Increasingly, companies are dropping four-year degree requirements in job postings, favoring skill-based requirements--such as communication and writing--instead. These types of nonacademic "soft skills" are viewed as essential for employment--employers consistently cite these abilities as among the most valuable in job applicants, yet…

In addition to higher learning, universities are expected to also 'do' employability and help students transition from education to employment. Accordingly, a wide range of approaches have emerged and we, as academics, dedicate substantial efforts to designing and implementing attractive employability offerings for our degree programmes. We spend…

This paper focuses on the proposals for the introduction of "technical degrees" in English higher education institutions advanced by the Labour Party's Liam Byrne in a document entitled "Robbins Rebooted" which was published in August 2014 by the Social Market Foundation. The context and rationale for the proposed technical…

Palm Beach Community College realigned its curriculum to allow students to seamlessly process through career pathways. Students can start in clock-hour-based instruction and transfer that learning into credit-based associate in science degrees. Along this pathway, students can use exit points to employment with recognized certificates.

Describes four aspects of the 1990 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology and Education Act Amendments and indicates their importance. Basic funds may be spent to integrate academic and vocational training using a job-skills training context and to provide needy students with supplementary services ensuring their participation. Includes…

The Untied Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project aims to improve teachers' practice in all areas of their work, combining ICT skills with innovations in pedagogy, curriculum, and school organization. It is also aimed at…

The goal of the United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project is to improve teachers' practice in all areas of a their work. By combining ICT skills with emergent views in pedagogy, curriculum, and school organization,…

The author reports on the development and early implementation of a 14-unit curriculum called "Principles of Technology" for high school students. The curriculum combines science, mathematics, and vocational education concepts with basic technological literacy. (CH)

The guide, developed by the Secondary Transition and Employment Project (STEP) in Idaho, provides an overview of its sequential vocational curriculum intended to help students with mild, moderate, and severe handicaps to: (1) identify their vocational preferences and aptitudes; (2) use community resources to find out about jobs; (3) observe and…

A two-year research project was conducted to determine the skills employers consider necessary for the workplace. Recent changes in the economy have made employers begin to realize that they must assist their current and future workers in achieving competency in workplace basics if they are to be competitive. Employers have come to realize the…

This manual, produced and used in a project of the Central Oklahoma Area Vocational Technical School, provides direction for developing and implementing a school-to-work curriculum for secondary students. Based on the Central Oklahoma Vocational-Technical Model, the guide contains the following 11 sections: (1) blueprint for getting students ready…

The Patterns of Linkage project investigated the assumption that linkages between training institutions and employers can reduce discrepancies between training programs and employer demands, and hence increase the employability of youth. The purpose of the study was to examine and describe patterns of linkage between training institutions and…

This publication consists of two parts: an overview of tech prep in Western Wisconsin and the Tech Prep Strategic Plan for Western Wisconsin. The overview combines reduced-size pages (four to a page) with full-size pages that include the following: the definition of tech prep; legislative mandate; rationale; benefits of tech prep; tech prep…

The Desire, Ability, Means, and Need (DAMN) Cycle is a useful paradigm for understanding the lifelong learning framework in Singapore. The cycle suggests that, for learning to occur, students must have a desire and an ability to learn, including inquiring minds and higher order process skills; the means must be provided through a well-defined…

This paper reports on a study that examined skill standards pilot programs to identify lessons learned in the selection and involvement of representatives from the various stakeholder communities and the potential for sustaining the efforts of the pilot programs. Data were gathered through structured conversations with staff and committee members…