This monograph, written for persons interested in promoting company-funded workplace basic skills programs, addresses the following 13 key issues: (1) companies' rationale for investing in workers' basic skills; (2) the factors that need to be in place for a workplace basic skills program to be adopted; (3) who in the company makes the decision to fund a program; (4) the relationship to the company's philosophy on training; (5) the learning center model; (6) the role of external grants as potential seed funding sources; (7) the relevance and difficulty of showing a direct bottom line impact from a basic skills training program; (8) tailoring the program to the needs of the business and its employees; (9) long-term sustainability; (10) the pros and cons of confidentiality, scheduling and release time, and location; (11) the role of computer-based learning; (12) the curse of unmet expectations (both the company's and the employees'); (13) lifelong learning and the limitations of workplace-based programs. Recommendations are made to basic skills practitioners, companies, and policymakers; nine company-sponsored basic skills programs are profiled. (KC)