Socio-technical lifelong e-learning for the 21st century: employability and empowerment
- Autores: Juan Francisco Martínez Cerdá
- Directores de la Tesis: Joan Torrent i Sellens (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Josep María Duart Montoliu (presid.), Begoña Gros Salvat (secret.), Pedro Teixeira Gomes (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Educación y TIC (e-learning) por la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The symbiosis between capitalism, globalization and technological innovation has caused the second decade of the 21st century to be full of great uncertainties, both socially, politically and economically. In particular, human beings face major challenges in the world of work today, as a result of the growing trend towards both the division of labor into microtasks, which are manageable as projects, and the competitiveness of people, robots and computer algorithms. Gradually, labor markets are increasingly oriented towards individualism, adaptability, and total personal availability. In short, towards the precariousness of workers.
In order to cope with all of this, citizens must acquire and continuously update a large set of personal, professional and social skills. Paradoxically, these skills go beyond those obtained through academic qualifications offered from institutions in existing educational systems, which only seem to be useful as a first step in finding a job.
Therefore, lifelong education becomes a key vehicle with which to develop and improve the personal and professional skills demanded by companies, contributing to improve the employability of adults. Specifically, distance education based on information and communication technologies on the Internet is one of the methodologies most widely used by the population, as it offers great possibilities of customization according to the needs of students.
However, the pace of changes and training requirements is so high that, in many cases, there is a risk of entering into the commercialization of education and ephemeral learning at the mercy of companies. In addition, the influence of neoliberal contexts on educational and employment policies is such that even attitudes are being created to make people believe that they are the only ones responsible for employment. Or put it another way, unemployed people are guilty for not having employment.
In this sense, today’s workers are required to have psychosocial and entrepreneurial skills directed towards the creation and management of a professional brand. This identity, a mixture of personal and labor qualities, appears useful in finding a niche of companies in which to find and maintain a job under conditions of work that are often negotiated individually, with the loss of many social rights collectively gained over time.
Under this set of labor dynamics, this research studies the viability of an online education based on empowerment as a way to improve employability. Specifically, through an implementation of human capital theory based on: 1) lifelong learning through online media; 2) online education based on the socio-technical pillars formed by systems of both people and technologies acting in an integrated way; 3) an education that has to train workers, but also active and socially emancipated citizens; and 4) a consideration of the states of liminality existing in students, according to their different individual situations of access and use of multiple digital devices in a ubiquitous and uninterrupted way, that is, in spaces, places, times and moments appropriate to their needs.
The research uses several databases from official international statistical agencies, as well as from two fieldwork instruments designed ad hoc. Different methods of quantitative analysis, such as linear, binary logistic and ordinal multivariate regression analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation models are applied to these data sets. Specifically, a compendium of five scientific contributions is made, exposing the set of issues linked to employability and adult education through information and communication technologies and online media oriented to people.
The research shows that this type of education provides positive results in three areas which are not always closely linked: 1) economics: contributing to employment contracts, achieving higher levels of job stability and job security, improving the professional opportunities of people without university qualifications, and considering times of bonanza and economic crisis; 2) social: considering media literacy as a way for empowerment and social inclusion, in the sense of developing skills oriented to active citizenship and the potential emancipation of students to defend their rights as workers and citizens; and 3) socioeconomics: merging both dimensions, and establishing an education according to values, knowledge and techniques with which to foster an integration of skills related to dispositional employability, knowledge management, media empowerment, collaboration, digitalness, and awareness to future labor market trends.
The work provides evidence that online education, oriented to the social dimensions of educational systems and technologies, contributes to developing skills useful for the world today: 1) acquisition and conversion of knowledge, for lifelong and lifewide learning; 2) skills for the 21st century, in order to fit the supply and demand of labor markets; 3) dispositional employability, for uncertain future careers; and 4) media empowerment, for an active and democratic citizenship. This takes into consideration that students have the opportunity to manage their own times, spaces and technological devices with which to carry out their learning, and thus be able to reach their personal and professional goals under conditions of work-life balance and personal well-being.
The study provides scientific evidence showing that the equation for an online distance education, which is valid for employability, must have a strong social orientation and be based on students with a role of active and responsible citizenship about their future professional lives. It should also be based on principles that consider a ubiquitous and uninterrupted use of technological devices within the reach of students. An education of this kind will be able to solve the Gordian knot of an employability according to the needs of the 21st century. That is, an employability understood as a capital of continuous fluidity with which to know how to navigate the labor market in an emancipated way.
