Even some highly educated professionals can be hard-to-reach learners. N m and better approaches to nee& assessment and the delivery of educational services are essentkl i f real progress is to be m d .Continuing Professional Education (CPE) includes any purposeful, systematic, and sustained effort conducted by professionals after completion of their entry-level education to update or expand the proficiency, knowledge, skills, or attitudes necessary to effectively discharge their occupational roles.CPE is the fastest-growing segment of continuing education. Of the many reasons for this growth, the postindustrial trend toward professionalization of the work force is the most important. The nearexponential increase in the growth rate of new knowledge has created societal demands for specialized expertise. The result of such demands has been the growth and proliferation of service and technologically oriented professional occupations in which the application of a complex body of knowledge is both the medium of exchange and the raison &&re. Since 1950, the professional work force in the United States has more than doubled, now representing more than 10 percent of the total employed population.It is ironic that the very factors responsible for the rise of the expert represent the most potent threats to the continuity of professional proficiency. As the professional work force grows, so too does the recognition that specialized knowledge is a perishable commodity, that the skills and attitudes acquired during preparatory education are sub-New Directions fm Continuing Education, 8, 1980 55 56 ject to rapid obsolescence, and that only by maintaining a lifelong commitment to learning can professionals expect to remain proficient and fulfill their increasingly complex obligations to their occupations, their clients and employers, and the society they serve.
