The transitions adults negotiate across their working lives need to be further understood for governments, workplaces, and the community to effectively support these adults. Through analyses of worklife history interview data with 30 working age adults, distinct kinds of changes comprising these transitions have been delineated as representative of changes that have person-particular meanings and impacts. This delineation represents understandings of processes and outcomes for adults’ learning and development. These transitions have specific kinds of scope, duration, and impacts in terms of continuity/discontinuity with individuals’ earlier activities and knowing. Transitions can be objectively observed, captured, and represented by a complex of personal, institutional, and/or brute factors. Understanding the changes comprising these worklife transitions and how they can be supported and facilitated requires accounting for societal factors as well as individuals’ personal histories and legacies and impacts of maturation. A schema representing six kinds of changes is presented and illuminated.

There is a growing global concern about providing effective continuing education and training (CET) to support and sustain the employability of working-age populations. More than enhancing workplace viability and employability, CET also assists in achieving governments’ economic and social goals. Educational institutions organise CET provisions based on intended goals, resources, capacities, and institutional imperatives. However, working-age adults’ effective engagement and worthwhile outcomes are likely to be strongest when what is afforded them is aligned with their goals, needs and readiness to participate. Thus, what constitutes effective CET provisions can be best understood by appraising them through how they secure individuals’ engagement and meet their needs. Drawing on an investigation of CET provisions in Singapore, this paper 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. Through analyses of interview and survey data, the motivations for informants’ CET participation, their preferences and requirements for effective engagement in CET including desirable qualities of teachers were identified and delineated. Given that adults elect to participate in CET to achieve personal and professional outcomes, the findings provide bases for designing, enacting and evaluating effective CET programmes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an unprecedented education crisis, causing severe disruption to global education systems. One consequence has been an increased demand for online educational platforms, leading to a shift from face-to-face to online teaching. This was the case in Singapore where online educational provisions were quickly adopted and implemented by institutions providing continuing education and training to adult learners. This paper reports on the data from a survey of 258 participants on the accessibility and effectiveness of the different modes of learning (i.e. online learning, face-to-face learning, and a combination of both) based on comparisons prior to and after the onset of COVID-19. The findings indicate that familiarity with online platforms enhances the potential efficacy of online provisions of continuing education and training, but also illuminate issues concerning the kinds of experiences required for effective continuing education and training, with implications for providers and educators in and beyond Singapore.

Hospitality personnel are often prepared through vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) providers, taking different emphases. In Vietnam’s hospitality workplaces, HE graduates compete with VET graduates for the same basic operational positions, with limited managerial positions available. Given the different educational pathways taken for similar career opportunities in the current labour market, it is important to understand students’ views of hospitality workplaces as their future career environment. The aim of this study is to identify and examine underlying factors that determine tertiary students’ overall career perceptions in hospitality in the Vietnamese context. A quantitative study utilising an online survey was conducted with 234 hospitality students from different higher education institutes and VET colleges in the South of Vietnam. Chi squared statistics and logistic regression were performed to assess the views and significant educational level differences. The analyses show marked differences in views between the HE and VET participants on several aspects of hospitality workplaces, including pay/promotion opportunities, management, and commitment to the industry. The HE participants appeared less positive, and indicated a lower commitment to a future in the hospitality industry. The results of this study have important implications for various stakeholder groups. Students’ negative perceptions, associated with their internship experiences in different aspects of hospitality workplaces, currently appear to result in detrimental consequences for HE students, with many not planning on remaining in the hospitality sector. This has both short-term and long-term implications for hospitality employers, hospitality educational providers, and Vietnam’s HE system.

Purpose: Employers often claim that the lack of employee competence is a limitation in their enterprises’ success and viability. Consequently, employers are important stakeholders in considerations for workforce continuing education and training (CET) policies and practices. Hence, the authors undertook an exploratory investigation to understand how employers perceive provisions of CET offered through tertiary education institutions and how they might be improved.Design/methodology/approach: Overall, 40 employers from a range of industry sectors in Singapore were surveyed and interviewed about effective CET for their employees.Findings: These employers reported preferring one-on-one training in the workplace and being willing to invest in their employees’ training so long employees remained committed to their companies. They value online education, but prefer that it is combined with workplace or face-to-face learning experiences. They proposed effective CET trainers as those with relevant industry knowledge and teaching skills and effective CET learners as those who were self-motivated, goal oriented and open-minded.Originality/value: A study of such nature that focusses on the perspectives of employers, as opposed to employees and educators, has not been undertaken before in Singapore. Given Singapore’s increasing emphasis on lifelong learning and the workplace as a vital site for that learning, the lessons learnt here transcend national boundaries and may serve as a useful reference for other countries that seek to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.

The concept of employability extends beyond initial occupational preparation into the ability to remain employable as, inevitably, occupational capacities and workplace requirements change frequently across working lives. Hence, the need to continually learn to remain occupationally current and respond to changing workplace requirements becomes paramount. The evidence suggests that much of that learning arises through individual efforts and the support of co‐workers through work activities. So, there is a need to understand how that learning can be supported to sustain employability across lengthening working lives. Drawing on an Australian study, reported here are perspectives from managers and workers in diverse workplaces about current modes of continuing education and training and about how workers are assisted with their learning to meet personal needs and qthose of employers. Employers want an occupationally current workforce that can meet specific workplace needs; workers want the capacities to remain employable, which may extend to advancing their careers elsewhere. The data indicate differences in perceptions about what is being provided, how frequently the provisions are used, and the worth of its certification. Whilst the findings indicate shared concerns about the importance of learning, there were clear differences in views about the models and processes used to support that learning. Across both sets of informants can be seen distinctions between ‘training solutions’ and ‘learning solutions’. A more nuanced analysis suggests that the training solution is appropriate and effective at some point in workers' worklife trajectories but in other circumstances, learning through practice is proposed as being more efficacious.