Frauenweiterbildung für den Unternehmenswandel: ein computergestütztes Lernmodul

Frauenweiterbildung für den Unternehmenswandel: ein computergestütztes Lernmodul. Gelsenkirchen: Inst. Arbeit und Technik. Graue Reihe des Instituts Arbeit und Technik, Nr. 2000-05

Baehre, Kerstin / Beer, Doris / Hamburg, Ileana / Junge, Ute

Abstract:

Economic competition as well as the development of new information and communication technologies lead to both the implementation of cooperative forms of work and a reduction of work places in many manufacturing companies. Some case studies carried out in the nineties suggested that female workers because of their low qualification and low chances to qualify were excluded from cooperative forms of work. Therefore they were not able to participate in industrial change on the one hand and were exposed to employment risks on the other hand.

The project presented here asked, whether computer-based training close to the work place would improve women's' integration into cooperative forms of work and also improve their employability. An enterprise survey was conducted, which feeded into the development of a prototype learning software.

A result of the survey was that there are not causal relationships between the implementation of cooperative forms of work and the reduction of workplaces in manfacturing. Rather, female workers are equally integrated into cooperative forms of work as their male colleagues are. Yet they face a higher employment risk because of gender specific division of work in production and because of a larger likelihood of technical substitution of their work places. The remaining work places require skills in computer-controlled production and a general knowledge of production processes in the company.

Many companies, particularly the small and medium ones (SMEs), can afford only to delegate a few “multipliers” to qualification courses; but these do not always proliferate their knowledge, particularly not to female colleagues. Here computer-based training can improve this multiplier system, either by providing standardised professional knowledge to the individual, or by supporting the multiplier.

Test results suggest that it is not always recommendable to adress the learning software exclusively to women (although it should relate to a female living context), since this might arouse rejection by both management and (male) employees/multipliers.

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