Effective lifelong learning strategies and value creation at the enterprise level: Thematic report

This report describes and maps out effective lifelong learning strategies as they are employed at an enterprise level, including an analysis of how such strategies influence enterprises’ learning capacity in their strive towards value creation and high performance. The empirical data triangulates three sources: 1) past empirical and theoretical work (1990-2012); 2) LLLight’in’Europe’s (FP7) empirical data; 3) 2009 and 2013 European Company Survey results. A key conjecture for the empirical analysis and conceptual model is that the ways in which different kinds of learning opportunities, understood as human resource practices (HRPs), are enacted in an enterprise is linked to available arrangements of specific systems, structures, values, processes and resources, mediated by learning. Similarities and differences in these factors create arrays of learning opportunities and potentials for attracting, sustaining and developing competences. The research and analytical synthesis address three interrelated areas of lifelong learning in enterprises, identified as imperatives in high-performance work systems: skills development; learning systems and incentives; and work design and the organisation of work.