This paper provides a summary of four projects currently funded through Australia's National Center for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), including what they propose to achieve and their preliminary findings to date. After an introduction, an overview of preliminary findings from the four projects is presented. The following barriers to…

Marsick and Watkins, leaders in research on informal learning in the workplace, suggest that this type of learning is a process that occurs in everyday experience and place it in a category that includes incidental learning. It may occur in institutions, but is not typically classroom-based or highly structured. It is unique to the individual, and…

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…

The Manufacturers' Alliance for Productivity and Innovation surveyed the members of its two Human Resources Councils to obtain feedback on the training employers provide their employees. The survey inquired about features of company training initiatives, special training programs that arose from a specific training need that had been instituted,…

A study examined training and staff development initiatives in Australian industrial and commercial organizations. It was carried out using a questionnaire and structured interview technique with 24 organizations. Larger organizations had their own facilities and trained in-house whereas smaller organizations made more use of Technical and Further…

Some of the few U.S. studies on the link between training and productivity have used a subjective measure of productivity or a measure of the productivity of the most recently hired worker relative to a fully trained worker, rather than output, labor productivity, total factor productivity, or value-added measures. Administered by the U.S. Bureau…

The National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce's National Employer Survey represents a unique source of information on how employers recruit workers, organize work, invest in physical capital, and use education and training in the workplace. The U.S. Bureau of the Census administered it as a telephone survey to a nationally…

This guide is designed to orient vocational education and training (VET) providers and adult educators to one approach to work-based learning in small business training and development used in Australia. Chapter 1, "About this Guide" (Merilyn Childs), provides an overview of the key players and conceptual frameworks involved in the small…

A project was undertaken to develop a guide to help small business programs select good education and training programs for their staff. An initial step was a review of literature related to adult education and training in small business and training evaluation. The initial plan was to have the guidebook be specific to a given industry or other…

Nine European Community Member States (Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom) conducted national studies that involved case studies of quality assurance in continuing education. Analysis of findings indicated that many firms regarded continuing training as a central instrument for achieving…

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…

The Department of Vocational and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota explored the possibility of incorporating an emphasis on training and development into existing programs. Activities undertaken to determine the need for such a program included extensive interviews with training and development personnel in the Minneapolis/St.…

A training evaluation system should address four major areas: reaction, learning, behavior, and results. The training evaluation system at GPU Nuclear Corporation addresses each of these areas through practical approaches such as course and program evaluation. GPU's program evaluation instrument uses a Likert-type scale to assess task development,…

A project was undertaken in Humboldt County to collect information from large and small businesses in the areas of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation, wholesale and retail, finance, services, and public information with respect to their employee requirements and needs. In all, 451 firms were surveyed to determine the size of the…

This paper, on the returns on investment (ROI) in training, introduces some practical examples for enterprises or organizations wanting to find out whether the money they have spent or intend to spend on training is necessary. It provides strategies for researchers who would like to undertake research in this area. The paper begins by examining…