Browsing by Subject "osaamisen ja ammattitaidon kehittäminen"

The ageing of population and workforce has major economic and social consequences for Finnish society. The aging, over fifty years old, workers are the largest age group on the labor market. The aim of this Master's Thesis is to understand work-efficacy and expertise of aging workers through their own accounts and descriptions of work, professional ability and development opportunities. The work and the knowledge of seniors are the research themes of this study. The research questions concerning work were: What are the impacts of age and experience on work-efficacy from the seniors perspective? What kind of plans and possibilities do seniors have for developing their work and advancing and their career? The research questions concerning expertise were: What are the impacts of age and experience on professional knowledge from the seniors perspective? How seniors build up professional knowledge and expertise? The research is qualitative and the data was produced by semi-structured interviews. The nine interviewees were ageing personell of communal technical sector. The method of this research was theory bound content analysis. The research concepts were based on social cognitive self-efficacy theories of Albert Bandura and critical theory of self-directed learning of Jack Mezirow. In the frame of this study these theories guide and structure the analysis of learning, self-directiveness, and professional developmental potential and possibilities of senior adults. The findings of this study showed that the age and experience increase efficacy and interest in developing work and expertise. Developing capabilities and expertise in rapidly changing environment requires proactivity, self-directiveness and critical reflection of working and learning. In the case of the aging workforce aims of lifelong learning are relalized. From the perspective of ageing personell networking and benchmarking are seen as the most efficient way of developing work and regenerating learning in the workplace. Seniors develop their work and expertise actively. As the retirement age approaches the developing efforts are sifted from advancing one's own expertise and career to developing of the work and knowledge of the organization. Transferring the knowledge and expertise of seniors to younger members of organization is also important. The research findings are noteworthy because the potential of aging workforce and value of their expertise is not yet fully understood and appreciated. Supporting and enhancing aging workers efficacy, learning and development is important from the seniors own point of view but also essential for Finnish competitiveness and society.