This report provides key research findings from a recently updated analysis of international students studying in the B.C. secondary and post-secondary education systems. The study was conducted by the Student Transitions Project (STP), a collaborative research partnership involving B.C.'s education and advanced education ministries and…

Previous research suggests that the ongoing educational expansion is a negative development for early school leavers (ESLrs) in the European labour market, since it increases the level and educational attainment of their competition, and in the worst case creates credential inflation. Findings from the 2005 cross-sectional EU-SILC data show,…

Located differentially (and to its detriment) within a status hierarchy of knowledge, vocational education has been called upon to satisfy an increasing range of political and social needs, including meeting the needs of industry and government and catering for increasing pupil diversity. Faced with stubbornly immobile rates of school completion…

The General Educational Development (GED) credential is issued on the basis of an eight hour subject-based test. The test claims to establish equivalence between dropouts and traditional high school graduates, opening the door to college and positions in the labor market. In 2008 alone, almost 500,000 dropouts passed the test, amounting to 12% of…

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a very successful senior secondary school qualification introduced in the Australian state of Victoria in 2002. Applied learning in the VCAL engages senior students in a combination of work-based learning, service-learning, and project-based learning and aims to provide them with the skills,…

In this article, the authors discuss the problematic trends affecting New England's human capital. These trends include migration to other states of New England's graduates due to high cost of living; more than 60 percent of college dropouts; and the decision of most companies to outsource jobs in India and other countries.

Interviews with 209 Australian young people who chose not to complete secondary education reveal the complexity of this decision is based on their individual agency in constructing alternative lives. They resist credentialing, which poses an impediment rather than serves as an access mechanism. (Contains 33 references.) (SK)

Education policy in sub-Saharan Africa is predicated on human capital assumptions and therefore promotes the expansion of formal education as a way to promote economic growth. As a result, formal education is valued primarily as a private consumer good, a form of cultural capital that allows some to get ahead and stay ahead, rather than as a…

In 2000, 860,684 adults worldwide took 1 or more of the General Educational Development (GED) Tests, which was more than in any previous year except 1996. The number of adults completing the GED Test battery increased by 10% or more in eight U.S. jurisdictions and four Canadian jurisdictions. The volume of international testing increased by 85.7%.…