Increasingly, youth are unable to demonstrate minimum competencies in job skills and productive attitudes. Service and white-collar jobs are replacing manual jobs and youth lack the social skills necessary to function in these jobs. Increased attention to cooperative education, which integrates academic/career interests with productive work…

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)

Tech prep is a series of courses and work experiences that prepare students for postsecondary education or work; often, two years of secondary and two years of postsecondary education are involved. Existing programs show increases in achievement, lower dropout rates, and higher enrollment in community colleges. (SK)

Intended to teach local elected officials (LEOs) how to increase their involvement in job training and other human resource programs, this document argues that elected county officials can use strategic issues management (SIM) to assert stronger leadership and to use Private Industry Councils (PICs) more fully as a resource for the delivery of…

This document consists of three separately-published collections of essays by the chancellor of the Alabama College System, presenting his perspectives on aspects of the two-year college system in that state. The document begins with the system's mission statement, and an explanation of the principles underlying the mission. The essays that follow…

This document is intended to promote understanding of performance standards in Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and Employment Service (ES) applications; to promote more appropriate use of performance standards in managing and overseeing job training and job placement programs at the state and local levels; and to foster the integration of the…

The U.S. General Accounting Office studied the characteristics of individual participants in training provided by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the kinds and intensity of services they received, and the occupations in which they were employed after leaving the program. Visits to 63 randomly selected service delivery areas provided…

During the next 20 years, more workers will need retraining. This trend is already evident as more adults return to college. Although the adult population of the United States grew 33 percent between 1969 and 1984, the number of people enrolling in adult education courses grew by 79 percent, and job-related courses increased from 25 percent to 43…

Increasing concerns about the skill level of U.S. workers are driven by demographics, technological change, and international competition. Greater percentages of the labor force will be comprised of those groups that have traditionally faced the greatest barriers to full participation in the labor force. Rapid technological change is increasing…

New England's business, education, and political communities must work together to improve literacy, increase job-specific vocational training, support incumbent worker training, and create more avenues for job access. If labor needs are not met, some companies may leave New England. The New England Council, established in 1925 to keep jobs within…

The importance of a skilled and highly educated workforce to economic well-being is widely recognized, and the relationship between skills and income is becoming stronger over time. Largely as a result of growing demand for skilled workers, state-level training programs are becoming increasingly important as complements to federal programs.…

Examines general education and vocational education as the main foci of post-compulsory education in the light of curriculum planning. Perspectives (academic, pragmatic, and polytechnical) on general education are shown to be rooted in more elaborately formulated theories than are perspectives (employment-based and school-based) on vocational…

These seven papers offer a menu of alternative approaches to apprenticeships and suggests the advantages and disadvantages of each. "Apprenticeship Learning: Principles for Connecting Schools and Work Places" (James Rosenbaum) indicates how fundamental changes in the global economy virtually require improved education of all youth and why teachers…

This report is intended to provide a framework for state-level policy and planning in relationship to postsecondary education's role in workforce development. Underlying the report is a set of principles and priorities designed to reflect and shape current policy agendas, and which will address the needs of college-bound high school graduates,…

The Leeds Under-Employed Graduates project was developed to assist higher education (HE) graduates living or working in Leeds, England, who encountered difficulty in establishing themselves in the local labor market. The main project activities were as follows: (1) services for graduates (including graduate career development workshops, assistance…