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The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications

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International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work

This chapter begins a much-needed discourse about workforce development, a term used with increasing frequency among educational practitioners, policy-makers and scholars alike. In spite of the increasing use of the term, there has been limited discussion about its meaning and implications for established fields of study (Giloth, 2000; Grubb, 1999; Harrison&Weiss, 1998). This discourse is critical for both theoretical and practical reasons, particularly given the economic and social benefits that are expected from workforce development programmes (Grubb&Lazerson, 2004).

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Jacobs, R.L., Hawley, J.D. (2009). The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications. In: Maclean, R., Wilson, D. (eds) International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1_167

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