To explain the processes of learning across working life that support the employability of workers in times of change and uncertainty, it is necessary to account for the complex of factors that shape that learning. Conceptually, these constitute factors comprising those sourced in, suggested and projected by the social world (e.g., opportunities, barriers, invitations, engagements, projections, participation, close distance support et cetera), on the one hand. On the other, are how these are engaged with by working age adults as shaped by their subjectivities (i.e., sense of self, relations to others), capacities (i.e., what they know, can do and value) and personal epistemologies (i.e., how they make sense of the world and respond to it drawing upon their subjectivities and capacities). They, in turn, are also shaped by the brute fact of maturation (e.g., ageing, physical strength and health). From a review of literature whose disciplinary focuses transcend sociological, anthropological, linguistic, linguistic, cognitive, developmental and educational fields, this chapter sets out something about what is known and understood about the imperatives for adults to learn across working life, and the personal, brute and societal contributions to that learning. It seeks to provide a comprehensive, albeit inevitably incomplete, platform for a program of informed inquiry, including perspectives on how these phenomena might be understood from diverse fields. Far from offering singularity of focus and orientation, it outlines some of the perspectives that are exercised through an Australian project about learning across working life and that inform the collective and distinct contributions of the authored chapters within this volume. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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