Supporting Learning Across Working Life: Premises for Effective CET Provisions

Nation states increasingly require effective, accessible, inclusive, scalable and broadly engaged provisions of continuing education and training (CET) to develop further the capacities of their working age populations. This is no more the case than when those countries’ social and economic needs rely largely or wholly on the capacities of their working age populations. Consequently, understanding what constitutes accessible and effective CET provisions enables informed decision-making about effectively realizing these national initiatives through developing skilled, employable, and adaptive workforces. Yet, to illuminate and elaborate what comprises efficacy, it is necessary to capture, analyze, understand and reconcile perspectives and needs for CET provisions, including national bodies, those who employ working age adults, education institutions, CET educators and, most importantly, working age adults themselves. Capturing and reconciling these perspectives is essential for establishing comprehensive account of what constitutes an effective CET system. This includes the kinds of CET provisions best able to meet the needs of working-age adults and their workplaces, and how they are delivered and engaged with by these adults. This opening chapter discusses the premises for understanding learning across working life and how it can be supported, guided, and enacted through CET provisions. It also overviews a research program on CET undertaken in Singapore and summarizes its key findings, conclusions, and contributions. The Singapore investigation secured contributions from interviews with CET graduate informants and their employers, and survey respondents from a larger population of working-age Singaporeans. It foreshadows the identification and need for a systematic approach to developing and enacting effective CET provisions to promote and sustain individuals’ employability across lengthening working lives that are then elaborated in subsequent chapters. Like any other nationally based case study, it has strengths and limitations. Importantly, it provides a comprehensive case and important perspective from a nation state largely reliant on its working-age population’s capacities and one that has an aged and aging profile. Hence, CET is central to its social and economic well-being and, indeed it is a sovereignty. Whilst there are limitations with a case study based within one country, these perspectives render it particularly helpful to inform discussions and decisions in others.