Introduction
Looking at Vocational Education and
Training (VET), it seems that much attention
is given to educational issues. In our
view, more attention should be paid to
the learning that goes on in the workplace.
Traditionally, vocational education
and training curricula and processes have
been based on imparting a fixed body of
knowledge and skills required for identified
tasks within occupational roles. With
the rapid rate of change in today’s
workplace, these roles and tasks are no
longer fixed and predictable. Workers
need to be able to adapt to new skills
and processes and to update their knowledge
on a regular basis (Attwell & East,
2000).
Organisations, therefore, are increasingly
confronted with the problem of managing
and creating knowledge in order to
respond flexibly to changes in their working
environment. They are becoming
learning organisations and expect their
workers to become lifelong learners. In a
learning organisation, workers are stimulated
to share and develop knowledge
together in or about their workplace.
The learning potential of these groups has
become a matter of interest, and social
and cultural aspects of learning have become
important to understanding and fostering
the process. In this article we focus
on social learning from various theoretical
perspectives and describe ways of
supporting collective learning in a networked
environment.