As part of the efforts of higher education to reach additional audiences, this study deals with an alternative non-traditional pathway that leads to higher academic education. This alternative, the stackable credentials pathway, uses short-cycle tertiary VET as a way to an academic degree. The study describes the extent of users of the pathway in…

The United States government is perennially in need of employees with proficiency in critical foreign languages to communicate with foreign counterparts and maintain relationships worldwide. In order to fulfill this need, the government devotes significant resources training federal employees to advanced levels of language proficiency through…

This publication is the fourth in a series of practical Cedefop skills anticipation guides for policymakers, analysts, and expert professionals. The three previous guides presented a rich mosaic of conventional and emerging methods for identifying technological change and its impact on skills. They assessed the merits and challenges of using…

This study examines the emerging relationship between microcredentials and qualification systems. Information gathered through an online survey among European VET providers, national authorities, employee and employer organisations was complemented by in-depth country case studies and interviews with Cedefop's ReferNet network. Questions of…

Based on comprehensive data from the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, this analysis explores short-term training programs, including which providers offer them and in which occupation-specific programs of study; the demographics of those who enroll in programs; and outcomes for program completers or graduates. Given…

This report explores, from a variety of perspectives, the volume and nature of recognition of prior learning (RPL) currently granted in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system. Of particular interest are the areas where most RPL is taking place, including the qualifications being completed with high rates of RPL. The report…

Community college students often hold knowledge from various professional and academic experiences. A challenge for these students, and for their institutions and employers, is how to formally bridge these competencies to support students' efforts to reach their academic and career goals. This issue brief looks at the practice of awarding credit…

"Research Messages 2020" highlights the diverse range of research activities undertaken over the past year by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). Research published during 2019 encompasses a range of themes and topics categorised according to three broad areas: (1) structures and systems for skilling and…

Many students -- as well as potential students -- have acquired a great deal of learning through their day-to-day lives outside of academia: knowledge acquired from work experience, on-the-job training, formal corporate training, military training, volunteer work, self-study, and a myriad of other extra-institutional learning opportunities…

In this report we walk through a systematic review of how PLA [prior learning assessment] was implemented under the ideal circumstances provided by the TAACCCT [Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training] grant program. We found that there was positive policy development, but student use of PLA opportunities remained low. In…

This study synthesizes lessons learned about the promising role of "career navigators" at community colleges to aid students in the transitions through disjunctures in their careers. Career navigators are student support personnel who follow students from recruitment, through their studies or training programs, to job placement. Findings…

This study explored factors that predicted learners' transformative learning in an online employee training program in a higher education institution in the U.S. A multivariate multiple regression analysis was conducted with a sample of 74 adult learners on their learning of a new learning management system. Four types of participants' behaviors…

Southwest Tennessee Community College (Southwest) received a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2013 to fund the Southwest Solutions program (Solutions). The goal of Solutions is to prepare, credential, and place veterans, dislocated workers, and unemployed or…

Supporting adult learners as they complete their postsecondary certificates and degrees is essential to meeting the state's educational attainment goals and the employment needs of students and Washington employers. Students come to college with skills and knowledge acquired through work, military, and other experiences. Awarding academic credit…

The early 1980s were disruptive for computing. In many countries, the set of persons who regularly used computing expanded rapidly from a tiny and homogeneous set of data processing professionals to include nearly everyone. The dawn of the "new user" entrained challenges for training and instructional design: the economics of smaller…