Stephen Billett’s research while affiliated with Griffith University and other places

There are compelling imperatives from governmental and enterprise perspectives for working-age adults to participate in continuing education and training (CET). These are associated, respectively, with them remaining employable across lengthening working lives, having highly skilled national workforces able to sustain the viability and responsiveness of the private and public sector enterprises in which working age adults are employed. Consequently, whether and how adults elect to participate and engage in CET provisions is central to those imperatives being realised. Yet, that participation and engagement is shaped by a range of factors about which these adults make decisions. Unlike in compulsory education that is legislated or has mandated requirements for initial occupation preparation, working age adults’ participation in CET (i.e., whether they enrol or not) is largely premised on their interest and imperatives. That participation is likely premised on: (i) the purposes that they want to achieve, (ii) how these provisions are aligned with their needs in terms of accessibility and relevance, and their (iii) readiness to engage. This complex of factors includes opportunities to engage and trade-offs in terms of financial, personal and time commitments. Thus, securing desired levels of participation in CET to support individual employability across working life and workplace viability is partially dependent upon working-ages adults’ electing to participate and engage effectively in CET provisions. Drawing on data from the national study, this chapter reports and discusses the findings about what motivates working age adults’ participation in CET and the kinds of affordances for supporting their engagement in CET, and the degree by which those motivations are realised. The findings indicated that the recent CET graduates were motivated personally and professionally to take CET courses, and that most of them partially or fully achieved their purposes. Importantly, they report valuing learning not only for instrumental purposes such as employability, but also learning for its own sake. Yet, there was a mix of personal and institutional factors supporting as well as inhibiting their participation and engagement in CET. These findings inform how a provision of CET needs to be positioned to make them attractive and accessible for working age adults.

Considering national imperatives associated with maintaining the skills currency and adaptability of workforces, there is a need to broaden the scalability, reach, levels of engagement in and quality of continuing education and training (CET) provisions. This includes encouraging participation and informing working-age adults about it and ensuring their attendance and engagement in CET. Understanding what constitutes effective CET provisions is, thus, paramount in achieving these objectives. The perspectives of the adults who participate in CET and employers who support them is particularly salient as, unlike for younger people, participation and engagement in CET is largely the discretion of these adults (i.e., voluntary and not compulsory). The ability of CET provisions to support the achievement of the kinds of goals associated with these adults’ employability are key national concerns, which includes engaging them in programs that they find worthwhile and meet their personal objectives. Hence, identifying and evaluating what constitutes effective CET through gathering data from recent CET graduates offers the bases for informing how best these provisions should be designed, enacted, and evaluated, including what constitutes effective CET teaching. Also, employers are perhaps more likely to sponsor employees’ training when they believe that such investments will lead to short or long-term benefits for their enterprises. So, they are key stakeholders in deliberations about policies and practices associated with CET of the workforces. Consequently, understanding their needs and expectations may help inform about their expectations and preferences for CET programs and assist educational institutions to meet their needs as potential sponsors of such education provisions that may also benefit the society and economy. Drawing on an investigation of CET provisions in Singapore, this chapter seeks to illuminate and appraise what constitutes qualities of effective CET provisions in relation to addressing issues of relevance, accessibility, and quality of engagement with educational experiences by these stakeholders. It does this through analyses of detailed, face-to-face, and comprehensive interviews conducted with 180 CET graduates and 40 employers as informed interlocutors. The findings provide bases for understanding what constitutes effective provisions of CET in this national case study and this can inform the design, enactment, and evaluation of effective CET programs.

An effective continuing education and training (CET) system needs to extend beyond what can be provided through a range of CET institutions, but be supported by workplaces, government agencies and the community. For instance, the role of families and workplaces are ones that are less understood and central to engagement in and quality of experiences comprising CET provisions. Also, workplaces stand as being accessible and grounded circumstances in which the further development of work and skills can progress through everyday work activities. In this way, although centred on provisions offered through CET institutions, what emerges is an enhanced system that supports the provision of CET which extends far beyond what those institutions planned for, enact, and manage. However, it is these institutions, through their existing provisions and prospects for change, that much of this systematic provision of CET will need to be enacted. Drawing on data from the third and final phase of a research project about CET provisions in Singapore, this chapter reports and discusses feedback from CET educators and practitioners, identifying ways of enacting the kinds of changes being advanced by informants in the first two phases (i.e., CET graduates and employers). This phase allowed these practitioners to contribute their perspectives and understandings in response to these findings and to communicate what needs to occur for the translation of these findings into practice. This chapter concludes by providing a set of understandings and procedures that might be adopted to realize effective CET provisions.

