As America's key industries offer high salaries in return for candidates with the necessary abilities and credentials to fill their vacancies, the knowledge, skills, and third-party industry credentials earned in secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs seem a close match. Using a non-experimental, quantitative study, this research…

This paper examines three interrelated factors outside of formal provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa that have undermined TVET systems. The first is the process, pace, and levels of industrialisation, which has had a direct effect on TVET provision: low numbers of well-paying jobs requiring…

This landscape report explores the impact of earning micro-credentials on the social mobility of rural learners. Through four in-depth case studies, we show how earning micro-credentials may lead to credential attainment, workforce entry, promotions, and/or economic improvements (e.g., salary increase, prioritizing learners impacted by poverty),…

In light of a global higher education expansion, the paper analyses the historic-structural conditions of this development for the German state(s) after World War II. Building on Talcott Parsons citizenship patterns, the analysis centres on two core institutions of the German higher education system: the state-organized system of entitlement…

Students are juggling multiple, competing priorities such as work pressures, parenting, debt, and degree affordability, as they seek the best educational decisions for their economic mobility and life goals. Driving questions of quality has been the recent effort of states to set and increase postsecondary attainment rates. These rates typically…

Ontario's 24 colleges will play a pivotal role in establishing Ontario as a global leader in higher education -- producing a workforce with the qualifications and expertise to help drive economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown. In its recently released white paper, The Future of Ontario's Workers, the StrategyCorp Institute of…

"The Virginia Plan for Higher Education" articulates the objective that the Commonwealth will be the best-educated state by 2030. To achieve this objective, Virginia not only must increase educational attainment rates, but also must close the gaps in the differing rates of attainment that exist across its population and its regions. For…

The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, now in its sixth year, charts a course to make Virginia the best-educated state by 2030. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia developed The Virginia Plan as part of its statutory role to "advocate for and promote the development and operation of an educationally and economically sound,…

The Obama Administration has helped articulate the important role community colleges play in educating the nation's workforce and boosting the economy. With a large share of projected job openings requiring college education of less than a bachelor's degree and offering family-supporting wages, the nation's community colleges can make a huge…

The Pathways to Advancement initiative was launched by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) to help governors and their policy advisors examine options and develop strategies for expanding working adults' access to and completion of postsecondary education. In September 2003, the NGA Center issued a request for…

Just as American business and industry need workers with higher skills to compete in a global economy, workers need higher skills to get ahead. This convergence presents an opportunity for states to work with their community colleges and other key partners to help business and industry compete and entry-level workers advance to higher-paying jobs.…

Nearly one out of five Canadian residents was born outside of Canada and approximately two-thirds of Canada's population growth results from net international migration. Only Australia, where immigrants represent 24% of the population, has a greater percentage of immigrants than Canada (18%). Immigration is a major factor in Canada's economic…

In a knowledge-based economy, economic and social well-being depend on the development of human resources, and those with access to education benefit from higher lifetime earnings, lower rates of unemployment and poverty, a greater sense of engagement at work and society, and healthier lifestyles. This environmental scan considers the major…

States need strong higher education systems, now more than ever. In the tumultuous, highly competitive 21st century economy, citizens and workers need knowledge, skills, and credentials in order to prosper. Yet many colleges and universities are falling short. To give all students the best possible postsecondary education, states must create…

Several national trends are converging to impact adult education today. First, the increasing presence of adults in higher education is accentuated by the expansive Baby Boom generation who are demanding greater access to the higher education system in the United States. Second, regarding workforce and economic development in the 21st century,…