As early as elementary school, a Japanese child faces a sequence of narrowing choices for an occupational future. Through decisions on further schooling, curriculum, and job entry, earlier choices severely restrict later ones. Usually, men go to four-year universities to study engineering or social sciences. Women generally attend two-year…

The need for high quality initial training and accessible, academically sound programs allowing workers to update their skills and advance in careers as their jobs change in a period of rapid technological advancement will be an ongoing challenge to postsecondary education. (MSE)

There are numerous examples of highly trained, capable individuals that face layoffs because of technological or economic changes that have eliminated the need for their services. This project was designed to provide a one-step opportunity for people such as these to identify opportunities in emerging technologies, to plan a retraining program, to…

The second phase of a two-phase study evaluated (through 24 care studies in California, Missouri, Illinois, and New York) the feasibility of implementing an evaluation model of workplace-based retraining programs developed during the first phase of the project in California. The feasibility study addressed two components of an evaluation system:…

Characteristics of education and training provided by corporations, and the role of corporations as providers of education and as collaborators, competitors, and supporters of traditional institutions are examined. In addition, the history of corporate-based education and training is traced, and internal and external factors that determine what…

During the 1980s the Korean economy will have to undergo far-reaching structural changes. The major problems faced by the Korean labor market continue to be an excessive demand for college graduates and an excessive supply of high school graduates. Their solution requires a renewed national commitment to human resource development with emphasis on…

In Italy, all responsibility for vocational training has been delegated to the regions. At the regional level, three types of training are available: training for work, on-the-job training, and training under special state legislation. No obligation is placed on employers to train the work force. Most worker training is informal and conducted…

This study of the nature, depth, and comprehensiveness of the system of postsecondary cooperative education shows the incidental presence of that system on U.S. campuses and demonstrates that cooperative education is highly unlikely to become the resource for a profound transformation of the work force that its advocates have suggested. The data…

A project was conducted to assess the need for further education and training (FET) of the labor force. It documented institutional arrangements, policies, and practices regarding FET; analyzed their strengths and weaknesses; and considered possible action by public authorities. The concept of FET was found to have a strong economic character and…

German legislation contains provisions on both initial and further vocational training. Three types of continuing training are distinguished: retraining, updating training, and upgrading training. Industries contribute the largest share of funding and participants to continuing training. In-company continuing training differs greatly according to…

A model for assessing unemployed workers and providing useful information for counseling these workers for further training and retraining was developed and tested in Chicago with a sample of 25,000 subjects over a two-year period. The model, called the Manpower Assessment and Placement System (MAPS), was designed to give one-day turnaround time…

Six observers studied both school-to-work transition programs for youth and retraining programs for adult workers in three Western European countries--West Germany, Sweden, and England. They identified European solutions to a pressing problem in the United States: youth and adult workers whose skills are inadequate for today's and tomorrow's jobs.…

Analysis of recent vocational education reforms in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak republics looks at the nature of modernization efforts and structural changes, and the role of foreign assistance and international cooperation. Current initiatives are seen as an attempt to catch up with the Western world of the 1970s. (MSE)

Describes the Fund for Appalachian Industrial Retraining (FAIR) program, which has trained over 14,000 multiskilled workers in Appalachian manufacturing in the last four years. FAIR works with firms in 18 Appalachian Ohio counties, arranging onsite and offsite programs and providing matching funds for customized training. (SAS)

Profound changes in the economy and the labor market have an effect on the role of employer-sponsored training in preparing and educating the country's work force. On the demand side of the labor market, these changes include the increase in international trade, the changing economic status of the United States relative to its trading partners,…