Abstract
This paper will address the increasing importance of links between the academy and the workplace in supporting lifelong learning.

In particular we will focus on the development of programmes of WBL which attempt to cross the divide by supporting, assessing and accrediting learning from work. In addressing learning in the workplace these programmes are beginning to incorporate notions of competence and of knowledge created in action into a structure of higher education awards.

We will argue that these attempts may be viewed as helpful in supporting the informal learning at work, which it has been suggested is central to the development of a learning society. However, we also begin to explore how, in providing this support, WBL programmes shape and change both HE and learning in the workplace.