Learning Organisations, Lifelong Learning and the Mystery of the Vanishing Employers.

The learning organization has been promoted as providing a viable blueprint for an integrated approach to training and development. According to the literature on employer provision of lifelong learning opportunities in the United Kingdom (U.K.), relatively few U.K. work organizations have or are about to become learning organizations. Opportunities to participate in employer-provided lifelong learning activities are especially limited for the following groups: workers in lower-status occupations; workers on "atypical contracts" (workers with flexible schedules and part-time employees); employees of small and medium enterprises; older workers; and workers with relatively low skills and qualifications. Research shows that many U.K. employers perceive clear disadvantages in training workers in lower occupational groups above and beyond the immediate task. Neither have U.K. employers generally embraced individual learning accounts, to which the government hopes employers will be willing to contribute. Among the reasons underlying this lack of employer support for lifelong learning are firms' product market strategies, the persistence of routinized forms of work organization and job design, and pressure for maximization of short-term profits. A new policy approach to lifelong learning is needed that addresses these reasons and considers the often-limited demand for higher levels of skill in the workplace. (Contains 43 references.) (MN)