Transformation of HRD: Change is coming!

Human Resource Development (HRD), as an applied area of research, practice, and education, has matured and evolved over the last six decades (Harrison et al., Citation2021; Lee, Citation2014; Sambrook & Willmott, Citation2014). At its heart, the field focuses on the interaction between work and learning for individuals, groups, organisations, communities, nations, regions of the world, and our global community (Garavan et al., Citation2023; Torraco & Lundgren, Citation2020). The point of departure is that, wherever people work, there is learning, be it tacit or explicit, formal or informal, work-based or classroom-based, incidental or accidental, effective or ineffective. However, in the 21st century, accelerated by radical technological, economic, demographic, and ecological changes, there have been significant changes in work and employment. Work is carried out in new ways and in new virtual and non-traditional spaces. What HRD scholars, practitioners, and researchers once regarded as standard forms of employment are increasingly characterised by variation, atypicality and precarity (Anderson, Citation2022; Scully-Russ & Torraco, Citation2020). Alongside this, at a global level, patterns of labour migration, in addition to changes in the geography of production, distribution, and value chains, raise questions about whether traditional approaches to HRD research, practice, and education remain relevant and timely (Keep, Citation2021; World Economic Forum, Citation2018).