Workplace literacy is literacy training provided in the workplace, incorporating basic skills training with job-related instructional materials. Early research efforts to define the literacy requirements of jobs began with two military projects, Operational REALISTIC and Project 100,000, in the late 1960s. Subsequent studies have focused on the way people read on the job and the link between literacy and job performance. These studies have revealed that: (1) most jobs require reading and calculating; (2) on average, workers read close to two hours per day, primarily from manuals, magazines, tables/figures, and business correspondence, rather than from books; (3) 70% of the material read in the workplace is between the 9th and the 12th grade reading levels; (4) the assumption that general basic skills training easily transfers from one situation to another was not supported by the research; and (5) for workers with low literacy levels, the best results occur when basic skills training is integrated with technical training. A number of workplace literacy initiatives have been undertaken in Canada and the United States in the past few years. These include the Industrialized Tutoring Program being tested at three sites by Laubach Literacy of Canada, Ontario's Basic Skills in the Workplace program, Douglas College's (British Columbia) Basic Skills Upgrading Program at the Royal Columbian Hospital, and many examples of company and union involvement in literacy training. Such initiatives indicate that literacy, in general, is receiving greater consideration and financial resources, and that basic skills training is moving from a general to a more job-related focus. (JMC)