Employee learning which is known by terms such as "human capital development" and "lifelong learning" is an aspect of post-school learning which people engage in for purposes of enhancing their work-related competencies and possibly achieve upward professional mobility. There are different views on how best employee learning…

This article examines the relationship between skill acquisition and the constitution of economic selfhood in Trinidad. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among garment workers in a context of industrial decline, I show how their formal, informal, and illicit means of acquiring sewing skills are inextricably linked to the fragmented and unstable…

Reflection is a complex process that many learners do not find easy, and facilitating their reflection requires a sophisticated pedagogy. The focus in this process is normally on the development of the individual professionals and their own particular practice, with the assumption that enhanced individual performance will prove of benefit to the…

Focus groups with 50 managers and interviews with 14 adults in "Generation X" (aged 24 to 32) elicited three themes: the work environment must support continuing learning, mentors and leaders should lead by example, and this age cohort places major importance on multidimensional lives. Mentor relationships in the workplace were valued.…

Responses to midcareer issues must develop from the recognition that some values of the emerging work force differ from those of staff in their 50s. An organization's best interest lies in listening to the needs of staff, finding new ways to enrich their lives and accommodate its policies to their legitimate drive for self-direction. (JOW)

"Foreword" (Handy); "Creda's Vocational Training Scheme" (Bradley); "IBM: Learning for Life" (Stevenson); "Personal Development at Sainsbury's" (Deaves); "Ford Employee Development and Assistance Programmes" (Moore); "Hotpoint North Wales" (Jones); "Derbyshire Employee Development…

In the future, seven trends--already firmly established--will become dominant in the world of work. Those trends are as follows: (1) middle management positions will continue to be cut; (2) project teams will be assembled for a single purpose; (3) more women will have executive leadership roles; (4) organizations will continue to increase their…

A study to explore organizational conditions that facilitate workplace learning involved 35 resource development consultants in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and line staff from 22 organizations in a 9-hour participatory research workshop using Appreciative Inquiry--a technology emphasizing the positive or "life-giving" forces which…

Western enterprises confront an era of global competition in which industry leaders can no longer overlook negative effects originating from past Taylorist and autocratic organizational structures. Corporate leaders are exploring innovative methods to change their organizations from the Taylorist model to workplace environments that foster worker…

Globalization of the economy and rapid technological innovation challenge today's work force to prepare for continuous change. In response to a strong mandate from their membership, labor unions have formed partnerships to deliver the necessary worker education. Because they are in daily contact with workers and have a holistic knowledge of…

The project Self-Assessment and Self-Evaluation in New Forms of Training near the Workplace--A Step Towards the Learning Organisation was undertaken in Bavaria, Germany, to help companies begin the process of becoming learning organizations by helping workers manage their own learning. The project is based on the following principles and…

Our understanding of workplace learning is shaped by four dominant discourses that may be labeled the discourses of design, demand, development and desire. Within these different discourses, understanding of workplace learning is shaped and bounded by particular assumptions about the "self in context," which includes the organizational…

This book is designed to help workers plan for success on the job in a changing workplace and increasingly global economy. The following are among the topics discussed in the book's 12 chapters: understanding the changing job scene (foreign competition, technological change, new styles of management, jobs of the future); attitudes (developing and…

The concept of the free agent learner, which has roots in self-directed and informal learning theory, has recently emerged as a factor important to attracting, developing, and keeping knowledge workers. The literature on free agent learning holds important lessons for today's free agent learners, human resource developers, and work organizations.…

This newsletter contains two articles dealing with the changing shape of corporations. The article "Trends in Business Culture" argues that Wal-Mart's emergence as the largest corporation in the United States reflects the larger economic shift in the U.S. economy from production of goods to provision of abstract goods such as services…