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In this paper, the case is made for why learning agreements play an essential role in the work‐based programmes run by the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (NCWBLP) at Middlesex University. Their crucial role is the result of the opportunity afforded students to customise their programme of study around their own and their employer’s work needs. A particular focus of attention is the role of learning agreements in programmes developed with employer partners at under‐ and postgraduate levels. Case studies of partnership programmes developed with three different organisations are discussed – a metropolitan borough council, a multinational company and a college of further education.

This study aims to explore the effect of expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior on local subordinates’ learning effects through the mediating role of subordinates’ thriving at work under the boundary condition of expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence.

This study collected the data form 230 Zambian subordinates and their immediate expatriate supervisors working in the Chinese company in Zambia. Regression analyses and bootstrapping analyses were used to test the authors’ hypothesis.

The results indicated that expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior was positively related to local subordinates’ learning effects. In addition, the study also found that local subordinates’ thriving at work mediated the linkage between managerial coaching behavior and learning effects. And expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence moderated the indirect relationship between managerial coaching behavior and learning effects via thriving at work, such that the indirect effect was stronger for expatriate supervisors with high rather than low cultural intelligence.

This study contributes to a better understanding of how expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior influences local subordinates’ learning effects by investigating the mediating effect of thriving at work on the managerial coaching behavior–learning effects link. In addition, the study deepens the understanding of the boundary condition of the associations between managerial coaching behavior and subordinates’ learning effects in a cross-cultural context by investigating the moderating effect of expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational (cultural and relational) and task factors which potentially enhance teachers’ professional development at work (TPD at Work). The development of lifelong learning competencies and, consequently, the careers of teachers, has become a permanent issue on the agenda of schools worldwide. The workplace is also increasingly regarded as the place to develop these competencies.

A model incorporating the relationships between organisational and task factors as predictor variables and TPD at Work as the dependent variable, is presented and empirically tested by a quantitative (survey research) method.

The study results indicated that learning climate, social support from one’s immediate supervisor, social support from close colleagues and learning value of the function can act as important job resources for TPD at Work. Work pressure and emotional demands, on the other hand, appeared to act as job demands for TPD at Work, but also have the potential to enhance TPD at Work.

The most important limitations of the study were the cross-sectional nature of the study and the use of self-ratings only, which may imply common method bias.

To enhance TPD at Work, it is vital for actors inside and outside schools to focus on the right working conditions (as mentioned under findings) in schools, so that teachers can learn from their job.

Knowledge in schools and empirical research about which factors at the organisational and task level are important to enhance TPD at Work seems scarce. This research contributes to this knowledge gap.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between job characteristics that foster learning (experience with and demand for continuous learning at work, skills variety and autonomy) as potential predictors of self-reported outcomes, such as future learning ability and employee disengagement at work for a cohort of employees with no or very limited job change experience. Further consideration was given to employees’ experiences at work (meaningfulness and recognition at work) as potential mediators in this relationship between job characteristics and employee outcomes.

A cross-sectional design was applied. Participants (N = 284) were recruited from Northern Germany and asked to complete a paper-and-pencil survey. The results were subsequently analyzed using path models to examine direct and indirect effects associated with mediation.

Path model analysis indicated that job characteristics promoting learning at work are positive predictors of self-reported future learning ability and negative predictors of disengagement. Both meaningfulness and recognition predict future learning ability as well. However, these variables only operated as significant mediators in the relationship between job characteristics and employee disengagement (but not self-reported future learning ability).

The study outlines the importance of job characteristics and employee experience to understand employees’ beliefs about their learning ability and engagement at work. The findings highlight the importance of meaningfulness and recognition for employees, as well as the role of learning-supportive job characteristics.

