The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was asked to examine the demands of the workplace and determine whether young people are capable of meeting these demands. Six panels were established to examine all manners of jobs from manufacturing to government employment and conduct in-depth interviews with workers in a wide…

In many countries throughout the world, efforts to articulate the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of workers have translated into the development of organizations with the specific charter to establish industry-based skill standards with attendant new and/or expanded forms of certification of competencies. The new emphasis on skill…

The WorkAbility Program was a 3-year project initiated in October 1991 by the Metropolitan Community Colleges (MCC) in Kansas City, Missouri, to increase the employability of students with disabilities by addressing needs for career counseling, mentoring, job search skills preparation, and career-related work experiences. The five sections of this…

The role of distance education as a vehicle for delivering continuing education in Asia was examined from the following standpoints: facilitating development amidst poverty; making human resource development the prime strategy; overcoming the stagnation of education amidst wrenching change; and using distance education to accomplish those…

A factual and descriptive analysis of the employment situation in Bulgaria showed that the transition to a market economy has led to a substantial reduction of employment. The economic restructuring begun in 1990 has proved very difficult, and the privatization of the large industrial enterprises faces problems mainly due to insufficient interest…

In all societies, there is a new interest in the education of women, their role in society, and their place in the economy. Western societies have moved away from single-sex education in the past few decades, but recent research and experience has begun to highlight again the value of single-sex colleges and schools. Changes in working patterns…

This document contains three papers on human resource development (HRD) and trust in organizations. "Organizational Trust: An Orientation for the HRD Practitioner" (Christina L. Lafferty, Brad D. Lafferty) reviews research on organizational trust that was conducted with a focus on cognitive-based theories, affect-based theories, and…

A conceptual framework for school-based vocational education and training (VET) in Australia is based on a United States model. It implies VET has purposes beyond equipping young people with skills. Global themes in VET development are government use of VET as an economic and social policy tool to ensure skilled workforces; provision of VET…

A study examined the perceived training and retraining needs of Iowa business/organizations and employer views regarding how the continuing education divisions of Iowa's community colleges can best meet those needs. Of the 1,069 Iowa employers contacted, 608 (56.9%) responded. According to the respondents, Iowa's system of community college…

Fourteen economic development practitioners were asked to participate in a modified Delphi study that attempted to provide a level of agreement about future trends and issues that affect economic development at the county level in Ohio. Literature from several fields was reviewed to find potential trends and issues and, using a Likert-type scale,…

This paper outlines the strategic action areas and initiatives of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) for 2002. The six action areas outlined are: (1) national and international recognition and advocacy for community colleges; (2) learning and accountability; (3) leadership development; (4) economic and workforce development; (5)…

All businesses are grappling with knowledge networks--finding the right employees at the right time with the right knowledge and skills. The National Alliance of Business, MIT, and others have been working on an intriguing way to look at labor supply and demand issues called knowledge supply chain management. UPS (United Parcel Service) manages…

This packet contains three papers from a symposium on evaluating university human resource development (HRD) programs. The first paper, "Where Have All the Young Ones Gone? An Analysis of the Graduates of an Human Resource Development Program" (Douglas H. Smith, Jo D. Gallagher), reports the results of a survey of graduates between 1998…

The public sector is becoming less concerned with who is providing a given service but more concerned about the quality, reliability, accessibility, and price of the service. In vocational education and training (VET), one consequence of this transformation is that the various public stakeholders involved with funding, purchasing, and providing…

A review of Florida's work force development (WD) system focuses on state-level entities and programs involved in providing job training services, workforce education services, and other services to help persons obtain and retain jobs. State-level WD entities consist of 10 state agencies and public-private partnerships, 2 primary state-level…