The transition from higher education to the labour market is considered an important and uncertain life stage wherein young adults exchange an academic environment for an often-chaotic entry into the labour market. Specifically, for graduates with a lower socioeconomic status (SES), this transition involves several difficulties. Investigating…

Currently dominant human capital and knowledge economy rhetoric holds that education can raise wages, empower workers and enhance working conditions. Education, however, can also have the opposite impact in the workplace and labour market, an impact that has received only limited attention. In this article we draw together a broad range of…

Gaps between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and required workplace skills have been identified in industry, academia, and government. Educators acknowledge the need to reform STEM education to better prepare students for their future careers. We pursue this growing interest in the skills needed for STEM…

The interest in research focusing on learning taking place at work, through work and for work has considerably increased over the past two decades. The purpose of the paper is to review and structure this wide and diverse research field. A tentative holistic model--the 3-P model of workplace learning--is presented, in relation to which the…

This document reviews, synthesizes, and critiques research on factors related to job satisfaction among psychotherapists. A sample of burnout literature is also reviewed, especially as it relates to job satisfaction. The impact of training on job satisfaction is considered, with sections examining the need to match training with job descriptions,…

In 1991, after 25 workers died in a fire in a rural North Carolina poultry-processing plant, reporters exposed the exploitation that workers had endured and the company's callous disregard for workers' safety. This paper draws on the story of the fire and its victims to challenge some popular assumptions about poverty in general; rural poverty in…

The work-based learning model of human resource development has captured a great deal of attention and has gained increasing importance in higher education in recent years. Work-based learning is a powerful phenomenon that attempts to help policy-makers, managers and curriculum developers improve the quality of the decision and organizational…

Analyzes how students learn and develop through work experience. Presents a typology of work experience that identifies five models: traditional, experiential, generic, work process, and connective. Suggests that connectivity may provide the basis for a productive and useful relationship between formal and informal learning. (Contains 82…

Because schools serve society by reproducing the dominant social, economic, and political values reflected by the prevailing institutions and ideologies, educational reform is only possible when it does not conflict with the structure of society. Thus when adult work roles are transformed, the socialization of youth will follow closely. A review…

HRD professionals struggle with why a higher percentage of skills and knowledge acquired through training fail to transfer to the work environment and why transfer appears to diminish over time (Cromwell & Kolb, 2002). With increased investment in technology and professional development, it is imperative to enhance the learners' transfer process…

This paper reviews literature on job satisfaction and work adjustment and relates it to ways in which vocational education can contribute to worker satisfaction. The first section considers studies of job satisfaction from the beginning of the twentieth century and shows how the various approaches are not conflicting but contribute different and…

The purpose of this article is to review the content of existing social-emotional learning programs in the American K-12 curriculum and the relationship between the school-based programs and the needs of the American workplace. Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs were examined for their content and compared to research on critical…

The metaphor linking the classroom with the workplace has often driven research and influenced educational practice. Although similarities exist, the conceptualization neglects the unique qualities of the classroom that create a "learning setting." Characteristics differentiating classrooms from work and recreational settings are…

The terms "transfer of learning" and "transfer of training" are usually found mutually exclusive in training and development literature. Transfer is a key concept in adult learning theories because most education and training aspires to transfer. The end goals of training and education are not achieved unless transfer occurs. Emerging trends of…

In this paper we address a perceived gap in the workplace learning literature, for there is very little writing which successfully integrates the issues of individual learners into predominantly social theories of learning. The paper draws upon data from four linked research projects to address this problem. Following an analysis of the…