The integration of theory and practice has been recognised as one of the key questions in the development of professional expertise and vocational competence. In this study the question of how theory and practice meet each other during professional development was approached from the point of view of two different groups of learners: employees with varying length of work experience and university students taking a working life project course. Altogether 18 employees and 51 students were interviewed, after which transcribed interviews were qualitatively categorised. The opinions expressed by the informants indicate that work‐based learning is not a unified phenomenon but varies in different contexts and between actors. The findings suggest, however, that the transformation of students’ explicit “book knowledge” into implicit or tacit knowledge may begin already while the student is still in education, provided that formal knowledge is used for authentic problem solving.

This chapter describes two change efforts involving participatory action research within the pharmacy operations division of Kaiser Permanente. Focus is on a parallel learning mechanism that has been used to support communications and change during two large-scale information technology interventions. It begins with basic background information on participatory action research in organizations. Since the case setting is Kaiser Permanente, the chapter provides some information on the U.S. healthcare industry context and then shifts to Kaiser’s communication forum, a learning mechanism that has been in place for 35 years. Cognitive, structural, and procedural aspects of the learning mechanism are explored, and the chapter features interviews with some of the key forum players. Both in the forum’s infancy and in its current more institutionalized state, the pharmacy organization has been in crisis. Implications for the use of parallel learning structures on a long-term basis to support long-term participatory action research are explored along with contributions to theory on insider/outsider action research.

An overview of all the elements that go into formulating a business strategy – including received wisdom from the gurus, vision and values, ideas on growth, forecasting, information, objectives, audits, customers, markets, competition, finances, structure, training – with the focus on how to make it happen. Directed at practising managers whose task this is. Making strategic plans is the easy bit; enacting them requires changing things, getting things done through people. Discusses learning, training and development, culture, quality, with the emphasis on real people in real businesses. Underpinned by the philosophy of “action learning”.

Reviews a range of theories, concepts and learning approaches that are relevant to the development of professionals. Goes on to take a look at how professionals actually learn, once they are in practice. The latter is based on empirical research conducted across 20 professions. Reports on the range of experiences and events that practitioners had found particularly formative in helping them become fully competent professionals; this point often not having been reached until long after their formal professional training had ended. An attempt is made to relate the formative experiences reported to particular theoretical approaches to learning. The experiences are classified into a number of general kinds of “learning mechanism” and these are placed within a “taxonomy of informal professional learning methods”. The results of the research should be of use both to professional developers and to individual professionals. They should assist developers in their planning of placements or post‐formal training. They should help individual professionals to maximise their professional learning, by seeking out particular kinds of experience and making the most of those that come their way.

The purpose of this paper is to look at workplace learning through research into sociology of work. It explores the “learning discourse” at work place level looking for possibilities to oppose learning.

This paper is based on case studies conducted at six workplaces. The data on the cases include interviews and observation and three of the cases can be characterized as being based on action research.

In light of the case studies, learning at workplaces shows up as action and discourse that is quite interest‐laden and contested. Employers demand learning but employees find ways to oppose these demands.

In the planning of measures that support workplace learning it is important to identify general structures and trends of working life, as well as the different interests at the workplace. In this way, a situation can be avoided in which adult educators and their activities are used as weapons in campaigning for some groups' interests.

The article's distinctive feature lies in its critical approach to workplace learning through in‐depth data sets. It explores further so‐called positive learning discourse and its implications at different kind of workplaces and to different kind of personnel groups.

This paper provides more insight into the assumption of human capital theory that the productivity of job-related training is driven by the improvement of workers’ skills. We analyze the extent to which training and informal learning on the job are related to employee skill development and consider the heterogeneity of this relationship with respect to workers’ skill mismatch at job entry. Using data from the 2014 European Skills and Jobs Survey, we find – as assumed by human capital theory – that employees who participated in training or informal learning show greater improvement of their skills than those who did not. The contribution of informal learning to employee skill development appears to be larger than that of training participation. Nevertheless, both forms of learning are shown to be complementary. This complementarity between training and informal learning is related to a significant additional improvement of workers’ skills. The skill development of workers who were initially underskilled for their job seems to benefit the most from both training and informal learning, whereas the skill development of those who were initially overskilled benefits the least. Work-related learning investments in the latter group seem to be more functional in offsetting skill depreciation than in fostering skill accumulation.