Vocational rehabilitation or retraining is the process of learning a new skill or trade, often in response to a change in the economic environment. Generally it reflects changes in profession rather than an "upward" movement in the same field.

There is some controversy surrounding the use of retraining to offset economic changes caused by free trade

Free trade

Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

 and automation

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

. For example, most studies show that displaced factory workers in the United States on the average have lower wages after retraining to other positions when a factory is closed due to offshoring

Offshoring

Offshoring describes the relocation by a company of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting. Even state governments employ offshoring...

. A similar issue surrounds movement from technical jobs to liaison job

Liaison job

Liaison jobs are jobs that "link" two or more specialties. For example, "systems analyst" jobs work with customers and management to understand and document their automation needs and then transfer such information to computer programmers, who turn the collected information into working software...

s due to offshore outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country other than the one where the products or services are actually developed or manufactured. It can be contrasted with offshoring, in which the functions are performed in a foreign...

. Such changes may also favor certain personality types over others, due to the changing tasks and skills required.

Retraining is sometimes offered as part of workfare

Workfare

Workfare is an alternative model to conventional social welfare systems. The term was first introduced by civil rights leader James Charles Evers in 1968; however, it was popularized by Richard Nixon in a televised speech August 1969...

programs, which may include support for transportation, childcare, or an internship.