Project Build is an eight-week course in construction industry basics for unemployed residents of the neighborhoods surrounding The Ohio State University. Developing curriculum for Project Build revealed that existing training materials in the construction industry focus on technical skills. Extensive conversations with industry experts about…

A review of vocational education trends in Western Europe and Japan covers the following: curriculum and program structure, alternatives, cooperative education, on-the-job training, enrollments, admission, curriculum content, skills other than strictly occupational, mechanisms for curriculum development, and efficiency of training. (MSE)

Research and development projects at the AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph Company) National Teletraining Center (NTC) are geared toward increasing understanding of the various psychological, sociological, ergonomic, and environmental factors involved in teletraining, and toward improving the ability to manage the distance learning…

Three areas of research are particularly important for educators concerned with literacy in the workplace. The areas are the following: (1) the National Adult Literacy Survey results that show that for many workers there are gaps between tested literacy abilities and the new literacy demands present in the most promising jobs; (2) 2 decades of…

Discusses the problems associated with remediation in vocational education and job training and argues for the need to reform the current system. The authors explain that reform would require the coordination and referral mechanisms familiar to policymakers as well as pedagogical reforms that have rarely been considered. (GLR)

Contrasting employment, education, and training developments occurred during the 1980s in Britain and Australia. High school completion rates in Great Britain and Australia have been low in comparison to the United States, but the work pattern changed when the market for unskilled youth labor collapsed in the 1980s. Australia increased proportions…

This book provides a review of (primarily Australian) research on competency-based training (CBT). It includes information on the industrial and economic contexts that formed the backdrop for training reform in Australia. Information is presented to show how implementation of CBT has affected teaching, learning, and administration in vocational…

Before educational planners can develop associate degree level curricula to train human resource practitioners, they must have a clear understanding of the field of human resource development (HRD). A review of research relating to the role of the HRD specialist indicates that HRD practitioners must be specialists in human relations skills and…

A basic position of industry is that it picks up where schools leave off. Training policy within industry is diverse in theory and practice. Companies vary in their approach to training, ranging from highly informal to highly formal. The many new trends in industrial training may be analyzed in four dimensions: in-house education programs,…

This volume is a literature overview of school-business partnerships, encompassing types of partnerships, issues, program models, and information for development and research. The first section, "Perspectives," includes six articles that place partnerships in historic context, identify motivations that contribute to partnership…

This report describes the background and links among education, training, labor market, economy, and society. Part 1 deals with the statutory, institutional, and political background to vocational education and training (VET), steering of VET systems, funding, and performance of VET systems and the European context. Part 2 discusses research on…

The reforms undertaken in the vocational education and training systems and the public employment services systems of European Union (EU) candidate countries in the 10 years since the transition have resulted in the following achievements: (1) participation in upper secondary and tertiary education has increased and curricula for general education…

A party of vocational educators from the United Kingdom (UK) traveled to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to observe current experiments with the first year of apprenticeship training or, as it is called in Germany, the Berufsgrundbildungsjahr (BGJ). During its study, the visiting party focused its attention on the objectives, design,…

This book represents a sampling of current research priorities in vocational education along with suggested directions for further education. In the first of the book's five sections, research efforts related to sex equity in vocational education are summarized by M. Eloise Murray. Both sex equity studies and sex affirmation studies are included…

This yearbook contains 24 reports concerning the following seven challenges currently facing vocational education: new needs for job training, reexamining value bases, a growing network of vocational educators, reflecting on past effectiveness, the continuing challenge to meet individual and special needs, strengthening curricula and instruction,…