This article describes the various aspects of human resources development and highlights the intersections and the differences between what are often mistakenly viewed as interchangeable concepts. It argues that, while it is generally accepted that developing staff is fundamental to good organisational health and business outcomes, a clear…

Britain is in the longest recession since the Second World War. Mass unemployment is back. The road to recovery could be long and bumpy. On the fiscal front, the deficit could be higher than the 175 billion British Pounds forecast for 2009-10. Bringing the deficit under control will require higher taxes and lower public spending. In an effort to…

In 2003, we wrote a critical reply to Frank Coffield's reflections in this journal on the significance of the Performance and Innovation Unit's project on workforce development for the future direction of skills policy in England. As Coffield made clear in a rejoinder, underpinning our arguments are fundamental disagreements about what would be…

The real retraining of the American work force will not come about through massive, federally operated job training programs. It will come about only when employers are able to look forward to a promising economic future that requires highly trained and motivated employees and that offers real jobs. (Author/SSH)

Transformational outcome-based education aligns curriculum with authentic tasks and authentic assessment, focusing on development of learners with metacognitive skills to cope with a technologically and culturally diverse world and workplace. (SK)

Education and adult life/work are concurrent, not consecutive. To address this new paradigm, Work Keys provide a common language for education and business to prepare people for education and employment transitions. Work Keys components are job profiling, skills assessments, and targets for instruction. (SK)

Redesigning jobs, training, and retraining may be the most important economic challenge facing this country for the next decade. Training must support jobs that are really changing and retraining has to prepare people for jobs that really exist. (Author/JOW)

Four directors of corporate training answer the question "Should human resource development directors have a training background?" and then each presents a list of recommendations for trainers, involving such areas as internal consulting skills, business experience, sense of timing, the difference between training and teaching, and taking a…

The author argues that the American labor market is in the midst of historic transition that will challenge human resource development professionals. Sweeping demographic changes will soon combine with a "Second Industrial Revolution" in technology and a quantum leap in the level and quality of foreign competition to raise sharply the importance…

Countries everywhere are turning to education in the quest for competitive edge in the global economy. How to attain the high skills needed in new reformed workplaces is a preoccupation that can be observed across developed countries. In this widening discourse of high skills and competitiveness, the U.S. skills production model is being seen as…

Why do employers go to the trouble and considerable expense of providing training for the people who work for them? Traditionally, the purpose of company-sponsored training has been to prepare specific people to do specific jobs or to do them better. (SSH)

A community college president brought a student affairs background with him as he assumed his first presidency. That perspective was an influencing factor in the organizational development initiatives at the institution in the first decade of his service. In this submission to the "Community College Times," he develops the position that…

Discusses the emergence of a global, technology-drive, skills-based economy where manufacturers are now talking about the need for qualified workers. Describes Minnesota's severe worker shortage that threatens to choke the state's continued economic growth. Recounts Dakota County Technical College's decision to take a leadership role to address…

HRD (human resources development) is tackled by the author, who argues against HRD's psychological construct; the assumption that for every problem, there is a theoretical and workable solution; teamwork as opposed to individualism; listening as a discrete skill; if it's Japanese, it's better; and HRD's theory of leadership. (CT)

The United State Chamber of Commerce presents a statement on (1) the direction of vocational education in the 1980s, (2) the federal role in vocational education, and (3) special contributions vocational education can make to the economic challenges of the future. (SK)