Describes existing and envisioned national system of innovation in South Africa; status of cooperative research in science, engineering, and technology; the government's Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme; and future needs, such as closer higher education-business links and a greater market focus for research and development.…

This literature review explores competing views of the relationship between adult literacy and U.S. economic difficulties. Trends in public policy, legislation, labor forecasting, and workplace training from the 1960s to the present are reviewed. Consequences of the perceived gap between workers' skills and national economic needs are discussed.…

The lukasa, an African mnemonic device, illustrates the way in which individual meaning-making enables adults to interpret and shape organizational meaning-making. This may be limited by power abuses, lack of learning skills or developmental capacity, and the changing social contract. (SK)

Of 13 New York adult educators and directors of General Educational Development, English as a second language, and work force preparation programs, 12 used needs assessments. Assessment data were used most often for program redesign/development and teacher planning. They recommended involving students, using a variety of methods, administering…

Presents in English and French the main findings of a survey of Canadian business and labor representatives dealing with education and literacy, apprenticeship and training in the workplace, and the training roles and funding responsibilities of business and labor. (Author)

Discusses whether intelligence testing belongs in the workplace. Consequences of that decision relate to whether it is better for society to endorse the ascendancy of individuals or whether the rights of disadvantaged groups should take precedence. (JOW)

State and local surveys indicate that most current legislative provisions designed to encourage joint planning and program coordination of vocational education, employment, and training programs have been implemented. Coordination seems better under the Job Training Partnership Act than it was under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.…

Transformational outcome-based education aligns curriculum with authentic tasks and authentic assessment, focusing on development of learners with metacognitive skills to cope with a technologically and culturally diverse world and workplace. (SK)

Discusses the role of management in supporting employee training programs for performance improvement. How to identify training needs and develop a plan to support training are described. Promoting management involvement in training by linking training to the organizational plan and establishing an evaluation plan are discussed. (Contains two…

Comparison of Britain's Training and Enterprise Councils/Local Enterprise Companies with the United States' Private Industry Councils (PICs) shows common problems: inadequate financing, labor market fragmentation, staff turnover, and lack of national strategy. PICs have a clearer mission and greater success in developing partnerships with local…

Education and adult life/work are concurrent, not consecutive. To address this new paradigm, Work Keys provide a common language for education and business to prepare people for education and employment transitions. Work Keys components are job profiling, skills assessments, and targets for instruction. (SK)

Labor market planning techniques must take into account the dynamic nature of economies. A better approach than labor needs forecasting is use of labor market signals developed by monitoring wage and employment changes and evaluating training programs. (SK)

Redesigning jobs, training, and retraining may be the most important economic challenge facing this country for the next decade. Training must support jobs that are really changing and retraining has to prepare people for jobs that really exist. (Author/JOW)

Although in most developing countries, major vocational training programs are financed from general government revenues, earmarked payroll taxes are becoming increasingly popular. This paper summarizes international experience with these payroll taxes, distinguishing between the more traditional revenue-raising schemes of the Latin American model…

Examines the perspectives of needs assessment described in performance technology and human resource development literature. Perspectives embodied in definitions and conceptualizations of the terms need, needs assessment, needs analysis, front end analysis, and performance analysis are examined, and different views about where the needs assessment…