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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.

First, to explore the application of e‐learning as a medium for workplace learning, as a form of adult learning and organisational learning from a theoretical point of view, second, to review empirical studies on recent solutions to pedagogical problems encountered in workplace learning in general and in e‐learning in particular, and finally, to consider the challenges facing the further development of e‐learning solutions targeted at the workplace.

The paper reviews theories of adult learning, workplace learning and organisational learning and brings out main pedagogical implications of these theories from an e‐learning point of view. Some empirical studies in which electronic networks and communication tools have been utilised in workplace learning are also described.

The development of successful e‐learning solutions for the use of work organizations requires integrating research knowledge from different sources: theories of the learning organization, sociocultural theories of learning, and cognitive theories of learning.

Based on empirical examples and the literature review pedagogical challenges and theory‐based guidelines are presented for the design of e‐learning environments for the workplace. These include integration of theoretical knowledge with participants' practical experience, support for the explication of implicit knowledge, and encouragement of collaboration and knowledge exchange between different groups of people.

This paper integrates different theoretical approaches for the design of e‐learning environments of work organizations.

The purpose of this study is to advance the proposition that organizations involved with training of employees should make. First, CBI is linked to skill development areas recognized as high value in the contemporary and future workplace such as analysis, problem-solving and soft skills such as active listening, collaboration and compromise. A second linkage is to an emerging, tested model of integrative pedagogy (IP) focused on improving workplace learning for adults.

Reviews were completed of empirical literature and expert opinion from three different domains: current and future skills needs, IP for adult learners and CBI. Review information was analyzed and incorporated into a proposal.

Identified are some of the current and projected employee skill needs in the increasingly complex digital work place. Explained are features of IP as well as how the features help advance a learning environment for adults. The authors explain the application of CBI and how it meshes with IP to leverage workplace learning of needed current and future skills.

There is sufficient information presented to enable a practitioner with little experience with CBI to apply the approach with employees. This can be especially helpful if the training objectives involve critical thinking, strategy formulation, communicating ideas, teamwork and related areas.

Much has been written about skills needs for current and future scenarios, and about the efficacy of CBI. Yet there are few attempts at tying the skills needs with pedagogical theory and the delivery of instruction that engages many skill needs. This paper helps address this gap.