US Agency for International Development (USAID) believes that education is a foundational driver of development and fundamental to achieving self-reliance. When children and youth attend school and build skills they can use in the workforce and to navigate life, they are able to build more hopeful and prosperous futures for themselves, their…

This paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating research capacity for gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. It presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of women professionals through both online and face-to-face interactions to learn the skills needed to be a…

SHOP (Skilled Hands Overseas Program) is described as an informal arrangement between the Peace Corps and technical colleges, universities, companies, and unions around the United States to send representatives from these organizations on field trips to countries where Peace Corps volunteers are serving as teachers in vocational-technical,…

After two years of teaching chemistry and math for the Peace Corps in a small village school in Ghana, Mike Athens now works as the ranking administrator overseeing Peace Corps operations in Tanzania. Athens, who is Native American, believes his experiences in Africa will help him to expand his skills and better serve his community when he returns…

This report summarizes the proceedings of a workshop whose objectives were to: (1) review and examine the functions of distance educational systems for the nine participating countries with respect to the training needs of staff responsible for distance education; (2) review, examine, and refine a draft training manual and develop exemplar modules…

This article describes Project IDEA's origins as a program of the Peace Corps and the assistance it received from the Montana State University Theatre of Silence. In Bohol, Philippines, IDEA has developed a deaf community, a special/vocational education program, and job skills through employment in a cafe and bamboo rake factory. (Author/PB)

In June, 1977, a 2-week tie-dyeing and batik training program was undertaken for 12 Malian community development workers by a newly formed cooperative of urban dyers in Gambia. Need for income-producing activity for women in the Bambara regions of rural Mali led to a decision to promote cloth processing and in 1974 training sessions were held in…

Steps to alleviate the problems in achieving successful technical and cross-cultural training for United States Peace Corps volunteers are discussed. Historically, training was conducted at American universities or centers in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, or the Virgin Islands, but by the mid-1970s, in response to criticism that this provided inadequate…

This paper by the World Bank, divided into three major sections, analyzes world wide trends in educational development. It states that educational systems in developing countries are all too often ill-conceived and are not adapted to developmental needs. The first section describes worldwide trends in educational development during the period from…

The impacts and cost-effectiveness of adult basic education (ABE) in Sub-Saharan Africa were examined in a review of the new generation of ABE programs in the region. African experts and other international resource persons examined documentation from recent adult literacy, numeracy, and other educational programs targeted toward individuals over…

This document contains eight papers from the international issues section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following papers are included: "The Impact of Globalisation and the Changing Nature of Work on Vocational Education and Training" (Chris…