Discusses the necessity of partnerships between industry and community colleges as a way to improve the workforce by providing the skills and education needed to compete successfully in a global economy. Partnerships in areas of technology are emphasized. Seven examples of partnerships between Texas Instruments and community colleges are listed.…

Discusses the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which consolidates more than 70 federal job-training programs and provides states with the flexibility to develop workforce-development systems in partnership with local governments. Describes one-stop career centers, which provide a variety of services to job seekers. (JOW)

Suggests that, although technical skills are important, soft skills still make a critical difference in hiring in high-tech fields. Defines soft skills as the ability to think critically, work in teams, share ideas, and perform other non-technological tasks. Describes a study that found that employers still see a four-year college degree as the…

Describes California's Educational Development Network (ED>Net), an experimental effort to use the existing community college infrastructure to enhance the state's economic development activities. Highlights ED>Net's focus on developing organization, process, and individual skills in the current workforce. Indicates that ED>Net is…

Discusses the benefits and limits of quick job placement and basic education strategies, and suggests ways to create more effective welfare-to-work strategies. Focuses on the challenges of helping those for whom job searches are unsuccessful, and recommends ways of helping them find and sustain employment. Contains 18 citations. (VWC)

Two foreign medical schools plan to open branch campuses in the United States. Opponents, including the American Medical Association and a physician group, argue that allowing unaccredited medical schools to operate here could jeopardize health care. The two institutions are distinctly different: a for-profit school in the West Indies, and a…

Explains how the existing workforce in Kazakhstan's oil industry is being upgraded in skills, knowledge, and competencies to bring them up to the standards of the West. Discusses the design phase, including career development plans, training plans, and business plans; job ladders and specifications; assessing skill levels; and an…

Contends that America's community colleges have emerged as the leaders in educational opportunity and in responding creatively to workforce needs in their communities. Adds that they have been described as the "workhorses" of higher education, engines of economic prosperity, and centers of scholarship--roles that should not go unrecognized or…

Against the backdrop of training provision in the apartheid era and a description of the promulgation of a new skills development regime post-1994, this article considers the status and distribution of enterprise training in contemporary South Africa. It is found that reasonable progress is being made with training in large and medium-sized firms…

Due to globalization in recent years, organizations and the government in Taiwan take developing human expertise more seriously than ever before. However, human resource development evaluation practices in Taiwan have somewhat overlooked connecting training to transfer and organizational results. To help close the gap, organizations in Taiwan need…

This chapter offers techniques that can help institutional researchers play a more active role in the process of creating and modifying instructional programs to meet workforce needs. (Contains 1 table.)

This chapter overviews the reforms taking place in the education sector in Mexico at the present time and how the results of the survey and interview phases of this "Schooling for the Future" study interface with these reforms. The results of the interview round of this study indicate that in Mexico there is still very much a…

Women of color are the fastest growing segment of the work force, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. With women making up 48 percent of the work force by the year 2008, they must be poised to assume the leadership opportunities of the 21st century. To meet this demand, Spelman College is embarking on an institutional agenda to…

This article explores the emerging phenomenon of workplace learning brokerage and the extent to which learning brokers can facilitate workplace learning in firms that have little history of employee development. Drawing on research carried out over a 6-year period, the article puts forward a typology of practice and identifies four distinct forms…

Commitment to community is the cornerstone of the community college mission. Community colleges were created to serve the needs of their local communities, and that commitment to community continues to be a very good thing at community colleges throughout the country. But when commitment to community is so strong that colleges become too…