Learning reinforcement strategies for a changing workforce

There is increasing evidence of skill shortages in Australian commerce and industry, as global competition, changes in technology and in Government regulation place greater demands on company employees. There is, consequently, strong corporate interest in new educational paradigms, such as e-Learning, particularly web-based education, to maintain staff competences in a changing workplace environment. Simultaneously, workplace reform driven by the productivity imperative, and by unfavourable demographic changes in the Western world are increasing employee turnover and individual stress. Training managers, while addressing the corporate demands vigorously, are seriously challenged by the scope and difficulty of re-skilling a mobile and diverse workforce. Considerable difficulty, for example, has been experienced in introducing electronic content into new, or even existing, business training scenarios! While Learning Reinforcement (LR) provides a generic Framework for greater cost-effectiveness, new LR strategies are now in prospect based on our enumeration and generalisation of open learning models in professional practice, from studies of workplace training models and from results using blended LR.