Workplace education (WPE) has a significant role to play in solving basic skills problems and in other training requirements. In addition to the benefit of a more able, adaptable work force, WPE leads to more contented workers, encouraged by better employment opportunities. In addition, employees benefit by being more confident both within the workplace and beyond it. Trade unions benefit from a better educated membership, more able to take a full part in industrial relations. Principles of WPE are set out in the International Labour Organisation Convention 140, adopted by Britain in 1975. Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Canada all have experience with WPE. Scotland, which launched its first WPE scheme--the Lothian WPE pilot--in 1988, lags behind the rest of Europe. A survey of employees conducted by the Scottish Community Education Council has discovered a high incidence of basic skills problems and a real desire among employees for a second chance at education through provision of WPE at their place of work. Some models that might be adapted to suit Scottish business and industry are described: they are the Sheffield (England) City Council's Take Ten Scheme; Ford Motor Company's Employee Development and Assistance Program; The Frontier College (Canada) Workplace Tuition Program; and Italy's 150-hour WPE scheme. (YLB)