As colleges confront challenging circumstances, the prospect of small, private college closures remains pertinent. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of displaced employees due to college closure. For this study, Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory was used as a foundational lens. Although there…

This dissertation investigated the performance of Florida's workforce development programs over a ten-year period. The state's system for coordinated training and employment services consists of programs operating and reporting according to the federal workforce initiative standards. They served as the focus of this performance analysis. A…

As life expectancy rates continue to rise, so does the need for continued participation in the workforce. Economic sustainability and aging in place become values anticipated and realized through longer life spans. The ability to maintain lifestyle is severely halted when individuals are faced with loss of employment. This qualitative case study…

Training programs that combine learning English with career and vocational skills are highly desired to prepare many displaced workers that are English speakers of other languages (ESOL). Globalization has caused jobs to be exported and brought to this country, people with needed skills that do not have full command of the English language. The…

The focus of this qualitative study is how community college transition programs and services accommodated students who experienced a major life transition event (job loss) using Schlosberg's (1984) Life Transition Model and the updated model with Anderson and Goodman (2006). Students' perceptions of transition programs and services were…

The qualitative study involved twelve students at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) who involuntarily lost jobs and as a result, made the decision to attend college. Study participants were students with no postsecondary credential beyond high school, and in most cases, had no intentions of attending college until they lost their jobs. Students…

A number of costs are associated with the implementation of trade agreements not the least of which is the cost to the American workforce. The information age ushered in an era of globalization unlike anything the world economy had experienced before. As countries raced forward to dominate emerging markets and grow market share, millions of…

Workers are remaining in the labor force at older ages and despite their desire to work, those without jobs face unprecedented durations of unemployment. Many of the unemployed lack current skills for jobs in demand and need to either upgrade their skills or be trained for a new occupation to become reemployed. An aging workforce combined with…

The city of Las Vegas, Nevada has experienced a slowdown in tourism, a drop in property taxes and consolidated tax revenue used to support the city's operating budget, and a lack of economic diversification. Because of these changes, the ability of displaced workers to learn marketable employment skills continues to be an important issue for the…

In the first chapter, I measure the impact of student loan debt on young, college-educated workers' decisions regarding labor supply and enrollment in graduate school. I exploit variation in student loan debt driven by the formulas that determine Federal Student Aid in order to identify these effects. Instrumental variable estimates indicate…

This study describes and examines the experiences of displaced manufacturing workers as they lose jobs and retrain in community college settings. The analysis included perceptions of community college services and programming designed to help the workers transition into retraining programs, along with those factors that they identified as…

This ethnographic case study investigated second year college students who participated in the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program at a technical college in northeastern Pennsylvania. In order to understand how learners stayed motivated in a college setting, I selected participants who were in their second year of the TAA program. A total of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the marketing strategies South Carolina One-Stop Career Centers Area Directors felt provided the best opportunity for dislocated workers to learn about their services. Two theories emerged: the Service Marketing Theory and the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Theory. Of the 36 area directors cited for this study,…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of older adult dislocated workers who participated in community college non-credit workforce training programs. The research questions guiding the study were: (a) what are the experiences of older adult dislocated workers who attend community college non-credit workforce…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to illuminate the life experiences of displaced workers enrolled in community colleges for retraining and their views on obtaining employment after completion of a degree. The study is important because it provides qualitative data that will inform community college academic leadership, faculty,…