ABSTRACT

The overall aim of this book is to develop an evidence-based and theoretically informed understanding of the transformations in the nature of work that affect the learning and skills requirements of jobs and individuals, and the ways in which these requirements can be met. It challenges many of the presuppositions and generalizations about the changing nature of work, skills and learning which have come to permeate thinking about the options ‘on the table’ for modern societies. Our starting point is that the workplace is a crucially important site for learning and for access to learning. The editors have worked together with contributing authors to develop an analytical perspective on workplace learning that takes the social context of the workplace and the wider systems for management and regulation of employment fully into account.