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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.

The paper draws on 12 case studies of SMEs in England and Scotland, which form part of a larger European Sixth Framework Programme research project. Interviews were conducted with employers, line managers and employees participating in formal educational programmes, and were contextualized with policy documents and literature on lifelong learning and workplace education.

This paper highlights and explores findings related to human resource management (HRM) and the participation of employees in formal education, and the experiences of companies in providing educational opportunities to employees in England and Scotland. The paper argues that employers have a key role to play in driving and investing in employee training and development. However, the current focus of employers on formal educational opportunities appears narrowly focused on job‐specific, in‐house training.

The paper's value lies in its illustration of the restricted focus of the lifelong learning policy agenda on the development of human capital, which not only limits the development of portable skills and qualifications for employees, but also undermines the broader aims of lifelong learning.

The purpose of this paper is to show how a typology of participating patterns is developed to deepen understanding of participation in formal adult education and the relationship between current workplace and educational programmes.

The approach takes the form of conceptual work based on a qualitative analysis of 89 cases studies covering 113 participating employees in small and medium‐sized enterprises in 12 European countries.

Five main types of participation patterns in formal adult education are identified. When employed participants focus on their education, they may complete their formal programme (“Completing”), overrule an earlier decision to leave the educational system (“Returning”) or look for a starting‐point to change their professional career (“Transforming”). When focusing on employment, employees may use formal adult education for “Reinforcing” their earlier career decisions. Here, four subtypes are proposed. Finally, employees may enjoy their studies for features not available at work (“Compensation”).

The typology was based on qualitative data; the sample does not claim to be representative. However, it could become the basis for a quantitative survey design.

The typology is likely to be of value in a wide array of fields such as whether the employer organisation should offer support, or whether there should be an economic return to education.

The typology builds on a life‐cycle model and combines it with the relationship between the educational programme and the workplace. It is not restricted to certain groups of learners or formal programmes.

This paper aims to draw on a socio-technical perspective to explore how information and communication technology (ICT) supports the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) in specific practices and arrangements.

The authors use qualitative content analysis to analyse 43 country reports of the “European inventory on validation” published by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) in 2019.

This study conceptualises ICT supported VNFIL practices and arrangements from a socio-technical perspective. Given this, the paper finds that ICT is used mainly to provide information on validation practices and arrangements, store qualification registers online and identify and document learning outcomes. The use of ICT to assess and certify learning outcomes remains limited.

VNFIL is very rarely seen in a technical context. This paper contributes to a theoretical perspective and highlights the mutual interdependence of social and technical components. Furthermore, this study provides an overview of inasmuch ICT is currently used to support VNFIL practices and arrangements. Based on the results, validation researchers and practitioners can get inspiration on how to develop ICT supported VNFIL practices and arrangements further.

Reports on an investigation which identified a number of barriers which deter some hospitality industry employees from taking advantage of formal study opportunities. These barriers, which are categorised as informational, situational, financial, institutional or dispositional, need to be examined further if we wish to capitalise on those employees with existing skills in the workforce and develop them to their maximum potential in order to provide a highly educated workforce capable of supplying the standards of service required for continued growth within the sector. Among the implications of this study is a suggestion that tertiary institutions increase access for these potential students by modifying existing arrangements to cater to their special needs. In so doing, institutions might be able to increase the number of experienced industry personnel in their student population, thus enhancing their contribution to the future development of the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to make a case for creating a strand of negotiated qualifications in the English (and more generally UK) vocational education and training (VET) system, using the approach established through Ufi-Learndirect Learning through Work (LtW).

The paper identifies some limitations in the recent Whitehead review of adult vocational education in relation to people already in work. Drawing on research into learning at work, modifications to the VET qualifications system are proposed based on the LtW approach.

The VET qualifications system assumes a purpose of preparing people for occupational entry and developing essential competence. The needs of adults already in work can be accommodated provided that they can be fitted within structures reflecting this assumption. It is less able to meet the bespoke needs of individual workers or employers. The LtW approach, which enables individual accredited programmes to be negotiated, offers a way forward that preserves the integrity of the qualification system.

Implementing a LtW-type approach in the VET sector is structurally more difficult than in higher education, although less likely to encounter academic resistance. The main challenge is likely to come from the need to modify regulatory rules and design principles for vocational qualifications.

Individually negotiated qualifications have been resisted in VET due to largely unfounded fears about reduced rigour and loss of control of content. The proposed approach offers a means of meeting individual needs while retaining the integrity of the qualifications system and reducing the proliferation of units and content within it.

