Employers are increasingly selecting and developing employees based on skills rather than qualifications. Governments now have a growing focus on skilling, reskilling and upskilling the workforce through skills-based development rather than qualifications as a way of improving productivity. Both these changes are leading to a much stronger…

This report expands on previous analyses to describe the skills needed to fill infrastructure occupations nationally. More than 14.5 million workers--or 11 percent of the entire U.S. workforce--are employed in infrastructure-related activities, many of which operate different physical assets and extend far beyond construction projects. In turn, a…

The purpose of this comparative study was to identify the technical skills and abilities needed by prospective employees of construction industries in Ghana and Nigeria. Potential employees were defined here as recent graduates of construction industry programs with entry-level technical skills. The continuous growth in and expansion of these two…

The U.S. workforce has undergone significant changes in the past few decades. Increasingly sophisticated technology, changes in the structure of the economy and the growing global marketplace have resulted in employers putting a higher premium than ever on educated workers. Much has been said about the importance of increasing the labor supply for…

This report is the successor to "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Demand through 2018," in which researchers examined the connections between educational attainment and educational demand in the labor market. In this report, the authors update the jobs projected to be available through 2020, using a macro-micro modeling…

Conclusions from case studies of technical work in four workplaces were as follows: (1) need for such skills as teamwork and problem solving varied by context; (2) despite their professed need for these skills, employers provided little training; and (3) employers were weakly connected with schools and had generally poor opinions of them. (SK)

Interviews with project managers (n=50) and lower-level managers (n=100) at NASA identified career paths and job requirements for project management in technical occupations. The necessary skills and actions for developing them were recommended for four career stages: getting established, independent contributor, technical lead/manager, and…

The recession that began in December of 2007 is already 30 months old, but the U.S. economy will not recover its pre-recession employment levels for at least another two years. From there, it will take an additional three years to make up for lost growth and create a job market strong enough to employ both the casualties of the recession and the…

Instrument technicians install, repair, maintain, and adjust instruments which record, indicate, meter, or control. The article offers a case study illustrating the duties, background, and training required for the job. (MW)

Discusses engineering as a career, emphasizing the need for large numbers of minority students--especially at the junior high and high school levels--to take advantage of the opportunity provided them by the need for engineers. (JM)

A survey was initiated to determine how well newly hired drafting technicians were doing at their jobs and to identify areas in need of improvement. (BP)

A REFERENCE BASE OF GENERAL ABILITIES DESIGNED TO IDENTIFY TECHNICIAN OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENTS WHICH CAN BE TRANSLATED INTO EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM CONTENT INCLUDES (1) A FACILITY WITH MATHEMATICS WITH THE ABILITY TO USE ALGEBRA AND TRIGONOMETRY AS TOOLS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS THAT MAKE USE OF SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES, (2) A…

This document provides extensive annotations for 11 skill standards publications available free from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the National Center for Research in Vocational Education. The following publications are annotated: "Applying the Standard: Using Industry Skill Standards to Improve…