Having a continuing education and training (CET) provision able to be meet the needs of all kinds and classifications of workers is central to its effectiveness in sustaining the employability of the working age population. Part of that requirement is for a provision that is accessible, effective and scalable to an entire population of working age adults. To identify and offer principles and practices for such an effective CET provision, this chapter reports and discusses the second phase of a national research project on CET in Singapore. The aim of this phase was to engage with a larger sample of working age adults than the 180 CET graduates who comprised the informants in the first phase. The second phase was enacted using an online survey that gathered data on the expectations of CET and the learning needs and requirements of working age Singaporeans. The sample included both adults who had participated and those who had not engaged in any recognizable form of CET. The items selected for this survey were derived in part from the findings of the first phase of the project. The intent was to engage with as wide a range of adult age survey respondents as possible to verify and extend the findings from those interviews across a broader working age population. Furthermore, items about factors that will encourage participation, completion and inform the effectiveness of the overall experience and the contributions of teachers were included, as were those associated with the worth of government subsidies and their influence on working age adults whether these made a difference to their participation in CET programs. This quantitative approach to data gathering and analysis is particularly important for informing both governmental, educational and workplace policies about CET. Findings from the survey emphasize the importance of pre-course counselling, readiness to participate in CET programs and preparatory experiences as well as the qualities of educational experiences, adult educators and subsidies as strong incentives for participation in CET by working age Singaporeans. The findings lead to conclusions about the purposes for, practices of, and means of engaging in CET that might be considered by government, tertiary education institutions and workplaces in providing an effective CET system that is accessible and scalable for the working age population.

To achieve the kind of goals demanded of an effective continuing education and training (CET) system requires a systematic approach that is inclusive of the efforts of government, workplaces, communities and working age adults. That is, on their own the efforts of individuals, education institutions or workplaces will be inadequate to generate a system that supports the ongoing development of working age adults. This includes sustaining the viability of the enterprises in which they work and collectively the nation states in which they reside. That is, an interdependence amongst the agency, effort and contributions of individuals, workplaces, educational institutions and communities is required. This chapter reports and discusses key findings from the review of literature and national case study that collectively offer contributions to and advances about how the provision of CET might proceed. They suggest that this provision needs to encompass and accommodate a range of stakeholders, perspectives and needs. This includes those of working age adults, employers, educators and administrators in CET, and governmental imperatives, to enhance and maximize the effectiveness of CET provisions and the various subsystems within which these provisions are enacted. Thus, seeking to identify and elaborate a systematic provision of CET is a constructive way to draw together these findings of the review and the practical investigation. This approach permits each element of a CET system to be addressed, not just as individual elements, but systematically, as a set of interdependent elements. Such a systematic approach is also helpful for eliminating and elaborating the complexity of CET provisions—as a system whose purposes and outcomes are shaped by its settings, rules, roles, and actors. So, this chapter seeks to illuminate and advance how CET provisions might be enacted through a systematic approach to promote employability. It addresses three key issues central to identifying what constitutes effective CET provisions. These are: i) the need to align elements of CET provisions ultimately with their intended educational outcomes for working adults, and by corollary, national social and economic goals; ii) avoiding individual elements of the CET system being viewed in isolation or reductively; and iii) the need for any change in the CET system to be inherently both collaborative and engaging partners comprising adults, workplaces, education institutions and communities.

The role and expectations of working women have changed dramatically in many countries due to shifts in social and economic conditions, changes of legislative requirements about work and actions against discrimination and social demands. These include such as women wanting and needing to have as fulfilling working lives as males. Working women usually have additional family responsibilities, including managing the primary care of children and extended family members and, thus, often faced with greater challenges when seeking to pursue career pathways than male counterparts. Such family commitments tend to be heightened in Asian culture, such as is the case in Singapore. When engaging in continuing education and training (CET) to sustain their employability concerns, working women/mothers usually face heightened challenges associated with (i) managing study commitments alongside work and self-care, (ii) balancing study with family commitments, and (iii) balancing study with work commitments. There is, however, a complex of personal and work factors that variously hinder or enable working women’s participation and engagement in CET. So, provisions of CET are set amongst a range of other factors that support or inhibit participation and engagement of women workers. All this suggests effective CET provisions are required to meet the varied needs of these working age adults. Drawing on interviews with CET women graduates, this chapter seeks to understand their experience with CET courses in terms of enablers and barriers to their participation and engagement. Such understanding is pivotal to respond to the quest of what constitutes effective CET provisions for working women.

