insights from the crowdlearn study vili lehdonvirta

1

Insights from the CrowdLearn study

Vili Lehdonvirta (Oxford University),

Anoush Margaryan (Copenhagen Business School)

2

CrowdLearn: Major study on skills and learning in the platform economy

• Interviews with 77 crowdworkers and survey of 1,001 crowdworkers

• Across six European countries and working on four major platforms

• Interviews with 25 representatives of stakeholder organizations

3

Skills typology for platform work

Skill categories Examples

Technical/core skills

Language skills

Obtaining work on platform

Learning to learn

Setting up as a freelancer

Communication skills

Personal dispositions/attributes

Organizational skills

Analytical skills

Computer literacy

Programming languages, social media marketing practices

English, French, Spanish

Independence, confidence, creativity

Pricing, bidding for projects

Project management, time management

Taxes, registering as a business

Business email writing, handling customers

SOURCE: CrowdLearn (Interview data)

4

66

50

47

59

58

47

37

30

37

35

Skills typology % of respondents



Language skills

Learning to learn



Personal dispositions


Analytical skills

Computer literacy

I have developed these

skill categories before

joining the platform but

found them useful during

crowdwork over the past

3 months

Crowdworkers apply skills developed in previous education and employment

SOURCE: CrowdLearn (Survey data)

5

66

50

47

59

58

47

37

30

37

35

56

36

36

74

70

71

55

45

59

65

Skills typology



Language skills

Learning to learn



Personal dispositions


Analytical skills

Computer literacy


skill categories before

joining the platform but

found them useful during

crowdwork over the past

3 months


skill categories at least

weekly during

crowdwork over the

past 3 months

Crowdworkers also continue to develop their skills during crowdwork

SOURCE: CrowdLearn (Survey data)

% of respondents

6

Educational

background

Primary income

Hourly wage,

in USD/h

1.6

Bachelors or Masters

1.7

1.7

Female

1.1

1.6

1.4 Vocational degrees

Secondary

1.5 Below secondary

1.9 [Platform] as primary income

[Platform] not primary income

1.6 5

1.7 10.5

1.5

Medium

75.5

Low

1.5

100

1.6

High

1.4

1.7

40.5

1.2

1.5

Male

Other

23

2.0 Level of

self-regulated

learning

Gender

Fewer than 50 observations

Frequency of skill development varies by worker background

Average frequency of skill development during crowdwork

As averages across entire skill typology (10 skill types, 0 – 3 scale)

1 = Occasionally 2 = Weekly

Worker

characteristics

7

17

62

5

14

10

4

6

12

6

14

29

30

11

43

25

12

30

33

15

11

16

9

31

27

38

44

41

21

29

9

24

34

43

41

23

27

15

30

40

34

21

22

29

Acquiring new information to complete my [platform] projects

2

Collaborating with others to complete my [platform] projects

Thinking deeply about my work (e.g., what I could do better next time)

Working alone to complete my [platform] projects

Following new developments in my field

Asking others for advice

Performing tasks that are new to me

78

Taking free online courses or webinars to acquire knowledge/skills

73

3 Using paid online tutorials to acquire knowledge/ skills for [platform]

Reading articles/ books to acquire knowledge/ skills for [platform]

Observing/ replicating other people’s strategies

Attending a training course/workshop to acquire knowledge/skills for [platform]

Receiving feedback on my [platform] projects (e.g., from my client)

Learning from online community forums (e.g., StackOverflow)

74

60

89

95

96

41

86

36

48

26

86

92

60

Finding a better way to do a task by trial and error

Occasionally Weekly Daily

Learning activities are largely informal and individual

– client feedback is an exception % of respondents

Frequency of use of workplace learning activities over the past 3 months

8

Platforms provide some support for workers‘ learning activities

Providing information on in-demand skills

Facilitating peer-to-peer learning

Recommending training courses

Providing a training marketplace

SOURCE: Screenshots Upwork (2x), Fiverr and PeoplePerHour

9 SOURCE: Fiverr

10

Crowdwork and skills matching

SOURCE: Screenshot Upwork

11

28

21

25

17

9 7 or more tests

Not applicable

None

1 - 2 tests

3 - 6 tests

64

36

No

Yes

Since joining the platform, how many free [platform]

skills tests have you taken? Have these [platform]-specific skill tests been required

or helpful when getting projects on the [platform]?

