organizations, training and development are becoming intimately linked to
organizational strategy, with a focus on adaptability andXexibility for both the
developmental objectives and the delivery of training opportunities. For states, the
need for co-investment by employers and individuals is high on the agenda and
formal education is becoming more focused on core skills and engaging with
learning. In this transformation, the role of the HRD specialist is becoming one
of facilitating learning opportunities rather than providing the formally structured
training provision of the past. This tendency is also reXected in the policy
emphasis on lifelong learning with the aim of integrating education, training,
and adult and community learning. Moves within the EU to create a European
QualiWcations System, for example, are driven by a concern not only to promote
labor mobility between member states but also to integrate higher education,
vocational training, and experiential routes of skills acquisition. While there is a
continued emphasis on external qualiWcations for initial training, internal initia-
tives for continuing and adaptive training are increasingly important, with the
establishment of workplace learning facilities and the use of Accreditation of
Prior Learning (Validation des Acquis Expe ́rientielles) for validation of non-formal
experiential learning.
Development is in the ascendant and voices of modernization advocate changing
the focus from training individuals to facilitating learning by individuals, teams,
and organizations, some even claiming that already ‘the development process has
overtaken the training event at individual, group and organization level’ (Mabey
and Iles 1994 : 1 ). Using Engestrom’s ( 2001 ) concept of ‘expansive learning,’ recent
analyses of employee development have distinguished expansive and restrictive
workplace environments in terms of the extent to which they promote or inhibit
opportunities for learning (Rainbird et al. 2003 ). Some organizations are respond-
ing to the need for continuous development by establishing Workplace Learning
Environments, ranging from a few computers in a quiet corner to immense
Corporate Universities. Companies such as Ford have introduced schemes to
encourage employees to return to learning, and similar initiatives have been led
by trade unions in the UK (Rainbird 1990 , 2000 b), particularly since the introduc-
tion of Union Learning Representatives (Rodgers et al. 2003 ).
As for competence, there are again signs that American hegemony on compe-
tency is being challenged by multidimensional competence frameworks, along the
lines of the French and German models. SigniWcantly, a holistic approach to
competence has been recommended for the European Credit Transfer System for
VET and in the European QualiWcations Framework that was being developed
during 2006. The holistic competence model recognizes the unity of competence,
as in theBeruftradition, and the diYculty of breaking speciWc competences into
the analytically distinct cognitive, functional, and social dimensions in practice.
Meta-competence (learning to learn, for example) is presented as an overarching
input that facilitates the acquisition of output competences.
338 jonathan winterton