In today's turbulent economy, how can adult workers best position themselves to secure jobs in high-demand fields where they are more likely to remain competitive and earn more? Further, how can employers up-skill current employees so that they meet increasingly complex job demands? Research indicates that Career Technical Education (CTE) aligned…

In an effort to document necessary multimedia production competencies of Instructional Design and Technology graduates, a recent analysis of over 7 months' worth of Instructional Design and Technology job advertisements (n = 615) were conducted. Specific job skills from these postings were categorized and analyzed. The data set includes three job…

Virginia's SHARP logger program is a Cooperative Extension program currently providing training to over 1,500 loggers, foresters, and others. We conducted a mail survey of SHARP loggers to characterize program participants, assess programming needs, and evaluate program effectiveness. Results indicate a diverse group of participants in terms of…

Although there is no single program or idea that will fix the entire American educational system, findings from the national demonstration project College and Career Transitions Initiative (CCTI) demonstrate considerable promise of the role pathways can play in helping students find their way through education to work and on to their careers.…

Describes three approaches to integration of academic and vocational education and discusses how schools can move toward this concept. The approaches are (1) integrating academic and vocational coursework; (2) the academy model; and (3) occupational clusters and career paths. (JOW)

This report, the first "Annual Career and Technical Education High School Report" was created to serve as a rich resource for educators, school and college administrators, policymakers, and other citizens by providing essential summative data on career and technical education in Iowa at the high school level. Students increasingly need…

This publication is a product of the knowledge development effort implemented under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. It is the second volume of an assessment of the Job Corps, which found that, overall, the Job Corps experience of training young men and women for employment has been beneficial to society, although there…

A description of the project, its development process, evaluation results, and exportability are included in this overview of WORK-ED (World of Related Knowledge and Educational Development), a program to provide ninth grade students both basic skills in communication and exposure to twelve career clusters. Introductory sections describe the…

For use in planning high school vocational education programs, a study examined the success of Georgia vocational cluster programs in finding jobs, the adequacy of program training, and student attitudes towards the cluster approach. (The cluster concept involves broadly defined instructional programs around families of occupations.) The study…

This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Cleveland's Developmental Vocational Education Programs (DVEP) in meeting the project objectives: (1) The program would result in greater knowledge of occupations within an array of occupational clusters, and (2) The program would result in more positive attitudes toward specific jobs and the…

This paper presents an overview and suggestions about the development of occupational and skill clusters by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS), based on the observations of the executive director of the organization. Aspects reviewed include the following: development of occupational and skill clusters; classification…

Instructional strategies, methods, and techniques of the National Institute of Education's Experience-Based Career Education Program (EBCE) can be successfully integrated into the existing high school program, as demonstrated by a project in the Bellevue, Washington, public schools. The two-and-one-half year project incorporated a career cluster…

A review of the standards developed through 22 national occupational skill standards pilot projects funded by the Departments of Education and Labor focused on how they are being used in education and how to improve their use. Although occupational clusters have long played a role in education, the mix of clusters and the use of them varies widely…

The Southern Maryland Educational Consortium's Tech Prep Model Demonstration project is described in this final report. The consortium members are Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's county school districts and Charles County Community College in southern Maryland. The project is based on a 4 + 2 model in which ninth-grade students develop career…

In the Southern Maryland Educational Consortium's 4 + 2 tech prep program, ninth-grade students develop career plans and follow career pathways in one of three technologies--health and human services, electronics and engineering, or business. The program was evaluated by an independent social science research firm to identify the different…