A further pedagogical barrier is reported by Feist (2001) who reports that instructors, like all adult learners, face barriers to learning to become better instructors. Like all adult learners, they need support in their attempts to learn better teaching skills and their professional development programs need to apply sound principles of adult learning.

Lack of recognition of prior learning is cited as a major barrier to participating in adult learning opportunities. Prior learning and knowledge must be made visible and understandable if an educational institution is to recognize and credential it. The development of a learning portfolio is one strategy for doing this; and is viewed, not only as a means for helping individual learners build self-confidence and gain credit for prior learning, but also as a method to help communities build their learning capacity and the commitment levels crucial to successful community recovery, transition and development (Myers, 2003). An evaluation of the work of the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Centre in Nova Scotia reports strong evidence that the portfolio learning process generates major psychosocial benefits for learners in terms of significant improvement in self- confidence, self-awareness, and self-esteem, and that the learning and personal change generated by the process pay direct dividends in terms of improved employment, incomes and career prospects (Praxis Research & Consulting, 2002).

3.2.5.2 Employment training barriers

Workplace learning opportunities suffer from the same barriers as formal educational learning opportunities. Some additional barriers are reported in the literature on work-based training and professional development.

• The quality of workplace learning opportunities suffer when employers provide such training because it is a “good thing to do” or because external forces such as governments and clients need to be appeased (Ahlstrand et al., 2003).
• Employers need to understand the positive effect of training on business goals and needs (Ahlstrand et al., 2003) in addition to its positive effect on the satisfaction of workers.
• The nature of lower wage jobs does not easily lend itself to high quality training (Ahlstrand et al., 2003); employers may overlook the training needs of low wage workers if they believe that helping such workers acquire better skills or a better self-image may lead to worker dissatisfaction about wages and high turnover.
• From a worker's point of view, participating in training can result in lost wages (Hansen, 1998); from an employer's point of view, training opportunities can result in lost productivity; employers and workers need to understand both the costs and benefits of work-related training (Léonard, 2001).
• Adult immigrants receive fewer hours of work-related training than their Canadian counterparts (Simpson & Hum, 2003); women receive fewer hours of work-related training and employer- sponsored training than their male counterparts (Statistics Canada/OECD, 2005).

Because they are in daily contact with workers and have a holistic knowledge of individual workers' needs, labour unions are in an excellent position to provide worker education. However, Spence (1999) suggests that unions must develop for new partnerships with management, community organizations, and statutory bodies to meet the needs of workers' education more effectively.

Employer financing plays a central role in supporting learning opportunities. Levels of worker engagement in literacy and numeracy practices on the job are positively associated with the likelihood that workers will benefit from employer-sponsored education and training (Statistics Canada/OECD, 2005).