202 Subject Formation: Transitions for New Workers Margaret Somerville University of New England M y research with new workers suggests that across all work and learning situations the transition into work is a critical time in the formation of worker subjectivities. This paper will examine the formation of these worker subjectivities in the transition from formal learning/preparatory training to work. It will draw on longitudinal research with a small number of workers in a range of different industries. I will suggest that the concept of transfer of skills is of little relevance to understanding or facilitating these transitions. Some current conceptions of the formation of worker subjectivities, including Billett’s concept of co-participatory practices (2001), and a Foucaultian approach of technologies of the self (Edwards & Nicholl, 2004) were found to be potentially useful starting points. These transitions will be explored to assist vocational educa- tors and workplace trainers to facilitate the transition from learning to work. This paper explores the experience of new workers making the transition to full time work from preparatory training. Previous research with aged care workers suggested that the first week, the first three months, and the first 12 months of entering the workplace after preparatory training were crucial periods for workplace learning (Somerville, 2003). Moreover, it was through the processes and practices of workplace learning that worker subjectivi- ties were formed (Billett & Somerville, 2004). This process of the formation of worker subjectivities, was described by a trainee assistant-in-nursing as ‘entwining’ when she reflected on her growing commit- ment to her work and especially her relationship with the people in her care. Lloyd (2004) similarly noted, in her study of information literacy and fire fighters, that while preparatory training enabled new workers to enter the workplace and ‘act as a fire fighter’, it was not until they learned from the physical and social environment of the workplace that they ‘became a fire fighter’. As Billett reminds us, ‘There is no separation between participation in work and learning’ (Billett, 2001, p. 210), but while there has been a proliferation of studies of workplace learning, there has been less focus on the simultaneous processes of subject formation. The research reported in this study seeks to address the question, How can we under- stand the simultaneous processes of workplace learning and subject formation in the transition to work, and what does this mean for workers, workplace learning theory and research, and vocational prepa- ration more generally? Billett (e.g., 2001, p. 209) provides us with a broad general framework for under- standing workplace learning as constituted within a relationship of co-participation between an individual and the workplace: ‘The way workplaces afford opportunities for learning and how individuals elect to engage in activities and with the support and guidance provided in the workplace, is cental to understanding workplaces as