Information and communications technologies (ICT) are central to the lifelong learning policy in the UK. Considerable public expenditure continues to be applied to the creation of on-line learning and on-line learner information services. These are seen as having a major role in stimulating learning in the small business sector which has traditionally proved reluctant to engage in structured programmes of employee development. While policy has resulted in significant spending on new infrastructure, insufficient attention is being paid to the ways in which those in the workplace learn and learn about learning. The effective development of learning in small businesses is dependent on the radical changes associated with ICT being matched by equally radical changes in the way that work-based learning is conceptualised and organised. This chapter suggests that the development of ICT-supported work-based learning will result in significant changes in learning relationships and in the sources from which learners seek support. In particular, this chapter explores the potential for new learning relationships to be recognised and taken fully into account in planning and implementing work-based learning programmes. While positive for learners and the businesses in which they work, the changes in roles and relationships which the adoption of this perspective will involve will challenge and potentially marginalise traditional players in the learning market. © 2004 Brill. All rights reserved.
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