Working and learning together: ICT supported learning in small businesses

Information and communications technologies (ICT) sit at the centre of lifelong learning policy in the UK. Considerable public expenditure is being applied to the creation of on-line learning and on-line learner information services. These are seen as having a major role in stimulating learning in the small business sector which has traditionally proved reluctant to engage in structured programmes of employee development. While policy is finding application through significant spending on new infrastructure, insufficient attention is being paid to the ways in which those in the workplace learn and learn about learning. Drawing on research carried out in Scotland, the paper suggests that the development of ICT supported workbased learning will result in significant changes in learning relationships and in the sources from which learners seek support. ICT supported learning in small businesses has the potential to create collaborative learning relationships. The development of learning in small businesses will prove most effective when the potential of these new relationships is recognised and taken fully into account. While positive for learners and the businesses in which they work, these changes will at best challenge and, at worst, marginalize the traditional players in the learning market.