Have other, non-platform specific digital/online skill tests

and certificates been required or helpful when getting

projects on [platform]?

74

26

No

Yes

Entire sample

Sample size: N=1,001 Sub-sample

Sample size: N=516

26.11.2019 But micro-certificates not very useful?

% of respondents

13

33

38

16

9

2

2

0

0

0

3

0

2

1

4

5

10

6

7

Number of other platforms respon-

dents have earned income from

Most common platforms respondents have

earned additional income from

30

27

20

11

7

5

4

4

3

2

1

Gumtree

Other1

Instagram

Facebook

Ebay

Other target platform(s)

[Fiverr, PPH, Upwork, Twago]

Youtube

AirBnB

Mturk

Craigslist

BlaBlaCar

1 'Other' is defined as categories not mentioned in the survey!

Most common

combinations:

Fiverr and Upwork: 9

PPH and Upwork: 8

Fiverr, PPH and Upwork: 5

Fiverr and PPH: 3

Many crowdworkers are active on several platforms % of respondents

14

Over half of respondents feel locked into their main crowdwork platform % of respondents

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

5%

12%

25%

41%

16%

I could easily switch to another platform without negatively impacting my income.

N = 530

15

Cross-platform portability of skills/reputation data

Potential benefits

▪ Skills portability

empowers workers

▪ Freelancers less

dependent on any single

platform

Evidence

▪ Existing initiatives

working towards skills

portability solutions, eg.:

– My Data

– Job Tech

Experimental research

suggests portability can

help when there is a good

source-target fit between

platforms (Teubner et al.)

Challenges

▪ Leading platforms have little

incentive to participate

▪ Fluid nature of skills

ontologies and reputation

systems makes

standardization problematic

▪ Underlying infrastructure &

interoperability principles

(e.g., data formats, data

security)

▪ Data protection regulation,

especially interpretation of

EU's GDPR on data portability

(De Hert et al, 2018)

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Proposals for VET and skills policies targeting crowdworkers

Vili Lehdonvirta (Oxford University), Anoush Margaryan (CBS)

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Fewer than 10% of respondents feel supported by government

7%

Strongly Agree 1%

Disagree

Agree

30%

Strongly Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

30%

32%

I feel that the national government supports freelancers

N = 536

18

11 recommendations structured around platform work and…

Labour

market

integration

Continuing

professional

development

Education &

vocational

training

Skills matching

19

Subsidized “micro-internships” Labour market

integration

Status quo Recommendation

▪ Platform work is frequently seen as a tool

for labour market integration

▪ But: Newcomers face barriers to entry

due to lacking client feedback

▪ >70% of crowdworkers survey have

previously been hired for a small test

project by clients to evaluate their

performance (cf. internships)

▪ Policy makers should collaborate with

platfroms to experiment with subsidized

"micro-internships" in platform work

▪ Clients are offered a subsidized rate on

workers lacking platform-based experience

▪ In exchange, clients must provide workers

with formative and evaluative feedback

20

Professional

development

“Just-in-time” formal learning provision


▪ ~60% of crowdworkers surveyed develop

their skill set at least weekly

▪ Resources like MOOCs often considered to

be too long, too broad and too

introductory

▪ Consider offering short online courses and

workshop to meet crowdworkers' "just-

in-time" learning needs

▪ At the same time, reconsider fee

structure with ad-supported free content

becoming normalized across the internet

21

Skills

matching

Policy task force on cross-platform portability


▪ Limited worker mobility between platforms

results in skills underutilization

▪ Portable portfolios to transfer

crowdworkers’ skills and reputation data

could improve worker mobility

▪ However, achieving cross-platform

portability poses significant challenges

▪ Policymakers and platforms could create

a policy task force to address

challenges:

– Lack of a business case for leading

platforms

– Constantly evolving nature of skills

and reputation systems across

platforms, hampering standardization

– Data protection regulation

insights from the crowdlearn study vili lehdonvirta

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