This chapter describes and justifies the method and procedures used for investigating what constitutes effective continuing education and training (CET) provisions in Singapore. These were used to develop a comprehensive case study of current practices of CET and how they might be enhanced. With one of the highest aging populations globally and its primary assets lying in its human resources, Singapore presents a case that is pertinent not only to its own context but also imparts valuable lessons that may be applicable to other regions. Certainly, Singapore’s key national economic policy emphasises the importance of its working-age adults’ engagement in CET to sustain their employability and across lengthening working lives, and in ways that contribute to their workplaces’ continuity and development. Together, these personal and enterprise imperatives play a crucial role in achieving governmental objectives of bolstering a strong economic foundation and maintaining the capacity to deliver the necessary goods and services for the nation state, a scenario likely mirrored elsewhere. Moreover, other concerns are now being echoed about importance of CET as nation states seek to become more self-sufficient and self-reliant in an era of geopolitical challenges. Consequently, it is increasingly important for nation states to understand what constitutes effective CET provisions and how they might be designed and enacted to achieve these outcomes. Yet, that effectiveness is premised on more than achieving the goals of educational institutions or governmental edicts. Central to the efficacy of CET is its ability to attract participation by, engagement in and achievement of outcomes for working-age adults, and the enterprises in which they are employed. Therefore, instead of viewing CET solely through the lens of individual employability, it is crucial to recognize its role in sustaining enterprise viability and contributing to the fulfillment of social and economic goals within nation-states. It follows then that to investigate how these processes and outcomes might be understood, this chapter sets out the context, framing, procedures, and broad outcomes of a three-phase research project of CET undertaken in Singapore. In essence, the investigation sought to identify what constitutes effective CET provisions for working age adults. The practical inquiry was enacted through interviews with CET graduates and their employers in Phase 1, followed by a survey in Phase 2 administered to Singaporean working age adults in a range of employment and industry sectors to validate and advance the interview findings. In Phase 3, the consolidated findings from the first two phases were presented to CET educators and administrators who engaged in co-construction of the implications and generation of guidelines for curriculum and pedagogic practices. It is these procedures that are described and elaborated here to inform and justify the approach adopted in this case study, but also to inform how these approaches might be adopted elsewhere.

There are growing national and global policy focuses as well as local concerns about what is often referred to as ‘lifelong learning’, particularly as it pertains to adults’ learning across working life. To understand and be responsive to those concerns in both policy and practice, it is helpful to articulate key precepts and premises. These are helpful to inform what constitutes effective provisions of continuing education and training (CET) and how, in their diverse forms, they can support individuals’ learning across working lives. The effective promotion of, engagement in and support provided by CET is central to achieving important individual, workplace and national goals. These goals include sustaining individuals’ employability as workplace and occupational requirements change, and supporting the viability of public and private sector enterprises that provide both employment for these adults but also, more importantly, the provision of goods and services that individuals and communities need. Collectively, these contribute to meeting national social and economic goals through the generation of the goods and services that nation states require to be globally competitive, import-competing and export-oriented. More than being about the profitability of these enterprises is the capacity to provide effective social provisions that nation states require (i.e., health, social welfare and education). It has been commonly acknowledged that individuals’ initial occupational preparation is now insufficient to meet their needs for employability across lengthening working lives. The increasingly dynamic requirements for work and occupational practice mean that focused and sustained learning across working life is required by all kinds and classifications of workers, occupations, and industry sectors. This is the case for nation states albeit with developed and developing economies. Thus, the need for effective and scalable CET provisions to sustain workers’ employability has never been greater. To provide the appropriate educative provisions for working age adults, it is important to identify the kinds of experiences, their accessibility and pertinence for them to sustain that employability. Based on a review of extant literature, this chapter sets out what is known and understood about the imperatives for adults to learn across working life, both personal and institutional and how that learning might be best supported, guided and realised, and in ways scalable to entire working populations. It considers approaches for organising, ordering, supporting, and guiding this intentional learning through CET provisions.

As working populations age in many countries, issues associated with older workers’ employability and worklife learning arise for national economies, enterprises, communities, and these workers themselves. Understanding how best to assist these workers maintain their employability across extended working lives, and what workplaces, educational institutions and government agencies can do to sustain that employability, is now central to many countries’ national social and economic goals. This is a particularly germane issue to Singapore, the site of this case study driven publication. Whilst this nation state is largely dependent upon the skills of its workforce, the workforce is one that is ageing. Indeed, this nation state has the third highest age population. Yet, it is not alone here, and many others are considering how best to retain and continue to develop the employability of its older workers. So, there are imperatives when considering how best to promote older workers’ employability through education or training initiatives. Thus, the approaches to continuing education and training (CET) for these workers may need to go beyond those provided through existing tertiary education provisions. Those are often primarily established and have models associated with initial occupational preparation and position adult learners as students, rather than as collaborators in their own and others’ learning. So, it is necessary to identify and enact CET provisions that are suited to the needs of older workers and are supported by pedagogic practices appropriate to their needs as adults and mature age students. Drawing on data from a research project investigating CET provisions in Singapore, this chapter seeks to illuminate and appraise the experience of and kinds of CET that meets the needs of older students. It draws on interviews with 37 CET graduates aged 50 and above. Through understanding the goals, readiness, capacities, and circumstances of these older workers, and the qualities of an effective CET provision can be identified to meet their needs.