Dorothy Sutherland Olsen

Dorothy Sutherland Olsen is a senior researcher at the Nordic Institute for studies of innovation, research & education (NIFU) and has a PhD from the faculty of Educational Science at the University of Oslo. She has also worked in business for many years where she managed technology development projects and was responsible for technology training of employees in banking and finance. Current research is mainly related to studies of adult learning and innovation. She is interested in the relationship between technological change and learning in the workplace. She is currently leading a project financed by the Research Council Norway, “Educating for the unforeseen”. She has also led projects on competence development among older workers in Norway and another exploring the relationship between learning and innovation. She recently led a project to assess the competence needs of the Norwegian state in relation to digitalisation and a project to assess the need for competence in the energy sector and participated in the SKILLS project looking at competence development in industry. Dorothy has led many projects both in research and within business, in her own research she uses mainly qualitative methods such as interviews, observation, document analysis, workshops and focus group interviews. She is particularly interested in technology and how employees learn to use new technology in a work situation.