This paper was presented to a meeting of the Wellington Exchange, an international group of higher education officials, in December 2008. One of the topics of the meeting was around the issue of possible skills shortages emerging as a result of demographic trends, with the ageing of the population of developed countries. The paper argues that this…

The countries of the European Community represent a commitment to European economic and political unity as part of a trend toward the globalization of the world's economic life. Economic, social, and political challenges are bound up in economic competitiveness. Countries are examining human resource issues in order to compete for the world…

Based on four standards of measurement, it appears that the educational systems of Western Europe fail to provide a significant equalizing influence. The four criteria are: (1) equality of educational access, (2) equality of educational participation, (3) equality of educational results, (4) and equality of educational effects on life chances.…

This paper provides an overview of the growth of new technology industries in Great Britain and the skills needed for these industries. The industries are advanced materials, biotechnology, and opto-electronics. The report profiles the current status, expected growth, and skills needed for each of these industry sectors. It also points out the…

"Creative business services" have grown rapidly in Great Britain and are important in terms of their impact on the economy, including their contribution to international trade. They have helped and been boosted by such business changes as privatization, spread of information technology (IT), and contracting out of services. The sectors…

Part 1 identifies the far-reaching changes to higher education (HE) in Great Britain during the 1990s. It shows that HE has settled into a new status quo, with a market for new graduates in 2001-02. Findings indicate that around 37 percent of 18-year-olds take part in full-time, further, or higher education; the participation rate at age 19 is now…

This book examines the transition from higher education to the labor market in 10 countries. Although the individual papers do not follow a rigid standard format, they all consider the following issues: (1) how the labor market for graduates is organized; (2) how vocational orientation is achieved in degree courses in individual countries; and (3)…

The relationship between higher education and employment (particulary underemployment and unemployment) is discussed in terms of a synthesis of 21 case studies of developing and developed nations. The countries discussed are: Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Egypt, Federal Republic of Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen,…

Three studies covering the tourism, chemical industry, and healthcare sectors in the European Union investigated patterns of cross-border mobility at the sector level. Special focus was on transparency of vocational qualifications and the relation between transparency and mobility. A serious lack of information on labor force mobility within…

Research synthesized from three studies of the Finnish labor market indicates that a rapidly changing working life in Finland (and the rest of Europe) sets many different challenges for the workforce. In Finland, the population is even more aged than in the other European Union (EU) member states, and the transition of older workers to retirement…