For almost a century, Longwy has been one of the most important industrial areas of France, contributing the majority of the national production of cast iron and steel. The objective of this paper is to analyse how higher education, then health and well-being were mobilised in the process of regeneration of Longwy, which had been very harshly…

Occupational training programs for employed as well as unemployed workers at every skill level and public systems of continuous training and education for adults, expanding in three Western European countries, merit American attention. (MF)

Market-oriented industrial nations other than the United States have experienced rapid structural changes in their economies and reemployment problems among dislocated midcareer workers. The Swedish active labor market approach is a socialized one. This system has been criticized for excessive reliance on microeconomic labor market programs to…

This collection includes a series of reports presenting the main results of a project to identify trends in continuing education and training in eight countries throughout Western Europe. The following reports are included: "Synthesis Report," by Hilary Steedman; "Belgium," by staff at the Office National de l'Emploi;…

Part-time vocational engineering curricula aim to transform experienced higher technicians into engineering managers. This is done by making use of previous experience in working positions and adding training in new situations. Job training is combined with academic training through courses and activities at an academic institution. Describes ways…

This comparative study is intended to shed light on how vocational training is recognized and used as an instrument to mitigate the grave employment problems now facing all the countries of Europe. The three countries--Belgium, France, and Italy--are examined successively on the basis of a virtually identical approach. Each chapter begins with a…

This study is concerned with informal education activities (in France) to promote socio-professional advancement for adolescents up to the age of majority and for adults up to the age of about 40. The three types of activity considered (training, retraining, and further training) are carried on by many organizations--all under the authority of the…

This issue of a biannual journal on vocational training focuses on national and European Community initiatives for the training of trainers. The 14 articles are as follows: "Training Personnel--The Mainstay of Success" (Helmut Brumhard); "Training of Trainers--An Essential Subject in the Social Dialogue" (Joao Proenca);…

This publication contains monographs on vocational training and regional development for six regions of the European Communities. The monograph on Lorraine (France) by Gerard Calais describes basic training structures, redeployment policies, requalification of job seekers, and coordination of training efforts. Profiles of development technicians…

This summary of the plans for additional research in the project called "Vocational Training and Regional Development" lists the following aspects and criteria of the common evaluation approach: regional framework conditions, program structure, organizational features, pedagogical approach, and procedure in evaluating the success of the…

This report synthesizes findings of a survey of vocational training measures for women in the nine countries of the Western European community. In the first section, some basic figures are presented on numbers of innovative measures, proportion of women gainfully employed, distribution of employed women among economic sectors, and persons…

Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The vast majority of the workers affected by structural change in the American economy appear to make employment transitions fairly swiftly and smoothly, with no need for public intervention. Undertrained workers, mostly employed and scattered in all…

SERIOUS PROBLEMS EXIST IN RETRAINING OLDER WORKERS, BUT WHERE AN APPROPRIATE METHOD OF TRAINING CAN BE DEVELOPED, OLDER TRAINEES CAN ACHIEVE RESULTS COMPARABLE WITH THOSE OF THEIR YOUNGER COLLEAGUES. SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS OF THE MIDDLE-AGED LEARNER INCLUDE LONG AND UNINTERRUPTED LEARNING SESSIONS, GREATER CONSOLIDATION OF LEARNING BEFORE NEW…

A survey of French research by CEREQ ("A French research centre for analysis of occupations and of vocational education and training") shows that firms have undertaken a number of experiments, most of them large scale, to retrain their work force. These initiatives are situated within a general context of change. Training programs based…

This publication analyzes relationships between various forms of learning and economic performance at the regional level and provides rather strong evidence of the importance of individual and firm-level organizational learning for regions' economic performance. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 maps out a conceptual framework for the…