This guide is intended to be used as a companion to "The Competitive Edge: Sharpening Your Skills in the Workplace" curricular materials--the student editions and instructors' guides. It can also stand alone as a reference for individuals just starting to implement or beginning to plan a workplace skills enhancement program in their organization.…

In February 1995, the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) established a committee to study accessibility and opportunity within the community college system. This document provides the Committee's report, focusing on changing conditions and challenges facing the system. Following introductory materials, a paradigm shift between the 1950's and…

This guide, part of a series of workplace-developed materials for retraining factory workers, provides teaching materials for a workplace course in report writing skills for technical staff. The course has been designed to help new engineers with all aspects of report writing. It covers the outline and structure of reports, brainstorming,…

The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that has no institutionalized school-to-work transition system for helping young people move from education to employment. The Academy for Educational Development's National Institute for Work and Learning (AED/NIWL) undertook a 4-year study of school-to-work transition education…

Over the last decade, concern over the nation's global economic status and the role of public education in preparing workers has led to a push for standards reform. Two converging reform strategies have emerged: (1) to create a voluntary system of academic standards for K-12 students, and (2) to create a voluntary system of industry-skill…

Since 1993, Washington community and technical colleges have received funds under the Workforce Employment and Training Act to provide new and expanded retraining programs to serve unemployed workers. This report reviews accomplishments of the colleges under the provisions of the act from 1993-95, providing detailed information about the colleges'…

In May 1995, Eastfield College, in Dallas, Texas, signed a formal affiliation with Service, Employment, and Redevelopment (SER)-Jobs for Progress, Inc., a Hispanic-oriented non-profit corporation dedicated to developing employment and training efforts. The agreement stipulates that SER will provide or manage the provision of training and technical…

These four papers are from a symposium on instructional strategies that was facilitated by Joseph Kessels at the 1995 Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) conference. "Developing Supervisory Expertise: The Effects of an Inductive versus a Deductive Training Method on the Job Behaviors of Supervisors" (Margaret C. Lohman) discusses…

Designed to illustrate exemplary strategies used by community colleges to meet the needs of corporate partners and which other colleges may wish to model, this monograph provides descriptions of partnerships at 14 community colleges written by the practitioners involved. Each narrative discusses how the partnerships were formed; their structure,…

The United States has never had a consistent, unified work force development system. Instead, because of citizens' preference for decentralized government, most efforts at work force development have been sporadic and localized. From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Congress enacted between 125 and 175 narrowly-focused categorical employment…

This guide, which is intended for individuals responsible for designing and/or delivering workplace basic skills programs, explains the principles and procedures of curriculum development in the workplace. Discussed in chapter 1 is the importance of focusing on basic skills in workplace education and examining existing practices. Chapter 2…

The sequel to "Workforce 2000," this book lays out the general contours of the employment landscape depicting the many roads to "Workforce 2020" and offers the best ideas about what lies ahead and what workers should do to prepare for the journey. Chapter 1 examines the forces shaping the U.S. economy: rapid technological change; further global…

A theory of vocational education and training (VET) somewhat different than that currently accepted is a set of beliefs about the purpose, practices, and principles associated with producing occupational competence. VET institutions need to be aware of and responsive to work force requirements. An analysis of information about current and future…

Congress is working to complete legislation to create block grant funding for work force development. Nearly 100 vocational education, job training, adult education, and other work force education programs that previously were separately funded will compete for the reduced funding available. The Carl D. Perkins Act of 1990 and School-to-Work…

This document consists of four papers presented during a symposium on career development moderated by David Bjorkquist at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). "A Mentoring Model for Career Development" (Mary Finnegan) describes a study that created a model based on the assumption that mentoring is an essential…