Perspectives on Adult Education, Human Resource Development, and the Emergence of Workforce Development

This article presents a perspective on the relationship between adult education and human resource development of the past two decades and the subsequent emergence of workforce development. The lesson taken from the article should be more than simply a recounting of events related to these fields of study. Instead, the more general lesson may be to illustrate again the dynamic of how applied fields of study emerge. That is, as societal issues of importance occur, existing processes and information are often used out of necessity by practitioners to address the issues, which in turn promotes reflections mostly from the academic community about what was done. For some professionals, the evolving cycle is painful to experience because it often calls for fundamental change in their known intellectual territory. Alternately, such change should be embraced to ensure the continuing societal relevance of the field of study.