Learning in work processes: competence development

Learning in the workplace is the oldest and most common method of vocational qualification. It is a type of learning that ideally includes cognitive, affective and psycho-motor dimensions alike. The workplace is also a learning venue, and the serious character of work particularly addresses experiences, motivation and social relations. The conditions and orientations of work-based learning are, to a great degree, dependent on historical, cultural and sector-specific circumstances. In the apprenticeship of craftsmen and in the traditional bystander apprenticeship, in which the trainee is associated with one skilled worker, operational or occupation-specific work activities are, above all, learned through imitation. The same is true of trainees in adaptive forms of continuing training or in certain work-based types of semi-skilled training. Learning in the work situation in the company takes place via observing, imitating, collaborating, helping and trying or simulation of the observed activities. The learning outcome largely depends on the supervising professionals in the workplace, on the work tasks and on the disposition and motivation of the learners.