Along with changing industry market conditions and emerging technologies, federal investments in new energy and transportation infrastructure targeted at limiting the effects of climate change are predicted to dramatically reshape the workforce. In the next ten years, as many as 9 million high-quality jobs will be created to implement new energy…

This report from JFF with a select group of community college practitioners, makes the case for policymakers, employers and practitioners to invest in and strengthen short-term credentialing programs to rapidly retrain unemployed workers for better career prospects, especially workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes key commitments…

Regions around the country are grappling with current and anticipated skills shortages and, in some cases, labor shortages. Economic prosperity depends heavily on the quality of the workforce, and yet far too few regions have recognized their best underutilized asset: the mature workforce. Because mature workers are nearing traditional retirement…

Suggests ways that the Job Training Partnership Act can serve as a local labor force development tool. Besides assisting "hardcore unemployed," education can take a proactive role, keeping up with the technology and needs of business and industry. In return, business and industry must support education with state-of-the-art machinery and…

Describes the many benefits now available to laid-off and displaced textile and apparel-related workers through the North American Free Trade Agreement's Transitional Adjustment Allowance (NAFTA-TAA), which allows them to attend college for the first time. Examines the effectiveness of the TAA program and concludes that there is room for…

Describes a curriculum management approach to training that ties together employee career development, current performance needs, and future business plans in order to provide a coherent planning system for the conduct of industrial training. (LRA)

As early as elementary school, a Japanese child faces a sequence of narrowing choices for an occupational future. Through decisions on further schooling, curriculum, and job entry, earlier choices severely restrict later ones. Usually, men go to four-year universities to study engineering or social sciences. Women generally attend two-year…

Describes California's Educational Development Network (ED>Net), an experimental effort to use the existing community college infrastructure to enhance the state's economic development activities. Highlights ED>Net's focus on developing organization, process, and individual skills in the current workforce. Indicates that ED>Net is…

Explains how the existing workforce in Kazakhstan's oil industry is being upgraded in skills, knowledge, and competencies to bring them up to the standards of the West. Discusses the design phase, including career development plans, training plans, and business plans; job ladders and specifications; assessing skill levels; and an…

This report follows an initial study that identified evolving best practices in workforce development. The prior study defined three themes that reflect a developing consensus among policymakers and researchers and point to the opportunities for a career pathways model. These themes included: (1) individuals need some form of postsecondary…

Driven by restructuring, marketplace competition, and technological change, rural electric co-ops are implementing early retirement and severance packages, instituting staffing changes to reflect changing functions and needed skills, hiring business managers to develop business strategies and marketing plans, providing consumer-choice advocates,…

There are numerous examples of highly trained, capable individuals that face layoffs because of technological or economic changes that have eliminated the need for their services. This project was designed to provide a one-step opportunity for people such as these to identify opportunities in emerging technologies, to plan a retraining program, to…

Explains the technology transfer strategy, "Transformations," developed by the Center for Occupational Research and Development to provide pretechnology, technology core, and specialized training to help students learn or relearn the skills needed by today's technological work force. Describes the implementation of the strategy at…

The November 1989 conference described in this document was about social dialogue in vocational education. An introduction summarizes the conference as a whole, pointing out that participants were able to hear reports of the situation in Denmark, Spain, Italy, France, and the European Community as a whole. Summaries of 10 individual presentations…

North Carolina Community College System's fact book is a yearly publication providing data on the status of the entire system. It contains information about college programs, finance, facilities, equipment, students, staff, and faculty. The 2001 book highlights include: (1) the system offers more than 1,800 curriculum programs under more than 200…