It has long been acknowledged that initial occupational preparation is insufficient for remaining employable across working life, given the existing challenges of increased global competition, changing occupational requirements and workplace-specific competencies. Hence, the need for worker adaptability to respond to the existing and emerging challenges has been long evident and reinforced. The increasing requirements for nation states to be self-reliant and self-sufficient is now accentuating the demands for skilful work to occur in different ways and be responsive to meeting these kinds of workplace goals. This includes workers playing a greater role in initiating, enacting and monitoring workplace innovations. Drawing initially on data from the Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competence PIAAC (OECD, 2013, 2016), comparative measures of worker discretion, problem-solving and learning through work are used to illuminate the key roles of adaptability in working and learning. These data emphasise the importance of sustaining workers’ employability, workplace change and becoming increasingly self-reliant through the lens of adaptive practices. It is concluded that opportunities to exercise discretion, initiate change and innovations are central to individual employability, sustaining workplaces’ viability in the face of emerging challenges individually as goods and services providers and collectively for nation states to realise their social and economic goals.