This book is part of the study materials for the distance education course, Language and Literacies: Contexts and Challenges in the Workplace, in the Open Campus Program at Deakin University. It contains five essays about literacies in the workplace. The "Introduction" (Mike Brown) discusses the following topics: literacies in the workplace: competing discourses in TAFE curriculum; the competency agenda; planning and competency-based training (CBT); reviewing a self-paced professional development package on CBT; flexible learning; and discourses for a democratic curriculum. The essay "Literacies, Workplaces and the Demands of New Times" (Allan Levett, Colin Lankshear) develops the case that workplace literacy is a distinctive facet of adult literacy which in turn is part of lifelong education. The following topics are examined in "Fears, Fantasies and Futures in Workers' Literacy" (Peter O'Connor): developing a critical theory of workers' education, the context for workers' literacy, individual skills for individual problems, neo-Fordism and the Shamrock theory, economic rationalism, and a critical workers literacy. "Language Learning and the New Industry Context: Issues of Language and Power" (Crina Virgona) addresses the following: English language teaching practice, language theory as a corollary to teaching practice, Fairclough's approach and the relationship between language and power, and industrial cultures and their training implications. The following topics are discussed in "'Just Like Farmland and Goldmines': Workplace Literacies in an Era of Long-Term Unemployment" (Rosie Wickert, Mike Baynham): the context for workplace literacies in new times, the theoretical underpinnings of the "new literacy studies," and investigations of literacy practices in context. All five essays contain bibliographies. (MN)