Explores the difficult transition from campus to workplace and what employees can do to successfully enter an organization. Describes twelve steps which help make sense of this very critical career state, avoid costly mistakes, build solid foundation for advancement, and get a fast start. Steps are helpful in setting priorities and guiding…

This study examined the participation of students with disabilities planning for secondary transitions using person-centered planning processes. Findings suggest that student participation ranged from highly active to nonexistent across the observed planning meetings, with levels of participation influenced by students' conversational style,…

Reviews the changing labor market for young adults and a policy climate that emphasizes "learning pays." Identifies challenges for educators: (1) espousing a broader message of how learning "pays"; (2) creating a flexible structure of lifelong learning opportunities; and (3) improving the quality and quantity of information in the learning…

Current preoccupations with "enterprise culture" in schooling deflect attention from crucial problems such as deindustrialization and the changing nature of work, creation of meaningful work opportunities, social justice, and moral and social regeneration. Enterprise culture draws upon a social pathology and seeks simple solutions…

This article discusses conceptual models and previous research that illuminate the complex and promising relationship between career-oriented schooling and self-determination for students with disabilities, and all students. The benefits of career-oriented schooling are highlighted, including effects on academic achievement, engagement,…

Follow-up of seven Australian trainees and four apprentices in their first year of full-time work indicated that they chose jobs that provided learning opportunities and expected to learn more from on-the-job training. Employers were generally committed to training, but environmental factors affected its success. Apprentices rated school-based…

The emerging information-based occupational society emphasizes education-work relationships. Counselors must make students aware of forecasts of a lower need for four-year college graduates and increased jobs for two-year postsecondary graduates and help them develop alternatives to four-year college attendance. (SK)

Compared with minimum competency tests, curriculum-based external exit exams provide better measures of students' achievement levels. Analysis of Third Mathematics and Science Study data shows that 13 year-olds from exit-exam countries are ahead of nonparticipating countries. Effects on college enrollment, job success, and test scores are…

This article engages with current debates in New Zealand over the legitimacy of various young people's activities within a transition-to-work framework based around the metaphor of "pathways". The article argues for a more complex understanding of the imperatives young people now face in choosing careers within a deregulated, seamless…

Using a sample of 446 secondary students who had participated in a vocational education and training in school VETiS program, compares the experiences and perceptions of students who had undertaken a work placement with those who had not. Shows that students who had participated in work placement enjoyed the VETiS experience more than those who…

In this paper, the authors seek to examine the gendered nature of boys' school to work transitions for a group of young male workers entering employment for the first time in the 1960s. They argue that such an enquiry is important because past studies of transitions have not problematised boys school to work transitions in terms of gender.…

In this article, we are interested in what kind of opinions people belonging to different generations have on work experience and formal education. Mannheim's theory on generations is used as a general frame of reference. The questions asked in the article are: is education appreciated more by young people who have been able to participate in it…

Three important elements of a South African vision for high skills must be spreading skills improvements across the population in general, creating policy coherence and constructing new institutions. This article examines these issues through an investigation of the micro and small enterprise (MSE) sector and, in particular, through an analysis of…

When college students find ways to combine education for productive work with education for responsible citizenship, the balance between workplace productivity and civic engagement provides both financial rewards and a deep sense of satisfaction associated with contributing to the vitality of the communities where they work and live. This is…

Generic skills development is increasingly being embedded into UK higher education curricula to improve the employability and lifelong learning skills of graduates. At the same time universities are being required to benchmark their curricular outcomes against national and employer standards. This paper presents and discusses the results of a…