Workplace-Based Education and Economic Development

Increased international competition has placed a premium on the quality of the labor force in a local economy. This article examines the forces shaping worker-employer joint education and training efforts, and the roles local development organizations can play in promoting such investments in local human capital. Cases involving public and private sector employers in Britain and the United States are examined, so as to assess the ways in which union militancy and forms of worker organization may affect efforts at cooperation. As may be expected, the authors find that successful programs depend on shared management and labor objectives. Local development groups can shape those objectives by providing information to both businesses and workers. Thus development organizations can invest their industrial recruitment and business retention data in improving the quality of local labor forces by promoting workplace-based joint education and training programs.