Purpose: The primary objective in this paper is to examine the role of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in promoting and/or hindering educational opportunities to adult employees in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on 12 case studies of SMEs in England and Scotland, which form part of a larger European Sixth Framework…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of "learning" through what we have termed "integrated development practices". These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyses the ways in which…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the successful design and management of high performance work-based lifelong learning processes. Design: The paper summarises the process management practices and contextual parameters that are being applied in the successful design and management of high performance work based lifelong learning…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate social workers' processes of informal learning, through their narration of their professional experience, in order to understand how social workers learn. Informal learning is any individual practice or activity that is able to produce continuous learning; it is often non-intentional and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on and inform about learning points from ECUANET, a two-year duration best practice action research and transnational networking project as it approaches its final stage. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explicates the key positive and obfuscating dynamics that the project team have had to,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the key project learning points and outcomes as a guideline for the future quality management of demand-led learning and development. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology was based upon a corporate university blueprint architecture and browser toolkit developed by a member of the…

Purpose: This article aims to take a further step forward in examining those important business factors that will shape the future of best practice in the quality management of internal and external strategic alliances. Design/methodology/approach: The article presents a speculative scenario on the future of strategic alliances in education,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the paid and unpaid work time and learning activities of a small longitudinal sample (n=286) of continuously employed Canadians over the 1998-2004 period. Design/methodology/approach: A sub-sample of those who responded to two national surveys carried out in 1998 and 2004 and who were continuously…

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical status of corporate universities (CUs) in China. An a priori CU framework was employed in an attempt to describe the key functions that an ideal type of CU in China should perform. Design/methodology/approach: Three case studies were conducted to test the relevance of this…

Purpose--In the UK there is currently a national consultation on the structure/adoption of an academic credit framework for higher education. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the principles underlying such a framework, when applied in the context of a workplace research project, can facilitate debate between the academic disciplines and…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to contribute to an understanding of how diverse groups of employees perceive their workplaces as learning environments, and to cast light on the learning processes of these diverse groups of employees. Design/methodology/approach: This study was designed to examine employee perceptions of: the extent to…

Purpose: Since the end of the previous century social partners in different branches of industry have laid down measures to stimulate individual learning and competence development of workers in collective labour agreements. Special attention is given to stimulating learning demand among traditional non-participants to lifelong learning, such as…

Purpose--Sociocultural learning theories, usually premised on participation in some community, explain workplace learning well up to a certain extent. The paper aims to extend beyond these and to account for learning in repetitive and mundane work environments from a dialectical perspective. Design/methodology/approach--Based on a longitudinal…

Purpose: This article seeks to report on actions being taken at a practical level to innovate performance quality assurance systems for real-time learning environments. Design/methodology/approach: Reviews the consequences for situational learning management as organisations adopt customer-facing organic strategic postures. Findings: Naturally…

Purpose: This paper seeks to problematize common assumptions in the existing workplace learning literature, to the effect that college-based and workplace learning are inherently different. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on empirical data from four different research projects, two focusing on the workplace and two on college. The…