Tomorrow's employees must be suitably equipped to cope with demands for higher productivity and the need to handle large quantities of information. With the right education, employees can face the future with increased confidence. Learning is a lifelong process that doesn't stop at school.

In recent years, Novo Nordisk has revised working processes. This has included the introduction of team thinking and placing the onus of responsibility on the shoulders of individuals as part of teams. Modern production processes and regulations frequently require the compiling of detailed documentation and mathematical tasks. Operating computerised equipment requires that the operator has some basic skills; this can include reading texts and using a keyboard. If this is to be done to satisfaction, the basic level of education sometimes needs to be raised.

In 1995, Novo Nordisk introduced a 'basic skills training programme' in Health Care Product Supply in Denmark. The project was designed to audit the employees' reading and arithmetic skills, measure the results against a benchmark and offer suitable training.

This was the first project of this scale in Denmark and was carried out in collaboration with the Danish National Institute for Educational Research.

The audit
In 1996/97, the reading and arithmetic abilities of 2,300 employees were tested. Approximately 9% of those tested were judged as requiring reading lessons and 9% were judged as requiring arithmetic lessons. The candidates were then offered a 90-hour reading course and/or a 48-hour arithmetic course. All courses were held within working hours. By the end of 1998, the large majority of candidates had finished the courses; the remainder are expected to complete their studies in 1999.

The results
The reading course has been fully evaluated in a recent report published in Danish by the Danish National Institute for Educational Research: "Adults read at work" by Jytte Lau and Marianne Sommer. Here are some extracts and conclusions from the report.

Generally the courses were considered a positive experience. The reading course was considered as "very good" by 46% of the course participants and as "quite good" or "good" by 53%. Only two participants marked the course as "not so good". No candidate marked the course as "poor".

One teacher commented, "Making radical changes to the reading habits of the people on the course in just four months is difficult. Some of the participants express a disbelief that their reading will ever improve." The teachers reported that 23 of 142 course participants showed a lack of motivation though the vast majority were motivated (75) or well-motivated (44). To quote from the report, "They (the participants) have stated that they have a better grasp of what reading actually means; how it can be put to better use at home as well as at work and that their performance will improve as a result."

Apart from the improvement in reading ability, the courses are thought to have had secondary effects such as a boost to job motivation, creating a desire to learn more and giving a greater insight into the need for training.

The issues
A review of this educational project from 1995 onwards highlights a number of points and issues that are worthy of note.

The audit was made obligatory and this caused some protest as people felt their integrity was being threatened or were worried about being humiliated. Importantly, right from the beginning, it was stressed that no one would be laid off regardless of how they performed in the audit or on the training programme.

Following the audit, many employees felt that they might be shown up as an illiterate in front of colleagues. This led to embarrassment and a feeling of inadequacy. As the audit was experienced as an examination, some employees felt that they had failed. One employee who was obliged to take a course commented, "When I got the result of the test I was sad. I thought about it for a really long time and did not talk to anyone about it because I thought it was embarrassing."

The emotional aspects of the project were a challenge to all concerned, and we realise with hindsight that more efforts should have been spent on communication; making employees feel comfortable about the learning process and making them more aware of their training needs.

The planning of 'academic' audits should be well thought through. It is particularly important to take into account the feelings of employees. It is also important to realise that it takes time to change people's attitude towards education as being something you go through early in life to education as being a lifelong process.