Wyoming's construction sector faces a growing number of job openings yet contends with a decreasing number of skilled workers. This study explored the Wyoming Construction Workforce Training Program (CWTP) from an inclusivity perspective, investigating the accessible, usable, and relevant instructional design and delivery conditions. Through…

Barriers to education and training can have a generational impact on socioeconomic status and economic development. Post-traditional students have been shown to experience a variety of barriers to education and family-sustaining employment. Social capital has been shown to help alleviate some of the barriers for students, resulting in stronger…

Higher education and workforce systems have reformed over the last decade. These reforms are in response to an evolving economy, irregular political environment, a damaging pandemic, and declining enrollment in postsecondary education, and are an attempt to better prepare employees for new occupations and increased competition for students. One…

This chapter examines three distinct approaches to lifelong learning to illustrate workforce and societal development efforts in Europe, Singapore, and the United States. The case studies bring to the fore various complex issues, including, in the case of Europe, ensuring more equitable access to workforce development initiatives for all.…

Even before the coronavirus pandemic began, policymakers, businesses, and workforce advocates were already recognizing that workers were not being replaced by robots, but rather, being called upon to work hand-in-glove with rapidly evolving technology. When the pandemic struck, millions of U.S. companies hustled to change how they did business.…

Exploring Summer Youth Employment Programs: Increasing Access Through Career Pathways builds the case and provides actionable recommendations for state-led support in the intentional alignment of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) with career pathways and the work-based learning continuum, including through Career Technical Education (CTE).…

This paper explores trade union collective voice as a mechanism for worker participation in training decision making. New Zealand is an example of a liberal market economy (LME) with relatively weak regulatory pressure on employers to engage in training. Consequently, drivers such as trade union collective voice could fill an important role in…

Roughly 75 million Americans don't have the work or wages they need to get by. They either lack the skills employers seek or can't access jobs with sufficient pay. These are America's untapped workers--people who are unemployed or underemployed, but who can succeed in the nation's rapidly changing economy if offered the right education, training,…

One in every six adults in the United States is an immigrant. These immigrant adults contribute to the vitality of local communities and economies across the country, but many also face barriers to integration and economic mobility, including limited English proficiency, varied levels of formal education, and persistent employment in low-wage…

Purpose: The study aims to investigate whether participation to massive open online courses (MOOCs) may lead to labor market returns and through which mechanisms such relative advantage may take place. Indeed, despite high figures of registered users, empirical studies on occupational returns are limited and MOOCs may represent a viable,…

Achieving prosperity for all Americans could not be more urgent. Although the United States remains the most prosperous nation on earth, millions of citizens are losing faith in the American dream of upward mobility, and in American-style capitalism itself. This crisis of confidence has widened the divide afflicting American politics and cries out…

Adult education programs play a critical role in preparing immigrants and New Americans (multilingual learners) for employment by building English language skills and supporting workforce preparation and training. Addressing multilingual learners' economic integration needs, one of the three pillars of immigrant integration, along with civic and…

Work-based learning faces significant changes in delivery in the face of a global pandemic that has severely limited physical access to schools and businesses. These changes have forced school leaders and employers to acknowledge pre-existing inequities that perpetuate historical barriers and racial discrimination and keep marginalized learner…

Even before COVID-19, officials at Waubonsee Community College (Illinois) knew well the difficulties historically underserved students had in meeting their workforce education goals. As the virus crisis has only magnified existing equity gaps, leaders at two-year institutions are putting even more emphasis on bridging societal chasms. Onlookers…

Systematic policy analysis regarding the area of adult and workforce education (AWE) in the United States is limited in the literature. This article presents the results from a historical analysis of federal-level U.S. policy documents spanning the years 1914-2014. We performed a systematic content analysis utilizing a context justification…