); and corporate (alignment with their employer)

Learning to become an engineer • Deep immersion in real tasks from day one – participation through ‘indwelling’ (Polanyi, 1962) • Small, regularly rotating teams facilitate knowledge sharing – key role of customers • Conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through ‘presentations’, intranet folders – then back into tacit • Artefacts (e. g. public folders) emerge from collective routines- enriched powerful resources interconnected with and implemented within workplace activity (Kerosuo and Engeström, 2003)

My first few weeks and months…I was put into a team of one, so I was given to a guy who was an experienced Techy. . . someone who had management aspirations. . . and I worked with him on supporting a major customer…well we had like half a million lines of code to support and our job was basically to support the customer…I mean it’s quite a challenge. . . it gave me a very good start in the company because it put me immediately in a position where I was very much in the deep end because I didn’t really know the ropes and I had all this incredibly obscure and difficult code to support. And I had one guy who was a clear expert to guide me through it and that…. you know, that kind of environment meant that I had to learn to stand on my own two feet quite quickly. ”

Valuing of Expertise and Trust • Recruited as ‘intelligent, educated people’ • Engineer trajectory - progression transparent and supported – security, stability • Shared language of code through model of skill formation – engineers not developers • Company ‘embedded in the industry’ – USPs are: delivering on time and solving customers’ problems; innovation through coconfiguration with customers

We’re talking about a lot of propellor heads here you see and they want to know the next exciting technology they’re going to be working on. They don’t particularly want to know that I’ve recently negotiated so and so with customer X…that culture comes partly because…the company is full of engineers, it’s very engineering dominated. . . they tend not to be interested in business an awful lot, but it also comes from the fact that they’ve grown up with a company that’s always successful, that’s always stable…there’s not that underlying paranoia…you know, ‘Is our company going to go bust next year? ’

Expansive Learning within Restrictive Walls? • Reproduction of community successful over 25 years • Engineers have good technical competence – challenge to develop/recruit more ‘innovators’ and people with ‘business nouce’ • Introduction of experienced outsiders will challenge current ways of working – risk • Company at ‘tipping point’ – issue of size and lifecycle of organisation – profit share cements buy-in of employees

Concluding Remarks • KWs start with high levels of ‘knowledge’, but ‘apprenticeship’ journey and environment dictates how it’s used and how it’s built on • Are some KWs perpetual apprentices – tread water and/or reliant on patronage? • Apprenticeship model makes demands on managers – goes beyond standard HRM

Fuller, A. and Unwin, L. (2010) ‘Knowledge Workers’ as the New Apprentices: The Influence of Organisational Autonomy, Goals and Values on the Nurturing of Expertise, Vocations and Learning, 3(3): 201 -222. Felstead, A. , Fuller, A. , Jewson, N. and Unwin, L. (2009) Improving Working for Learning, London: Routledge. Felstead, A. , Fuller, A. , Jewson, N. and Unwin (2011) Working to Learn: Learning to Work, London: UKCES http: //www. ukces. org. uk/assets/ukces/docs/publica tions/praxis-7 -working-to-learning-to-work. pdf