ABSTRACT
In this chapter we illustrate how United States workplaces and vocational programs are important sites not only for skill development, but also for identity construction, although they are not often recognized as such in the educational or policy literature. To argue this point, we draw on ethnographic and qualitative data from two projects carried out over a period of approximately ten years at two California sites. In these studies, we examined the literacy requirements of new and traditionally organized workplaces in the Silicon Valley and the literacy and technology learning requirements of a vocational program designed to provide intensive training on information technologies and life skills.
