11. Location and timing of education programs enhance the learning opportunities by offering the most suitable time and location for the participants.

12. Employer and participants in programs demonstrate their commitment through shared time, release time, stipends or bonuses.

13. Marketing materials and activities clearly communicate the program’s assumptions, approaches to adult education, achievable goals and benefits for participants, unions and employers.

Considering Good Practice in Use

In this section we begin by explaining each statement of good practice. Then we offer some questions or dilemmas to demonstrate that good practice is our best interpretation of valued practices in particular situations. That is, good practice is situated in an organization and the union, in the group of workers, staff and management, in the culture of the organization including its communication practices, its valuing (or not) of literacies, its social relations and its hierarchies of power.

Voluntary

People participate in all aspects of the program on a voluntary basis. There are many activities surrounding and supporting workplace learning — people can be part of planning teams or committees, contribute their ideas in an organizational needs assessment, offer comments and suggestions in ongoing and final evaluations, and take part in educational programs. People participate in these activities voluntarily, choosing to be a committee member, a respondent in a needs assessment or a learner in a program.

Educators agree that volunteering encourages participation and access. “Mandatory attendance,” says one educator, “guarantees failure by putting pressure on people who didn’t succeed before.”