Driving through! Online learning for industrial supply chains

Interaction between work (thought of as doing) and learning (mastering new knowledge and skills) and between paid work and leisure is predicated to become much more fluid in the future . With the advent of online learning, this notion becomes real and the role of training to work in new ways and in new online environments becomes of critical importance. There is broadening acceptance and understanding of learning as a socially mediated and constructed process and of knowledge as no longer "fixed". Therefore supporting training and education through work-based networks, especially exploiting the interactive benefits of online working, needs to take account of a much wider variety of factors than learning to use appropriate software. However, as Schreiber and Berge point out: 'It is a daunting task to maintain an educated, high performance workforce in today's global economy. Increased competition, regulatory bodies, changing technology and process re-engineering conspire to disrupt traditional employee practice and capability' p. xv. At this stage, we do not have clear pathways to translate our knowledge and practice of well-structured distance learning courses (which increasingly include some online working), to the requirements of organisational learning and the individuals within them. I believe we have some of the stepping stones in place- but early projects and innovations are not reporting a smooth ride. Our project, KLASS, is researching and developing concepts and practice in this field