Work‐Based Learning, Motivation and Employer‐Employee Interaction: Implications for Lifelong Learning

SUMMARY

This paper explores the role of motivation and employer‐employee interaction in promoting participation in, and the success of, work‐based learning. It uses a model of motivation in order to explain the critical importance of communication in stimulating involvement in this type of activity. Congruence and dissonance between the employers’ and the employees’ perspectives of work‐based learning are identified as a major influence that affects motivation and subsequent participation in this approach to knowledge and skill acquisition. The implications of these findings for lifelong learning and the creation of a learning society are briefly discussed.