Lifelong Learning, Graduate Capabilities and Workplace Learning

Given the rate of technological change, an increasingly global marketplace and a shift from economies based on manufacturing and primary produce to knowledge economies, effective workplace learning becomes a key factor in a nation's wealth and well-being. Learning through our work is increasingly essential if we are to keep pace with technological and organisational change and to contribute to the intellectual and social capital of our workplaces. Whilst it might be argued that not all of our work results in learning ' routine repetitive tasks once mastered are unlikely to result in new learning ' much of it does. A lot of this new learning is in response to new or contingent situations where we must adapt what we know and can do to resolve an issue, solve a problem or learn to adapt our work in response to new organisational structures, functions, systems or technology.Our workplace learning is situated learning and it is the 'situatedness' (Lave and Wenger 1991) of this learning and the learner which determines what is learnt and how it is learnt. New skills and knowledge are not learnt through memorising or internalising, instead, they enacted by the learner as part of work practice. This chapter looks at how workplace learning is currently understood and how effective workplace learning can be fostered.