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This paper summarises some of the analysis and findings of a project commissioned to investigate the meanings and uses of the terms formal, informal and non‐formal learning. Many texts use these terms without any clear definition, or employ conflicting definitions and boundaries. The paper therefore proposes an alternative way of analysing learning situations in terms of attributes of formality and informality. Applying this analysis to a range of learning contexts, one of which is described, suggests that there are significant elements of formal learning in informal situations, and elements of informality in formal situations; the two are inextricably inter‐related. The nature of this inter‐relationship, the ways it is written about and its impact on learners and others, are closely related to the organisational, social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts in which the learning takes place. The paper briefly indicates some of the implications of our analysis for theorising learning, and for policy and practice.

The aim of this Guest Editorial is to position the special issue.

The Guest Editors reflect on critical perspectives on the relationship between emotion and learning in the workplace, and also present the four papers that constitute the special issue.

Emotion and learning are deeply intertwined in the workplace. To understand this inter‐relationship, it is essential to examine the cultural and political context of particular organisations and the countries in which they are located. Class, gender and race are also highly influential factors that need to be taken into account in such studies.

The special issue gives space and consideration to under‐explored and under‐developed areas in the literature on emotion and learning in the workplace: how emotional suffering can block workplace learning, race, emotion and learning in the workplace, and emotion in relation to ICT support for learning.

This paper seeks to discuss the impact of UK government austerity policies on learning in public service work, specifically youth support work. It also aims to argue that austerity policies intensify “ethics work”, create emotional suffering, and obstruct workplace learning in a variety of ways.

The research adopts narrative methods and a critical interpretive paradigm to investigate practitioner perceptions within a broader analysis of neo‐liberal change. It draws on Bourdieu's sociology as an interpretive framework.

Austerity is shifting the “stakes” of the youth support field from a client‐centred ethos to the meeting of economically driven targets. This shatters the illusio of practitioners committed to client‐centred ethics, resulting in emotional suffering, difficulty in learning to cope with new demands, and an erosion of professional capacity.

A particular limitation is the lack of longitudinal data. There is a pressing need for more research on ethics work, emotional suffering and (not) learning in public service workplaces facing austerity, and to continue theorising this nexus more thoroughly.

There is a need to promote a feminist ethics of care in such workplaces. There is also a need to stimulate public debate about the ethical impact of austerity on public service work as a whole. These might allow workplaces to encourage learning more effectively.

This paper departs from traditional discussions of workplace learning to consider instances of “not learning”. It introduces the innovative concept of “ethics work”, discusses ethics as a form of work, through a sociological rather than philosophical lens, and utilises Bourdieu's key concept of illusio, not previously addressed in workplace learning research.

The purpose of this study is to examine how students with workplace learning experience the process of the assessment of prior experiential learning (APEL) in higher education.

This is an inductive and exploratory study drawing on methodology from the field of academic literacies. It addresses two questions: “How do different tutors and students approach the APEL process?” and “How do students with workplace learning experience the APEL process?”. Interviews were undertaken with students and tutors around the students' assessment documents. The data werre analysed according to Lillis' and Ivanič's concept of “addressivity”. This type of analysis indicates how students and tutors are positioning one another, and facilitates the drawing out of similarities and differences in these positionings between the different participants.

The paper finds that, although all students had been successful in their APEL claims, their narratives were quite polarised. Using a heuristic developed by Lillis the data clearly demonstrate the impact on the student experience of two different tutor approaches, that of monologic teaching and dialogic mediation.

This is a small scale, single institution study. Replicating the study in different contexts may further explain the differences between APEL processes that learners find empowering and those which they do not.

The original perspective afforded by the theoretical lens of academic literacies suggests a valuable re‐conceptualisation of the traditional assessor‐candidate relationship with implications for assessment practice. The paper also provides a student perspective on the process that is largely absent in the research literature.

There is a gap in the literature regarding the experiences of newly qualified Clinical Psychologists (NQCPs) working within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the National Health Service (NHS). This paper aims to explore three aspects of newly qualified Clinical Psychologists’ experiences: their transition and development; working in multi-disciplinary teams located in large organisations; and support and coping in the role.

Seven participants each engaged in one semi-structured interview, and an interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted.

Three super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis: A big jump, the transition from trainee to NQCP; The support of home comforts, old and new; and Acknowledging and desiring ongoing development.

Implications and recommendations for both Clinical Psychology training programmes and NHS employers are discussed, to support the development and wellbeing of this staff group, and in turn the clinical population they serve. These include gradually increasing caseloads on training, a staggered workload at the outset of the transition, and CAMHS teams ensuring appropriate supervision for NQCPs.

In the matter of food purity and control Hospital Catering Services have been outside the law, a privileged position where the general law of food and drugs have never applied and the modern regulatory control in food hygiene has similarly not applied. In the eyes of the general public hospital catering standards have always been high above the general run of food preparation. As the NHS continued, complaints began gradually to seep out of the closed community, of dirt in the kitchens and prevalent hygiene malpractices. The general standard for most hospitals remained high but there were no means of dealing with the small minority of complaints which disgusted patients and non‐cater‐ing staff, such as insect and rodent infestations, and an increase in the frequency of food poisoning outbreaks.

This research focuses on the extent sharing economy transforms employability for women impacted by domestic and reproductive work. The authors explore the experience of mothers, of how digital peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms can affect their self-perceived employability and skills deterioration by unlocking human capital through technology acceptance.

This study adopted a pragmatism-based approach incorporating using a single-case study research design with the Gioia methodology. It utilised a semi-structured telephone survey to collect data to explore the decisions around usage of a newly developed mobile P2P app, aiming to support employability among mothers. Analysis was conducted inductively using thematic analysis and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The study finds that mothers experience high rates of continued labour market attachment on a casual or part-time basis, difficulty in juggling family and work, and high levels of concern both about future employment/entrepreneurial opportunities and expected stress in balancing dual roles of carer and earner. While mothers are interested in using new sharing economy technologies to reduce skills deterioration and improve signalling, the authors find that there were both technology and non-technology related barriers. These included trust and security, life-stage mismatch, time poverty and limitation of service offerings.

This research was limited to mothers in one state in Australia and by the case study research design, the measurement model and the self-report nature of the data collection. Hence, the findings may lack generalisability in other contexts. It also limits the ability to make conclusions regarding causality.

This exploratory study contributes to research in the intersection between human resources (HR) and entrepreneurship by illustrating how sharing economy platforms can offer women a means to overcome the issues of signalling and skills deterioration in relation to aspects of human capital theory by developing new skills that may act as positive signals signal to potential employers or investors. Additionally, the social interactions between mothers, through technology adoption, can provide a basis for improving future self-employment or entrepreneurship and employability.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).