This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances in South Africa. It provides an assessment of practices and policies in the following areas: the collection and use of information on skill needs to foster a better alignment of skills acquisitions with labour market needs; education and training policies targeting skills…

This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances, based on five country-specific policy notes for France, Italy, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It provides a comparative assessment of practices and policies in the following areas: the collection and use of information on skill needs to foster a better alignment…

The concentration of numerous case studies of British appropriation of U.S. education and training (ET) policies in a brief period of time (1986-90) provides a unique opportunity to improve understanding of the ET reform process and the role that international comparisons can play in shaping the domestic ET policy agenda. In this book, political…

These 19 papers from the second annual Policy Forum on Employability Development explore the responsiveness of various educational and training institutions to changing labor market demands. The first three papers provide an overview of the forum. They summarize the proceedings and policy considerations and address how vocational education and…

A study investigated linkages between adult community education (ACE) and mainstream vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, which enable people to move between the two sectors in their pursuit of vocational learning, and the ways in which linkages might be improved or new ones developed. The data from the study were derived from 69…

Data from an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey of approximately 350 employers were reanalyzed to determine the effects of organization size and geographic location on the implementation of User Choice, which provides public funds to training providers chosen by apprentices and trainees. Among the respondents, 41.1% were small and…

A study evaluated the use of comparability of vocational training qualifications by both employers and workers in the European Community. The appropriate equivalences (joint description and comparative survey of vocational training qualifications) had been published for 16 of a total of 19 sectors or occupational groups. All Euroadvisers (n=240)…

This Community Perspectives Series document includes statements about the new economy in Toronto made by four participants in a March 2001 forum. The new economy was defined by the moderator as "an economy that emphasizes knowledge and technical processes put to the production of goods and other outputs so that an individual's knowledge is…

An Australian study examined the relationship between current and past participation in education and training in small business and success or failure and how small businesses decide how to improve knowledge and skills. Telephone surveys were conducted with 181 small businesses in 4 industries in 3 metropolitan and 3 non-metropolitan regions.…

Training indicators are functional suites of quantitative and qualitative indicators of current or future vocational education and training (VET) supply and demand. The training indicators approach to educational planning considers indicators of present and likely future conditions for skilled labor and forms judgments about the most appropriate…

The extent to which providers of post-16 vocational education and training (VET) in the United Kingdom are able to secure timely and relevant learning programs to meet sudden and unpredicted changes in local or national skills profiles was examined in a study that included interviews of nine private training providers and 11 further education (FE)…

This document contains 18 papers from the human resource development and manpower training section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following papers are included: "Use of Social and Economic Modeling to Plan Vocational Education and Training"…