This paper will present interim findings from a theoretically-informed and evidence-based analysis of the outcomes and impact of workplace-linked programmes designed to improve adults' basic skills. An underlying question is whether a critical level of skills acquisition can be identified, which promotes movement over what can be conceptualised as an 'inclusion' frontier. The research employs a combination of quantitative data (survey and assessment) and qualitative data (learner biography and personal accounts) with the aim of identifying when and how programmes accessed through the workplace are effective in improving adults' measured basic skills, as well as their effects on other life-course variables (employment stability, earnings, promotion, enrolment in further educational programmes, quality of life). In-depth studies of learners in contrasting organizations and workplaces are used to illuminate the importance of 'situatedness' in the workplace learning - in practical, organisational and biographical terms - and the significance of the wider organisational environment if learners are to experience personal empowerment through these programmes.