A greater emphasis on the outcomes of learning should help provide more effective approaches to learning and widen participation. More careful and comprehensive analysis of outcomes could also make evaluation and curriculum development more effective. Education and training bring about change (learning outcomes) in individuals. Those outcomes include subject-based outcomes such as knowledge and comprehension, and personal outcomes, including interpersonal skills such as teamwork and intra-personal skills such as critical self-reflection. Describing and recognizing the outcomes of learning provides an opportunity to recognize that the achievements of learners are concerned with a broad range of benefits, including knowledge and competence. Outcomes describe explicitly what learners will be able to do as a result of learning as well as the standards that will be required in the accreditation and assessment of learning. Learning outcomes could be the basis of unit credit systems in vocational and nonvocational areas of education. Learning outcomes offer a means of measuring effectiveness as distinct from simple efficiency. If outcomes are to be a useful tool, they must be clearly described, have publicly stated standards, and be capable of valid and reliable assessment. A framework for assessing outcomes would involve assessing (1) those outcomes expected by learners, education providers, and customers (such as employers); (2) actual outcomes that may affect any of those groups but that may not have been expected; and (3) those that are criterion referenced, norm referenced, or personally referenced. (CML)