Where would I be without my right-hand (wo)man?: Professional knowledge and technical skills in R&D

Trabajo presentado a la EU-SPRI Conference: "Science and Innovation Policy: Dynamics, Challenges, Responsibility and Practice", celebrada en Manchester (UK) del 18 al 20 de junio de 2014.Trades and technical workers are involved in a wide range of activities directly related to fulfilling the objectives of their professional co-workers. These activities included five key roles: installing, calibrating and customizing instruments; design; linking R&D to production; health and safety regulation; and training. The contribution of trades and technical workers to R&D exceeded simple execution of plans or designs provided by scientists or engineers. Key forms of craft knowledge were important to the conduct of research programs and projects. These included knowledge of the properties of materials, the importance of design for maintenance and the carriage of non-codified knowledge particularly of as-built artefacts and of ongoing adaptation to technical change from one project context to another. Professional respondents were clear in their articulation of the importance of highly skilled technical workers to have the necessary capabilities to be their 'hands and eyes', whether in the laboratory or in the field. The hands-on involvement of technical workers means they are always 'close to the action', from the conceptualization stage of professionals' plans and designs and continuously into the development, testing and modification stages. Throughout, technical workers interact directly with professionals in a variety of formal and informal contexts. For example, collective engagement with a material artefact such as a prototype, was an arena in which the different knowledge bases of scientists, engineers and skilled technicians could be translated and negotiated to settle on a shared understanding of progress and potential future strategies. The central finding of the study is that trades and technical workers should be understood as providing far more than 'support' in R&D contexts. Rather, the appropriate integration and timely involvement of trade and technical occupations in project teams adds dimensions of skill, risk management and collective learning to R&D work processes that can have significant benefits not only for the conduct of knowledge intensive work, but also for the efficient subsequent translation of knowledge between R&D, quality control and production processes.Peer Reviewe

Skilled trades and technical workers in R&D: Occupations, organisation & innovation

Trabajo presentado a la 9th Globelics International Conference celebrada del 15 al 17 de noviembre de 2011 en Buenos Aires (Argentina).Human resource capacity for national innovation systems is generally focused on the availability of scientists and engineers. However, skilled technical occupations make up approximately one third of the workforce involved in R&D in OECD countries, yet little attention is paid to these occupations in analyses of the organisation and conduct of R&D. Given the outward migration of scientists and engineers from many developing countries development strategies might be better focused on maximising available innovation inputs from technical and trades skills. This paper describes aspects of an exploratory study undertaken in Australia with the key aim of developing better understanding of the role and contribution skilled trades and technical workers make in the diverse contexts of R&D. The study also investigated forms of work organisation and the influence of formalised routines and informal work practices on task and project performance. We found trades and technical workers were involved in a wide range of activities directly related to R&D. These activities composed five key roles: installing, calibrating and customizing instruments; design; linking R&D to production; health and safety regulation; and training. The contribution of trades and technical workers to R&D exceeded simple execution of plans or designs provided by scientists or engineers however. Key forms of craft knowledge were important to innovation in the conduct of projects and in their outputs. These included knowledge of the properties of materials, the importance of design for maintenance and the carriage of non-codified knowledge – particularly of as-built artefacts and of adaptation to technical change – from one project context to another. We conclude that trades and technical workers should be understood as providing far more than ‘support’ in R&D contexts. Rather, the appropriate integration and timely involvement of trade and technical occupations in project teams adds dimensions of skill, adaptation and learning to R&D that can have significant benefits for the conduct of knowledge intensive work and for efficiency in translating knowledge between R&D, quality control and production processes. This has significant implications for R&D project management and work organisation practices in developing economies.Peer Reviewe

Supply-side and demand-side explanations of declining apprentice training rates : a critical overview

Over the last decade numerous academic, industry and government studies have suggested that Australia has experienced a sustained decline in apprentice training rates and that this is contributing to shortages in core vocational occupations. This article redresses significant deficiencies in these studies by providing new data on long-run apprentice training rates by broad occupational group. This data confirms the existence of a sustained break in the long-run apprentice training rate from the early 1990s to the present. The article also provides an overview and critical assessment of the key explanations of this decline and policy recommendations to redress the decline. It is argued that these explanations may be classified into supply-side and demand-side approaches. The article concludes firstly, that, in general, demand-side explanations provide a superior understanding of declining training rates. Secondly, given the potential importance of trade skill shortages additional research is required both to quantify the effect of the various demand-side contributions to reduced training rates and to reorient current policies to better address these demand-side causes

The role of vocational education and training in attracting foreign investment from multinational companies

Based on a literature review and twelve case studies of multinational corporations operating in Australia, Phillip Toner finds the quality of the domestic VET-skilled workforce is ranked equal third in importance, out of fifteen factors, when deciding to investment in Australia. To make the VET system more attractive to foreign investment, the multinational corporations in the case studies recommended better overseas publicity of the training system, and improvements to literacy, numeracy and production knowledge of lower-level workers in manufacturing

Restructuring the Australian construction industry and workforce : implications for a sustainable labour supply

This study examines long term changes in the industrial and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry and their effect on the capacity of the industry to invest in training. The study finds that restructuring has raised the barriers to employer investment in vocational training and is the principal cause of sustained skill shortages in the industry. Using the 1986 and 2001 Population Censuses and economic and labour force surveys, it examines the significant changes in the occupational, industry, firm size, educational attainment and demographic structure of employment in the industry that have occurred over the last two decades. The major drivers of change include: new technologies; evolving consumer tastes; an intensification of sub-contracting through the intra-industry division of labour; outsourcing of activities through the inter-industry division of labour; and reduced role of the public sector in the industry. The study also finds evidence that a large proportion of sub-trade vacancies are filled by qualified tradespersons. This finding has important implications for current strategies to address trade skills shortages. It is concluded that changes in industry and workforce structure which exacerbate the lack of employer investment in training are creating an industry which does not have the skilled people required to meet demands

WORKFORCE SKILLS AND INNOVATION: AN OVERVIEW OF MAJOR THEMES IN THE LITERATURE

to make available to a wider readership selected studies prepared by staff in the Directorate or by outside consultants working on OECD projects. The papers included in the series cover a broad range of issues, of both a technical and policy-analytical nature, in the areas of work of the DSTI. The Working Papers are generally available only in their original language – English or French – with a summary in the other. Comments on the papers are invited, and should be sent to the Directorate for Science, Technolog

Construction industry apprenticeships in Australia and the United Kingdom: a tale of two systems

The preservation of the apprenticeship system in the Australian construction industry contrasts with its collapse in Britain over the last three decades. Given that the industry in both countries has undergone the same structural changes the different outcomes require explanation. Phillip Toner suggests that they may be attributable to institutional differences in the organisation of labour, employers and the training system across the two countries

Workforce Skills and Innovation: An Overview of Major Themes in the Literature

This paper provides an account of the main approaches, debates and evidence in the literature on the role of workforce skills in the innovation process in developed economies. It draws on multiple sources including the innovation studies discipline, neoclassical Human Capital theory, institutionalist labour market studies and the work organisation discipline. Extensive use is also made of official survey data to describe and quantify the diversity of skills and occupations involved in specific types of innovation activities.