This paper was designed to assist educators and employers as they plan curricula in language and communication skills for students and employees entering, or experiencing a transition to, automated work settings. The strategies presented in this paper may be adaptable to secondary school business skills and basic English courses, pre-employment training programs, and employee training and retraining departments within corporations and public agencies. The four sections of the paper discuss the following topics: the automating workplace and the knowledge worker; communication as a means of production in the information economy, including automation tools and techniques; the automated workplace: literacy in evolution; and literacy training for workplace automation. This last section includes information on training for functional competence, functional literacy skills, topics for functional literacy training, and training delivery models. A bibliography completes the paper. (KC)