The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning's (CAEL's) 40th anniversary year provided an opportunity for the "Forum and News" to examine the world of the adult learner from multiple perspectives and to invite CAEL friends and supporters to reflect on the evolution of the field and of CAEL as an organization. This publication presents…

This is the third annual Governing Board Monitoring Report for Maricopa Community Colleges that utilizes the Board outcome metrics adopted in 2010 to gauge institutional effectiveness. This Executive Summary focuses primarily on the 11 metrics considered "Key Metrics" but includes other select metrics, institutional data, and context…

With years of research focusing on soaring incarceration rates, the phenomena of prisoner reentry has been largely overlooked. The majority of incarcerated people will return to the community setting. In fact, millions of recently released offenders are on some form of community based supervision. Today, recidivism is a problem that plagues…

A number of economists, policymakers, elected officials, and employers cite a "skills gap" as the reason the nation is not putting more people back to work. The problem, they reason, is that too many people have the wrong skills for today's jobs, and colleges and universities are not doing enough to prepare people with the right skills.…

Since the onset of the Great Recession, the U.S. labor market has been reeling. Public concern has largely focused on the unemployment rate, which rose to double digits and has since been stalled at just over 9 percent. This rate is unacceptably high, and macroeconomic policy efforts have been unsuccessful in bringing it down. The overall…

The "National Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development Guideline (2010-20)" (hereafter abbreviated as the "Guideline") has pointed out that the core mission for the development of China's higher education in the next decade is to improve quality. This development mission was put forward against the background of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative method of performance appraisal that will be useful for designing a structured training programme. Design/methodology/approach: Employees' performance appraisals are conducted using new approaches, namely data envelopment analysis and an integrated fuzzy model. Interpretive structural…

This presentation was made to a breakout session at the 2011 Skills Australia and Industry Skills Councils joint conference, "Putting Skills at the Heart of Economy". The paper addresses the challenge of measurement in workforce development planning and discusses the role of the various players in the labour and training…

The community college environment is a complex and ever-changing system that requires effective leadership. The leadership characteristics in community colleges have been investigated substantially with studies primarily focused on the presidency and the pathway of the traditional academic pipeline. But as community colleges have struggled to do…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the benefits of intellectual capital assessment for facing current challenges of human resources work and organizational development. Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes findings of studies on challenges in HR work and maps them with features of intellectual capital assessment methods. It is thus a…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a model for international harmonization of the training and qualification of human resources for industrial professions. The outcome is a system based on training guidelines and a quality assurance methodology that is now in use in 42 countries around the world. Design/methodology/approach: The paper…

An organization probably prides itself on its openness in finding new talent. It is eager to add people with diverse backgrounds and skills to its roster of employees. Yet, like many companies, it might be hesitant to actively recruit persons with disabilities. Recruiting and integrating these individuals may require greater care, but what an…

Almost half of all students entering higher education now do so through the community college sector. These institutions are a trusted and vital source of education, training, and information for their communities. They are also at the front-line in the society's never ending battle to provide the skills and capacities necessary to ensure…

Purpose: This paper seeks to provide perspectives of HR practitioners based on their experiences with mergers, acquisitions, and/or downsizings. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study utilized interviews with 13 HR practitioners. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. Findings: HR practitioners were not involved in…

In the coming years, California will need a growing supply of educated workers to meet the demands of a dynamic state economy, and this supply will must come from populations that have historically been underrepresented in higher education. The higher education sector will need strong state policy leadership focused on the long-term success of the…