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Title: Basic Skills in the Total Quality
Workplace (An organizational focus) Adult educators are facing many new challenges in the design and delivery of workplace education programs. Companies, anxious to obtain a competitive edge, have moved from introspection to action. Not only has machinery and technology changes, so has the way in which companies are organized, positions staffed and workers evaluated. Upgrading in the workplace, whether in trade and technical competencies, or in basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, can no longer be viewed from an education perspective alone. An organizational focus on education and training has become an imperative. Obtaining a detailed understanding of the new management and organizational philosophies recently introduced into North American workplaces is no simple task, either for trainers housed within corporations or those invited in from the outside, such as adult educators. Yet such understanding is required to propel training design and curriculum development into the 21 century. How will the changing world of business administration and organization affect education service providers in their outreach to workers? The Total Quality Context Total Quality Management is transforming many North American workplaces. The worlds of business and labour are abuzz with new ideas, ranging from use of statistical tools to team building to a focus on the needs of the customer. Many companies have established in-depth training in the area of Total Quality, either hiring consultants or developing an in-house expertise. This training tends to emphasize three major areas: 1. Understanding TQM as a philosophy; What sometimes gets lost in the shuffle in basic skills training, the necessary precursor of the more in-depth training done in the area of TQM. More often than not, the trainers who join corporations to provide TQM training are experts either in the area of management, communications, or statistics. These trainers have also usually had little exposure to the world of basic skills. The provision of literacy and numeracy training in the workplace continues to be handled for the most part by adult education professionals from community colleges, secondary schools or social service organizations. Adult educators have developed a wide range of techniques and approaches to literacy instruction in the workplace. Many adult educators, however, have now reached a crossroads. They are now hearing about Total Quality in the workplace but often they do not have enough knowledge about it to ensure that their own programs are consistent with the Total Quality dynamic. Even if many adult educators are already delivering basic skills programs in Statistical Process Control or Team Building, they may fall into any number of traps if they are doing so without first understanding the dynamics of the Total Quality philosophy. If corporate leadership senses that adult educators operate in as TQ vacuum, they may think twice about inviting them in to provide basic skills training. If needed trainers are invited in less frequently, they may not even understand that the reason lies with their own lack of understanding of what is needed for "transformation" in the workplace. A good place to start in understanding the TQ philosophy is with Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician widely credited with transforming Japan from a manufacturer of cheap toys to a world class giant best known for manufacturing high class goods and satisfying customers. Along with another American colleague, Dr. Joseph Juran, Dr. Deming introduced into post-war Japan and later into North America, the concept of "continuous improvement" of processes and services. Based on a combination of statistics and psychology, and a "systems" approach to management and production, the concept of "continuous improvement" became the backbone of what was later referred to as the Total Quality philosophy. |