The California community college system is the largest provider of publicly funded career education in the state. Community colleges are therefore critical for effective and equitable workforce training, even as the system has a governance and financing structure that creates challenges to connecting college programs to careers. Furthermore, there…

This study investigates the educational attainment of an aging workforce from the perspective of educational credentialing. The research questions are defined as follows: Why are workers over age 50 attaining university degrees? How do they narratively construct the rational for pursuing well-recognized credentials in midlife? The specific focus…

A core mode of governance in the era of neoliberalism is through the production of "entrepreneurial self". This paper explores how the "entrepreneurial self" is produced for 21 Chinese immigrant women in Canada. The women displayed extraordinary entrepreneurialism by investing in Canadian education. Becoming entrepreneurial,…

There are many benefits for emerging adults, both financial and personal, in obtaining a General Education Development (GED®) credential (Ou, 2008). However, little is known about the correlates of GED® credential attainment in "disconnected" emerging adults attending GED® programs. Our goal was to examine whether externalizing…

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…

When transitioning to employment, students with disabilities who do not complete high school face multiple challenges; even beyond the challenges of students who complete a GED® credential later, especially in times of economic downturn and job instability. They cope with sometimes overwhelming struggles from disabling conditions. Thus GED passers…

The article provides a history of efforts to develop a credentialing or certification process for forensic interviewers and reviews the multitiered credentialing process offered by the National Association of Certified Child Forensic Interviewers. The authors argue the benefits of a credentialing process for forensic interviewers and respond to…

Background/Context: Economic, developmental, and sociological theories and research suggest that there are benefits associated with on-time postsecondary credentialing and training for low-income parents even though this often means the management of family, work, and school while children are young. This argument is based on three conclusions…

Can college participation have any meaningful effects for former prisoners, beyond quantifiable measures of recidivism and income? Although stigma, overt discrimination, and a shrinking low-skilled labor market form notable challenges to reentry, some studies suggest that college experience helps former prisoners successfully avoid recidivism.…

Despite claims that prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) can act as a transformative social mechanism and a means of social inclusion, this study reports that PLAR has become a serious barrier to adult learning rather than a facilitator. Drawing from Foucault's concept of governmentality, the study examines the difficulties that…

Across the country, cities and regions have used community-wide partnerships to improve the educational attainment of their citizens. The most established of these partnerships have seen substantial education gains during their tenure. The community of Louisville, Kentucky has embarked on a similar effort to improve educational attainment. Nearly…

Teachers immigrating to Canada with credentials from non-Canadian jurisdictions are regarded as desirable immigrant professionals because of their high levels of education and yet, nevertheless, are required to redo some or all of their professional training. This research examines sociocultural notions of voice, agency, authorship and identity in…