Työelämäosaaminen: kvalifikaatioiden luokitusjärjestelmän konstruointi

Abstract

YTM Taina Hanhinen käsittelee ammattikasvatustieteen väitöstutkimuksessaan työelämäosaamisen ilmiötä eri näkökulmista ja eri tasoilla.

Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitetään työelämäosaamisen teoreettinen malli. Se kuvaa jatkuvassa muutoksessa olevaa työelämän kenttää, jossa työorganisaatiot ja niiden jäsenet aktiivisesti kehittävät omaa osaamistaan, toimintaansa sekä toimintaympäristöään. Tutkimuksessa työelämäosaamisen keskeisiksi osatekijöiksi jäsentyivät kvalifikaatiot ja kompetenssi sekä ammattitaito. Käsiteanalyysiin perustuen tutkimuksessa selvitettiin aiemmin usein ristiriitaisesti ja sekavastikin määriteltyjen kompetenssi- ja kvalifikaatiokäsitteiden merkityssisältöjen erot. Työelämäosaamisen malliin liittyy keskeisesti lisäksi ammatillisen kasvun ja kehittymisen prosessit.

Tutkimuksen toinen päätulos on systemaattinen luokitusjärjestelmä työelämän osaamisvaatimuksista. Luokitusjärjestelmä mahdollistaa laajojen osaamista käsittelevien aineistojen järjestelmällisen ja yksityiskohtaisen käsittelyn sekä tilastollisen analysoinnin.

Tutkimusaineisto kvalifikaatioiden luokitusjärjestelmän rakentamista varten kerättiin yhteensä 837 yrityksestä ja julkisesta organisaatiosta vuosina 1997?2007. Haastatteluja teki tutkijan lisäksi 111 henkilöä. Työorganisaatiot edustivat 128 eri toimialaa.

Koska osaaminen on nyky-yhteiskunnassa liiketoiminnan ydin ja kilpailuetu, on työorganisaatioiden pyrittävä hallitsemaan osaamisresurssejaan. Myös viranomaistyössä on tarvetta tarkastella ja analysoida sekä yksittäisten organisaatioiden että laajojen alueellisten yritysjoukkojen nykyosaamista sekä ennakoida niiden tulevia osaamisvaatimuksia. Työelämän eri osapuolet tarvitsevat näistä syistä systemaattisia järjestelmiä, joiden avulla työelämän osaamista koskevia laadullisia aineistoja voidaan ottaa haltuun ja käsitellä joustavasti eri yhteyksissä.

Osaamisen hallinnan ongelmana on usein, että osaamista koskevaa tietoa ei ole käsitteellistetty yhteisesti ymmärrettävään selkeään muotoon; osaamisen määrittäminen on koettu yleensä ottaen vaikeaksi. Työelämäosaamisen teoreettisen mallin ja työelämälähtöisesti rakennetun osaamistarpeiden luokitusjärjestelmän tarkoituksena on kehittää osaamisen terminologiaa ja luokittelua sekä siten edesauttaa mm. osaamisenhallinnan tietojärjestelmien käyttöönottamista ja hyödyntämistä.

In today´s working life, skills and knowledge have become the essential production factors and competitive advantages in organizations. Therefore, companies and authorities need to document, analyze and anticipate the work organizations? skills and knowledge requirements and resources. The various working life parties require systematic and flexible knowledge management systems that allow them to use knowledge-related, possibly extensive, data in different contexts. The target of this research is working life skills and knowledge. The purpose is to construct a frame of reference of working life skills and knowledge and their components that facilitates and strengthens cooperation between the various working life parties when they discuss the skills and knowledge requirements of an individual, work community or group of organizations. The theoretical frame of reference of the research is based on the concepts related to working life skills and knowledge, as well as theories on professional growth and development. The first main object of the research is to define the theoretical structure of working life knowledge and skills, i.e. how the phenomenon is organized: which are the essential components and reciprocal relations of working life knowledge and skills? The second main research object is to find out how the qualifications of different fields can be organized into a coherent and controllable classification system: to which kinds of main and sub-categories and connecting and compiling categories are the qualifications organized to, and what kind of a code system organizes the hierarchical levels of the qualification classification system and increases its controllability? A model of working life skills and knowledge and qualification classification system are presented to respond to these research problems; they are also the main results of the research.

The theoretical model of working life knowledge and skills is based on a synthesis of the concept analysis of the central concepts of the research, the researcher´s own concept definitions and analyses, as well as theoretical contemplation. The model of working life skills and knowledge is structured through its recognized components, which include qualification, competence and vocational proficiency. The processes of professional growth and development are also related to the model of working life knowledge and skills, as they are fundamental from the perspective of the context of the phenomenon, i.e. rapidly changing working life. The model of working life knowledge and skills describes the dynamic field of the working life, in which work organizations and their members actively and interactively develop their own knowledge and skills, activities and operational environments.

The second main research result, the qualification classification system, structures the phenomenon of working life skills and knowledge based on extensive empirical data. The qualification classification system is built from 7 295 qualifications that are different or interpreted to be different using the method of qualitative content analysis. Empirical data was gathered in 1997-2007 mainly from work organizations located in Satakunta region using semi-structured interviews. In addition to the present researcher, 111 persons made interviews: 86 teachers, 19 employment officers and 6 educational advisors. Altogether 1 282 interviews were made in 837 companies. The work organizations represented 128 industries with a total of 25 245 employees in them. There were altogether 1 014 interviewees who presented mainly the employer side. The interviews discussed the current main fields of skills and knowledge regarding the success of the organizations, as well as the most important skills and knowledge requirements of the future.

The resulting qualification classification system consists of eight main categories: field independent production general knowledge and skills, goods production skills and knowledge, service production skills and knowledge, business skills and knowledge, management of customer relationships, work community skills and knowledge, personal characteristics and attitudes and research and development skills and knowledge. These eight main categories are divided into 76 first level sub-categories that are defined in the classification system. In addition, the classification system includes connecting and compiling categories related to production skills and knowledge categories: knowledge of production or service process; knowledge related to the field; knowledge of the materials of the field; knowledge of the machines and appliances of the field; basic technique of the field and special know-how of the field. Furthermore, a systematic alphanumerical code system that instructs the classification system is presented as a research result.

The classification system of the qualifications has been tested and utilized in knowledge management systems during the research. As a conclusion, it can be said that the qualification classification system enables the systematic and detailed classification of large groups of qualifications. It has been utilized e.g. in Baronetti, a system planned for the anticipating of working life qualifications. The flexible structure of the qualification classification system is similar to the dynamism of the working life. The current working life requires job descriptions in which the tasks of the professionals are joined or exchanged according to the goal or project of the time. According to the classification system, individual qualifications can be joined to the dynamic job descriptions formed according to the needs of that moment. The rapidly changing working life also leads to the rapid renewal of the qualifications. The structure of the classification system enables the updating and expanding of the classifications when new qualifications emerge. The incomparable potential of networked development work has been catered for in the construction of the classification system. During the research, an Internet-based system that is based on open developer community has been tested successfully. In the system, the users of the qualification classification system develop and renew the qualification classifications in a communal activity of experts who supplement each others.