In South Africa, a national peak structure, the Human Resource Development Council, led by the Deputy President and consisting of key Cabinet Ministers, senior leaders from organised labour and business, community representatives, professional bodies and experts from research and higher education, was established to enable high-level coordination…

Objective: This review evaluates the effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programme (ALMP) participation on employment status for unemployment insurance recipients. Methods and Analysis: We followed Campbell Collaboration guidelines to conduct a systematic review. Results: A total of 73 studies met the inclusion criteria and were critically…

Policymakers and practitioners are seeking answers to the youth employment challenge; looking for ideas and evidence on what works and why, in order to improve the labour market conditions of young people. Youth employment interventions, such as entrepreneurship promotion, training and skills development, employment services, mentoring and…

Purpose: This paper aims to review the intervention of the European Social Fund (ESF) as an instrument of human resource development (HRD) policies in the European labor market. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses an economic background, and reviews the official documents produced by the ESF during its history to try to define its economic…

Dramatic changes in the labor market in the United States over the past 50 years have raised tremendous concern that many of the nation's youth are unprepared for the labor force. Policymakers and youth advocates are looking for strategies to improve the education system so that fewer youth drop out of high school and more have the skills and…

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) measures participant labor market outcomes to drive program performance. This article uses statistical analysis to examine the relationship between participant characteristics and key outcome measures in one large California local WIA program. This study also measures the impact of different training…

There is persistent evidence over several decades that the UK lags behind its international competitors in terms of the skills and qualifications of its workforce, with a detrimental impact on overall economic performance. The most recent attempt by the UK government to address this includes a new strategy aimed at increasing the degree of…

Global organizations with personnel in India rank innovation as a primary workforce development objective to stay competitive in the global market (NASSCOM, [2007]). This analysis reviews relevant literature for evidence of cultural factors that stand in the way of innovative performance in Indian personnel and discusses implications for the…

Noting that the human capital of a nation is a primary determinant of its strength, this book reviews what is known about the processes that affect child development and how public and private investments in children might be increased to promote their well-being and to enhance the economic productivity of the next generation in America. Based on…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies…