Browsing by Author "Mattila, Mikaela"

Purpose of the study. In today's society it becomes common for companies to develop the competence of their staff, when the need for lifelong learning grows bigger. The training can even be compulsory. In the Finnish legislation there are some competence requirements for people working with electricity and at the railways, and therefore these people have to attend compulsory competence training in order to do their work. The purpose of this study is to examine the railway workers' motivation to take part in competence training and its impact on the feeling of competence in work. Methods. The data was collected with an electronic questionnaire. The sample (N=30) consisted of railway workers at Eltel Networks Oy, 18 blue-collar and 12 white-collar workers. The data was analyzed with quantitative analysis. Results. The results showed that the railway workers had a high sense of competence in their work. They experienced a relatively high identified regulation and a low amotivation when taking part in competence training. The only variable that significantly accounted for the feeling of competence was work experience. The results suggest that even if the railway workers have a high sense of competence at work and experience a relatively high identified regulation when taking part in the training, only work experience has a significant impact on the feeling of competence. One possible explanation is that informal learning, in other words learning at work, has a bigger impact on the feeling of competence that formal learning outside of work.