Abstract:

Due to the development of social media and online environments, the content and form of educational systems is changing. At the same time, demands on the individual professional to ensure that he or she is continually updated and employable are increasing.
This places demands on the co-workers’ supply of competence being adapted to today’s ways of organising business operations. Traditional competence development and e-learning whereby all participants receive the same offering through training is not suitable to match such needs.

Recently, 80 SMEs signed up for a project in Sweden that focuses on the implementation of new participatory methods and tools for the strategic skills development of actors in SMEs. At a lecture held on 12 August 2008, Lars G Josefsson former CEO of Vattenfall claimed that one of the major challenges was reducing learning thresholds – to shorten the lead time for introducing new knowledge.

There is a pronounced need for, and an interest in, new forms of learning and qualification development.

The SupSys project is developing an alternative to established education and forms of training in the shape of a supportive system. The challenge is how to develop a Support System based on contemporary media that continuously strengthens the individual's qualifications. Supportive systems online will then be different from educational and training systems in that they assist adults with pathways for improving their knowledge and competence, including both professionals and vulnerable groups across borders and nations. SupSys is intended to contribute towards solving companies’ and organisations’ need for a flexible supply of competence as well as the individual professional’s need for support.

The purpose of the SupSys project is to develop and implement an online system that supports professional groups’ continuous qualification development where qualification represents a combination of knowledge, skills, and competences.

Keywords:

Continuous learning, Informal learning, Collaborative learning, Continuing education, Supportive systems, ICT, Social media, Workplace learning.