School leavers are aspiring to professional occupations in significant numbers. The availability of careers in the professions is considerably less than the numbers of aspirants. Those providing career counsel to school leavers are critically placed to provide the structure and information that will assist young people develop career plans that…

The demand for flexible engineers presents significant challenges to engineering education. Among these is the need for engineers to be prepared to understand and deal with organizational change. Yet engineering education and research on engineers have overlooked the impact of organizational change on engineering work. After outlining the impact…

The empirical relationship between educational attainment and credentials with socioeconomic attainment is well established, but why this relationship arises remains in doubt. The author of this article discusses seven types of middle-range theories meant to explain the relationship: human capital, screening (including filtering), signaling,…

Preservice teachers in elementary teacher education programs for the most part are well trained and prepared in meeting the needs of the students they face in today's classrooms. For many preservice teachers a more traumatic experience is the transition from student teacher to teacher. Due to various time and curricular constraints, the student…

This paper is an essay on the state of Australian education that frames new directions for educational research. It outlines three challenges faced by Australian educators: highly spatialised poverty with particularly strong mediating effects on primary school education; the need for intellectual and critical depth in pedagogy, with a focus in the…

As the use of instructional technology continues to escalate, it is not surprising that universities are attempting to reach new student markets by using technology. Many of the benefits and barriers to asynchronous distance education (ADE) have been examined over the years; however, few have explored these constructs from the student's…

A study is reported of the use of a personal journal as a tool for transferring learning from the training room to the workplace. The targeted learning event was an English for Communication training programme. This programme was an intensive four-day course that grouped together participants from the non-UK sites of the aircraft manufacturer…

Since 1997, the key trend in work has been the widening gap between good jobs and bad jobs. CONFINTEA took place in the middle of an international boom in high-tech development, with attendant optimism around creation of a "knowledge economy". While the subsequent crash of this sector is no doubt temporary, it draws attention to the…

To create an education pipeline capable of moving all students through to an advanced level of skills and credentials and connecting young adults to the well-paying jobs being created in Massachusetts, two challenges deserve the special and immediate attention of state leaders: (1) Substantially increasing the percentage of the state's low-income,…

The authors offer the image of our nation as a nautical convoy. Some boats are large, well built, and able to ride out the heaviest of turbulent seas. Others are smaller, but still quite sturdy, and able to survive. Many however, are fragile, meagerly equipped, and easily capsized in rough waters. This convoy is in the midst of a perfect storm…

As the global economy rapidly changes and new technologies are introduced, more highly skilled workers are required. In the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), firms struggle to fill skilled positions due to a lack of qualified candidates, while the number of unemployed low skilled workers is growing. This paradox especially affects…

According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), "manufacturing is the engine that drives American prosperity". When NAM and its research and education arm, The Manufacturing Institute, released the handbook, "The Facts About Modern Manufacturing," in October 2006, NAM President John Engler noted, that…

Public opinion surveys conducted by Public Agenda confirm that parents, students, and educators from diverse ethnic groups share the same fundamental aspirations for education and agree on the basic reforms needed in schools. The author, a senior advisor for Public Agenda, describes survey findings that suggest that all groups see education as the…

In "A Framework of Poverty," Ruby Payne (1998) itemizes the things that characterize poverty-stricken people. She talks about how hard it is for a person to move out of poverty. To not pass poverty on to another generation, one must have a vision. One must have a desire to achieve a better life or a strong support system. Schools must…

Purpose: This series of papers aims to explore the transition from higher education into work. It reports on research undertaken over a period of two years and which sought to track a number of young graduates as they completed their studies and embarked upon career of choice. Design/methodology/approach: The approach adopted is defined and…