Jobs and the labor market have changed dramatically. The COVID-19 pandemic put millions of people, across all industries, out of work and disproportionately impacted workers of color, women, and workers without a college degree. This toolkit provides a map for how states that are looking to improve credential quality and transparency can use the…

Workforce development and career and technical education (CTE) have long provided reliable pathways to middle skill jobs and a gateway to the middle class. Given recent changes in middle skills jobs, the education landscape, and federal policy priorities, the role of CTE in the U.S. educational landscape is evolving more rapidly, encompassing a…

During the past decade, national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) have been developed and implemented across Europe. Triggered by the adoption of the European qualifications framework (EQF) in 2008, these frameworks draw attention to the outcomes of education and training, focusing on what learners are expected to know, understand and are able to…

Postsecondary workforce development is one of the major innovations of the modern community college. In a workforce approach, curriculum is driven by the needs of local industry, course delivery systems are sufficiently flexible to meet the diverse needs of students and industry, and students experience a mixture of work-based and classroom…

This paper aims at highlighting the overlapping between the qualification mismatch and the skill mismatch, using a specific Italian data set drawn from PIAAC survey (2012). The main concern, regarding skills and competences, is that they may be gathered and accumulated, but also potentially become obsolete, thus, qualifications (formally…

In this article, innovative activity is considered in the light of broader conceptualisations of innovativeness and what it means to be innovative. Central to the definition of innovativeness used in the analysis is that the worker actively seeks new knowledge and uses it for work-related tasks. This is based on previous research emphasising…

The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, more ubiquitously known by the acronym "STEM," have received a substantial amount of attention in recent years. As part of a research study investigating the alignment (or lack thereof) between the goals and priorities of educators and employers, we found it difficult to…

The authors of this report analyzed the most recent data to illustrate the impact of literacy skills on both the micro- and macro-economic levels. The report explores whether there is a case to be made for direct links between literacy skill and income level. Data relating to the ability to get a job, job retention and promotion, risk of job loss,…

The world of work is changing profoundly, at a time when the global economy is not creating a sufficient number of jobs. Many documents issued by the EU and various researches, carried out by companies and human resources experts, point out that the so-called "soft" skills are closely connected with employability, particularly for young…

Current definitions of STEM skills are inconsistent and not specific enough to inform education and skill policies and initiatives, potentially leading to a number of unsubstantiated and uncoordinated responses. There is a danger of generating a domestic oversupply of graduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology while ignoring the…

Employability skills are central to gaining and keeping employment (e.g. whether paid or unpaid, as an employee or self employed) as well as career progression. The lack of such skills is regularly referred to as one reason for the United Kingdom's often cited long tail of underachievement. Employability skills are at the forefront of government…

Internationalisation and employability development are important themes for UK higher education (HE) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). One aspect of many UK HE institutions' internationalisation strategies has been to increase the number and range of UK programmes delivered "offshore" as transnational education (TNE)--through…

Level descriptors are essential elements of national qualifications frameworks being established across Europe. They define what is meant by learning outcomes, describing what an individual is expected to know, be able to do and understand, having acquired a qualification at a particular level. This Cedefop working paper shows that most of the 36…

Purpose: Though the notion of competence is common terminology in European VET policy at national and supra-national level, understandings vary widely, both across countries and within. The particular conceptions of competence adopted in the EQF are themselves problematic and the framework allows for a variety of interpretations. The purpose of…

Despite wide publicity and common usage, the concept of skills shortage has different meaning to different people depending on their perspective. Understanding the different concepts of skills shortages, their measurement and the causes of skill shortages is important if sound policies are to be developed in the areas of employment, education,…