Community colleges play a critical role in helping people connect to careers in the United States. After the Great Recession, community colleges emerged as the workforce and economic development institution that could fill the gaps left by traditional higher education for shorter, non-degree career education while also meeting the needs of local…

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…

This research investigates the incidence and wage effects of overskilling for vocational education and training (VET) graduates in Australia between 2001 and 2006. Overskilling is defined as the extent to which workers are able to use their skills and abilities in their current job. The authors compare overskilling with other measures of skill…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the adequacy of UNESCO policy in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. People working in the informal economy in the Global South are looked at as a starting point. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines UNESCO/UNEVOC documents, the UNIFEM report on the "Progress…

John R. Commons has contributed in one way or another to pratically every piece of social and labor legislation that has been enacted in the twentieth century. He has made his mark on such diverse aspects of American labor as apprenticeship, vocational education, workers' compensation, and the administration of labor law. (Author/JOW)

In 2004 NCVER invited proposals from a consortia of researchers to address questions relating to changing work skill needs and work organisation arrangements and their implications for the vocational education and training sector. The National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, and the Centre for Post-compulsory Education and…

Examines the ideological origins of vocational education and the reasons why people holding a broad spectrum of political and economic opinion found vocational education attractive. Argues that despite differing views on vocational policies, reformers were united by a desire to improve the functioning of society. (ETS)

The pessimistic conclusions of studies of vocational education/training conducted within a framework of reproduction theory contrast with the policy literature's faith in the promise of a high trust/high skill society. The transformation of society and social relations is unlikely to occur in a capitalist system. (SK)

The most prominent theories of unemployment that have emerged since 1960 are search, disequilibrium, implicit contracts, efficiency wage, and insider/outsider models. Search models assume that it takes time and effort for employers and potential employees to find each other. A "partial-partial" equilibrium approach focuses on one side of…

Profit attitude is a developmental process that vocational educators should incorporate into their programs, developing the student's attitude towards a relationship of what his cost to an employer is as related to the company's net worth because of his skills and ability. (Author/BP)

Explores relationship between education and earnings in Singapore. Uses Labor Force data to obtain estimates of private returns to investment in formal and technical/vocational education. Some results confirm earlier patterns from other countries, whole others make Singapore a world outlier, with very high private returns to schooling in relation…

Forecasts long-range austerity measures in higher education, involving the promotion of vastly expanded occupational training programs and sharply declining liberal arts programs in the 1970's, resultingfrom the economic crisis. Corporate profit-seeking is suggested as the cause of current product shortages and inflation. (SF)

Although the major factors determining curriculum mix are known, little has been done to measure the relative importance of each factor. Using the data gathered by questionnaire from North Carolina community colleges and technical institutes, this study tested the hypotheses that local labor market structures influence curricular offerings, and…

The deterioration of the quality of work and the resulting impact on workers are of increasing concern. Those being prepared for entry into the workplace can also be prepared for the context and condition of work. (SK)