Staff training: overcoming barriers to learning
Creating a learning culture within your organisation can seem like a daunting task. But there are many things you can do to work towards this, breaking down barriers to learning on the way.
Common barriers to learning
Creating a learning culture
Plan how to overcome learning barriers
Further resources to help you
Common barriers to learning
Working to improve your support for and provision of staff training and development is one thing. Motivating your staff to be accountable for their own learning is another.
Some of the most common barriers to starting learning or inhibitors of progress once learning has been started include:
- pressures of time and workload
- low staff morale/motivation
- belief that learning finishes after school or college
- lack of support/encouragement from line managers
- underachievement at school leading to fear of failure in further learning
- family commitments
- general apathy
Creating a learning culture
1. Identify barriers to learning within your organisation
The factors listed above are some of the most common obstacles to individual learning.
But every organisation is different and you can't begin to break down barriers within your own organisation until you know what they are.
i. Draft your own list of what you feel the barriers to learning may be in your organisation.
ii. Explain your commitment to improving support and encouragement of training and development to your staff.
iii. Distribute the learning barriers questionnaire below to identify any perceived problem areas.
iv. Analyse the returned questionnaires and update your draft list accordingly.
Learning barriers questionnaire
Plan how to overcome learning barriers
Once you have a list of areas to consider, the next step is to think about ways you can help staff to overcome these barriers.
It is important to realise that whilst you may be able to completely remove some barriers, it may not be possible to remove them all.
But there should always be some action you can take to help people overcome barriers and take more interest in and responsibility for their further development.
1. Adapt the learning barriers action plan below to include areas identified in your own list of learning barriers. (We've included a couple of barriers and actions as examples - remove these if they're not relevant.)
2. Consider at least two actions you could take to help remove or overcome each barrier you have identified. Where we have already provided suggestions, add any other ideas of your own.
3. Work with the relevant colleagues in your organisation to communicate your action plan to staff and to begin implementing the necessary changes.
Further resources to help you
In addition to these tips, the following resources may be of interest to you:
The Staff Development Handbook by Peter Shield (published by Kegan Page)
The Campaign for Learning www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk