One of the central problems in managing technological change and maintaining a competitive advantage in business is improving the skills of the workforce through investment in human capital and a variety of training practices. This paper explores the evidence on the impact of training investment on productivity in 14 Canadian industries from 1999…

Economic projections show that skills-based technological change across industries and occupations will support rising demand for postsecondary education and training. By 2025, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce projects that 68 percent of the jobs in Iowa will require some level of postsecondary education. A key…

This article proceeds from the argument that while the discourse of social responsibility (SR) is increasingly evident in pedagogies circulating through the workplace, its actual practices tend to be obscured beneath complex tensions and moral precepts presented as self-evident. Through an examination of individuals' learning of SR in the…

In this review essay, K. Peter Kuchinke uses three recent publications to consider the question of how to educate young people for work and career. Historically, this question has been central to vocational education, and it is receiving renewed attention in the context of concerns over the ability of schools to provide adequate preparation for…

As the number of students engaging in higher education increases, so too does their diversity. Additionally, there is growing pressure on universities to better prepare graduates for the varied paths they will pursue beyond study. In responding to these conditions it is important to develop pedagogical approaches that are both inclusive and…

Drawing on longitudinal data from the ESRC-funded "Adult Basic Skills and Workplace learning" project (2003-2008), together with recent findings from research undertaken under the auspices of the LLAKES research centre (Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies), this paper seeks to explore the key factors…

Information Technology (IT) encompasses all aspects of computing technology. IT is concerned with issues relating to supporting technology users and meeting their needs within an organizational and societal context through the selection, creation, application, integration, and administration of computing technologies (Lunt, et. al., 2008). The…

Purpose: The notion of organizational learning remains murky and difficult to comprehend, and it is rarely translated into sustained operational structures and processes in school reality. The purpose of this article is to lay out the mystifying concept of organizational learning and, then, to suggest an alternative framework for schools'…

Purpose: This conceptual paper aims to argue that times, spaces, bodies and things constitute four essential dimensions of workplace learning. It examines how practices relate or hang together, taking Gherardi's texture of practices or connectedness in action as the foundation for making visible essential but often overlooked dimensions of…

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the present and future impact of digital learning on teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of the report is student-teachers and teachers, and its central argument is that existing institutional structures will be insufficient to meet the scale of demand for well-prepared,…

Workplace learning research has taken what could be termed a turn to the subjective. This brings the person and agency of workers to the centre of work learning theory. Within sociocultural perspectives that emphasise participative practice as the basis of vocational learning, a key concept that emerges from this subject centred approach is…

Clinical supervision requires that supervisors make decisions about how much independence to allow their trainees for patient care tasks. The simultaneous goals of ensuring quality patient care and affording trainees appropriate and progressively greater responsibility require that the supervising physician trusts the trainee. Trust allows the…

Purpose: This article aims to explore the concept of amateurism as a form of critique and addition to the concepts of professionalism, professional work and education. Design/methodology/approach: This is a theoretically driven article based upon a review of the historical and sociological literature on amateur-professional relations in various…

This is a conceptual paper. I argue that knowledge-construction, or learning in a profession, has changed with the introduction of professional doctorates, though the divide between these new forms of doctoral study and the older and more established forms such as the PhD are now not as wide as they once were. In particular, three elements of the…

Within the burgeoning literature concerning beginning teacher transition, professional development and learning several studies have unpacked the micropolitical context of the school. However, little is known about the micropolitical context of the staffroom, the place in which teachers spend the majority of their non-teaching school time. This…