Australia entered the COVID-19 pandemic with a youth (15 to 24-year-old) unemployment rate of 11.6% in December 2019, three times higher than the 25 to 64-year-old unemployment rate of 3.6%. The strategies taken by governments to minimise the spread of COVID-19 have had widespread economic impacts. By July 2020, youth unemployment had risen to…

Reviews data on massive youth unemployment in the United States and looks at youth training in Germany and Japan. Proposes a national program that would create large numbers of youth trainee positions in the public and private sectors, and would include vocational training and counseling at the high school level. (ML)

The Core Skills Project has developed in the "core skills" an instrument that can be used in the analysis of occupational competence. Any development of accreditation of work-based learning entails assessment of learning in the workplace. The success of such assessment depends on identifying the outcomes of experience in terms of…

The cost benefits of a model work training program for at-risk youth in New York City were analyzed. Starting with an individual assessment of each client's needs, the INTERFACE youth employment training program included these components: work experience in public service projects, literacy education/equivalency diploma preparation, classroom…

Assessment of student achievement in the workplace identifies workplace skills students may not demonstrate in course work. It also induces a continuous sensitivity to industry needs. On-job training tends to have sufficient formality to encourage organized assessment and off-job learning can involve assessment to the point of excess. However,…

This report is about recent steps undertaken at national and other levels to help schools in the countries of the European Community develop links with industry or the economic world. It draws particularly on examples from the 30 pilot projects that formed part of the European Community's second program on young people's transition from education…

Thirty-five representatives of local, state, and federal youth-work programs attended a workshop which focused on issues related to planning a youth-work program, identifying the target population, designing a comprehensive program, and recruiting, screening, and selecting youth. Its agenda was established following field visits to a dozen…

This chapter describes a community development project in Siete Pilas (Spain), a village whose economy is based primarily on small family farms and unskilled labor. The project grew out of the Sierra Education Program, which in 1980 sent adult-education teachers to five villages in the Sierra de Ronda region. The goal was to stimulate a socially…

This yearbook of PETRA, the European Community's program for providing youths with vocational training and preparing them for adulthood and work, contains 14 articles: "PETRA's Added Value" (Welbers); "Beyond the Fallen Wall" (Hanf); "Project Report: A Flyweight Becomes a Bricklayer"; "PETRA's Southern Tip"…

Sixteen guideline recommendations developed by an experiential education advisory panel are presented. Policy guidelines are intended for use in developing experiential education programs. Each issue is briefly delineated; major points that were offered for the panel's consideration are highlighted. The issue statements concern the following…

Challenges identified by T. Bailey (1993) as obstacles to youth apprenticeship programs are accurate but do not justify the turn to alternative approaches he recommends. U.S.-style program can be built to overcome these difficulties if employer-worker collaboration can be fostered and institutional bases can be constructed. (SLD)

S. F. Hamilton and the author agree on the potential of youth apprenticeship programs for education but disagree on the strength of the problems facing implementation of apprenticeship models. A two-level reform strategy is recommended to develop an institutional and legal structure and to encourage employer participation. (SLD)

A study compared the effectiveness of public and private sector work experience programs. In five locations equal numbers of jobs were developed in the private and public/nonprofit sectors. To equalize the incentives relative to the public sector, full wage subsidies were provided on an experimental basis in the private sector. Youth were matched…

This report reviews government programs in the United States that serve the educational, training, and employment needs of immigrant and refugee youth. An overview of European immigration to the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is followed by a presentation of the characteristics of post-1960 U.S. immigrants. Empirically…

While strongly supporting the passage of the Youth Act of 1980 (S-2385), the American Vocational Association (AVA) contends that improvements are needed in the bill in order to effect optimal linkages between employment and education agencies toward solving the youth unemployment problem. Specific changes would (1) further the potential of…