Using an experiential learning model to design an assessment framework for workplace learning

In a rapidly changing economic environment and labor market, the theory and practice of workplace learning is continuously evolving in order to enhance the knowledge and skills of workers and organizational performance. Attempting to demonstrate the effect of globalization on workplace learning at the micro level, the authors conducted an empirical study that sought to show how assessment systems could support learning at the workplace. A framework for assessing the knowledge and skills of workers was developed using a four-stage systems model, with experiential learning theory as its underlying theoretical foundation. The empirical study involved workers (n = 372) and human resource managers (n = 5) from 13 different organizations in Ghana. The authors developed a questionnaire with 39 items that were grouped into six main categories: biographical data, knowledge and skills enablers, input factors, process factors, output factors and impact domain. While the quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, the narrative responses from the five human resource managers were analyzed by developing categories, patterns and schemes that sought to uncover the exigencies of assessment of workplace learning. The study revealed that although assessment of workplace learning was virtually absent from almost all the organizations included in the study, workers’ responses showed that all the variables in the model were essential in assessing workplace learning in various organizations.