Education and training are critical factors for achieving the Lisbon strategy's objectives of encouraging economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion in the European Union (EU). The role of continuing vocational training (CVT) and its contribution to personal development and fulfilment is increasingly recognised in EU Member States' National Reform Programmes. In this context the main objective of this paper is to establish a ranking of the importance of the competences required by CVT trainers in Spain according to national lifelong learning (LLL) standards.

A combination of literature review analysis and evaluation of experts' participation is used, based on two‐round e‐Delphi techniques. The literature review analysis identified the criteria, sub‐criteria and indicators that describe the trainers' basic (pedagogical) and specific (skills, abilities, aptitude/attitude and attributes) competences. The questionnaire summarises a wide range of competences and skills related to Spanish trainers. It was distributed among 20 national experts (with experience ranging from three to 30 years in informal and non‐formal training and professional profiles such as training manager, high manager, training programmer, trainers and tutors among others) in order to evaluate the importance of different competences.

The analysis of the e‐Delphi expert evaluation yields two main findings. First, it provides a unique e‐Delphi draft that contains trainers' professional competences in a non‐formal permanent learning context. Second, it also includes the evaluation of their importance by 20 Spanish experts who are considered to be a qualitative national sample.

The role of European and Spanish trainers has changed in the last two decades. Trainers need wide recognition of their professional profile in a LLL framework. This requires the recognition of new and renewal of traditional competences, so that they can work as professionals of non‐formal education and assume responsibilities.

CVT takes on a variety of forms in different countries and also within a given country. Thus the identification and anticipation of competences and skills required by trainers as important actors on whom training quality and efficiency depends is important. In this case study, the analysis of the expert evaluations shows that specific competences/skills (personal abilities, attitudes in classroom and workshop), are very important in developing a trainer's professional figure. Traditional pedagogical competences (planning, imparting and evaluation) are not forgotten, but new skills have additional characteristics such as “identification, and analysis of training needs”, “training management”, “training implementation” and participant focus.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the ways in which postgraduate study in vocational fields supports the development of advanced competences amongst mid‐career professionals.

The extensive written communications between health and safety professionals taking a postgraduate course in health and safety management and their tutor were investigated to determine the competence domains where learning was taking place or attempted. The individual written communications were analysed and each issue raised allocated to a learning area. The quantitative results for each area were determined. The learning areas were assigned to one or more competence development domains.

The quantified results demonstrate that the main domain where mid‐career professionals on this postgraduate course were most strongly challenged to learn and develop in advanced competences was the meta‐competence domain on the Cheetham and Chivers model.

This study was based on written communications passing between a limited number of students and one tutor on a single postgraduate study programme. There is clearly great scope to extend this form of research given the large number of postgraduate vocational study programmes now undertaken by mid‐career professionals.

Tutors need to focus strongly on supporting the very demanding learning leading to the growth of meta‐competencies. Given the ready availability of relevant factual information to mid‐career professionals in the information age, there is much less need to focus on teaching facts, although supporting the interpretation and application of such factual information by students retains great importance.

Few other studies exist which attempt to analyse written communications between tutors and postgraduate students on professional/vocational courses in terms of how such courses are developing professional competences.

The purpose of this research is to ascertain data in relation to courses that are currently on offer in seven third‐level institutions in Ireland which include elements of workplace learning. It is intended that the research findings will contribute to the provision of new workplace learning programmes in Irish third‐level colleges.

A questionnaire was designed for this research and was administered in seven higher education colleges in Ireland. In total, 433 courses were examined in relation to workplace learning.

The findings illustrate that there is still an over‐reliance on the provision of traditional classroom‐based courses. The findings further suggest that, for the successful operation of workplace learning programmes, there is scope for developing further employer engagement with higher education colleges in the design, development and delivery of such programmes.

As a result of the data collected for this research, recommendations for implementing workplace learning programmes for both third‐level education providers and employers are included here.

The paper provides value by identifying courses in Irish third‐level colleges which include elements of workplace learning and suggests that an attitudinal and cultural shift must be engaged with to overcome the traditional reliance on classroom‐based programmes in order to successfully develop new workplace learning programmes.

There is little evidence about UK public house managers, despite an increase in their relative importance. Outlines some key issues and reports on the results of a survey of managers in one region of a large leisure retail company. The evidence points to a divergence between married couples and single managers. The former are more likely to have come from a manual working class background with relatively low levels of formal education. A trend towards younger, higher qualified managers from a wider range of social backgrounds is discernible. The extent to which companies in the industry use such evidence in their decision making is questioned.