Adult continuing education and human resource development: Present competitors,potential partners

Author's Note : In May 1989, this article was published inLivelong Learning, the monthly practitioner journal of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (Vol. 12, No. 7, pp. 13–17). Now viewed as a period reference article, it presents the relationship of adult and continuing education (ACE) and human resource development (HRD) in the late 1980s, providing both a description of the differences betweenACEandHRDand the conceptual and programmatic reasons for these differences. When asked if it could be published again, I first thought of updating some of the data, particularly theACEandHRDproductivity. I didn't for two reasons. First, it would no longer be a period piece, where you could compare theACEandHRDproductivity with 25 year old data. Second, and more important, the purpose of the article was to emphasize how and whyACEandHRDwould benefit from working together. Now, some 25 year later it is my observation that little has changed. The relationship betweenACEandHRDis still about the same ‐ they remain competitors that still don't talk and work with each other.