Purpose

The professional development needs of university professional staff are an under-researched area. More data were needed to understand their needs to ensure that employers invest their resources appropriately. A conceptual framework is developed for the workplace learning of career development activities using concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of a professional development network in meeting the needs of university professional staff after a re-structure.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study of the development of a staff career network at an Australian university after a restructure is presented. An online survey was sent to 75 staff who had attended at least one professional development event. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Findings

This study has shown that a university professional staff career network has been a positive influence for its participants after an organisational restructure. The value of this network was to increase confidence and provide opportunities for self-improvement, career planning and networking.

Originality/value

A conceptual model integrating the concepts of professional learning communities, adult learning and non-formal learning has resulted in a model of social non-formalised workplace learning that may be of use in other contexts to improve staff motivation, outside of more formal learning opportunities.

中文翻译：

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专业学习社区能否提供职业发展学习？

目的

大学专业人员的专业发展需求是一个研究不足的领域。需要更多数据来了解他们的需求，以确保雇主适当地投资他们的资源。使用专业学习社区、成人学习和非正规学习的概念，为职业发展活动的工作场所学习开发了一个概念框架。本研究的目的是评估专业发展网络在重组后满足大学专业人员需求方面的成功。

设计/方法/方法

介绍了重组后澳大利亚大学员工职业网络发展的案例研究。向至少参加过一次专业发展活动的 75 名员工发送了一项在线调查。使用描述性统计和专题分析来分析定量和定性数据。

发现

本研究表明，大学专业人员职业网络在组织重组后对其参与者产生了积极影响。该网络的价值在于增强信心并提供自我提升、职业规划和社交的机会。

原创性/价值

一个融合了专业学习社区、成人学习和非正规学习概念的概念模型产生了一种社会非正规化工作场所学习模型，该模型可用于其他情况下，以提高员工的积极性，而不是更正规的学习机会。