How much does college matter for getting ahead in America? Having a postsecondary education--broadly defined as a credential beyond a high school diploma--continues to be one of the most important factors in getting a good job and advancing in the workforce. By one estimate, 64 percent of jobs in 2018 will require more than a high school diploma,…

Community colleges traditionally have been a nexus for transitions to and from the workforce. This article examines horizontal and vertical workforce transitions and how a global economy and the need to train new subpopulations of future workers will cause community colleges to approach their roles in workforce training differently. There are too…

Maryland Career Clusters are a resource for high schools as they reorganize into smaller learning communities. Instruction is organized around career themes, providing more students the opportunity to explore career choices while still in high school and enroll in pathway programs that enable them to successfully transition from high school to…

The article reveals philosophical, social, and practical difficulties with ongoing governmental policy in vocational education, focusing on the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, which is designed to construct a national transition system administered at state and local levels. Alternative approaches are suggested. (SM)

The position is taken in the article that the "School-to-Work" initiative not be too narrowly defined to vocational/technical institutions to the exclusion of two-year/community colleges. Examples of early efforts to initiate the program are cited that seem to indicate that such could be the case. The author cites the range of students…

The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), which represents 65,000 academic staff working in further and higher education (FHE) institutions across the United Kingdom, reviewed the current state of post-16 education and training in the United Kingdom and submitted its views on how the system should be improved.…

Project QUEST (Quality Employment through Skills Training) was begun in 1992 to provide unemployed and working poor residents of San Antonio, Texas, with employment training and job placement services. The program provides tuition subsidies and ancillary support services to low-income San Antonio residents enrolled in two-year associate's degree…

Australia's second National Research and Evaluation Strategy for Vocational Education and Training (VET), which covers the period 2001-2003, builds on the following major themes contained in the first national strategy, which covered 1997-2000: stakeholder orientation, national coordination, and the importance of effective dissemination. The…