Paul Ryan has brought together the writings of the most prominent British research into vocational preparation in Britain in comparison to the other advanced economies, primarily within the EEC. The book, originally published in 1991, documents various aspects of inadequacy in British practice at the time, concentrating upon intermediate skills,…

Realising the potential of work-based learning schemes as a driver of productivity requires careful design and support. The length of work-based learning schemes should be adapted to the profile of productivity gains. A scheme that is too long for a given skill set might be unattractive for learners and waste public resources, but a scheme that is…

This paper looks at the importance of mechanisms that give formal recognition to vocational skills acquired through work-based learning and how such mechanisms might be developed. It describes how skill recognition can benefit individuals, employers and society as a whole, and identifies in which contexts skill recognition has the highest…

A research project studied Canadian organizations that are using informal organizational learning approaches to embed ongoing learning within the actual work processes. Five organizations that self-identified as learning organizations at mature stages of development were studied in depth. No organization was a paragon of organizational learning.…