The concept of the free agent learner, which has roots in self-directed and informal learning theory, has recently emerged as a factor important to attracting, developing, and keeping knowledge workers. The literature on free agent learning holds important lessons for today's free agent learners, human resource developers, and work organizations.…

A study examined whether Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) institutes are currently learning organizations or on the road to becoming learning organizations. Data were collected through a literature review and a questionnaire administered to staff at two dual-sector universities, two metropolitan TAFE institutes, and two…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies…

Three magnet middle schools which were established as part of a voluntary desegregation plan in a school system in a large, American city are described in this report. The schools are examined as organizations that differed in their innovative educational approaches to bring about desegregation. One school offered a system of open education, in…

A distinction is made between management for research and management of research. The former refers to the provision of a nourishing climate, sound policies supporting services of various kinds, financial systems, and organizational arrangements that will help research to flourish in a university. It exists to support the management of research, a…

The impact of state funding of higher education and corrections on African American men was studied by analyzing the National Association of State Budget Officers' annual state expenditure reports for the 15-year period from 1985 to 2000. To ensure proper scale, all 1985 figures were converted to 2000-year dollars by using the Bureau of Labor…

The question of why some employers opt to lay off current workers and hire new workers with different skills while other employers retrain and retain their workers was examined. First, the literature on employer-provided training and the role of social capital in the workplace was reviewed. Next, data from a 1994 national employers survey of firms…

This paper reviews Iceland's performance in skills accumulation against the backdrop of a rapidly changing economic environment and discusses directions for further improvements. Since the late 1990s, the government has considerably raised expenditure on education, which is now among the highest in the OECD relative to GDP. Nonetheless, Iceland…

The lack of human capital in Portugal has become a key obstacle to higher growth. This paper discusses the performance of education and training services in Portugal and shows that improvements are needed to narrow the significant human capital gap with other OECD countries. Despite progress in the past decades, Portuguese children spend…

The attitudes and experiences of 18 vocational education and training (VET) practitioners considered to be at the leading edge of online education in technical and further education (TAFE) in South Australia were examined to determine how leading-edge VET practitioners engaged in designing, developing, and facilitating online learning understand…

This document contains four papers on organizational enhancement and human resource development (HRD). "Motivation to Improve Work through Learning in Human Resource Development" (Sharon S. Naquin, Elwood F. Holton III) argues that HRD's traditional conceptualization of motivation should be expanded to incorporate motivation to use…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on emotion and behavior in the workplace that was conducted as part of a conference on human resource development (HRD). "Emotion Work, and Perceptions of Affective Culture in a Military Nonprofit Organization" (Jamie L. Callahan, David R. Schwandt) reports on a study of the emotion…

This report examines the financing of the two components of France's vocational education and training (VET) system. They are initial vocational training (IVT), which includes upper secondary and short forms of higher education, and continuing vocational training (CVT), which aims to help workers adapt to changes in working techniques and…

This monograph examines vocational education and training (VET) in the United Kingdom. Section 1 outlines the UK's political and administrative structure, population and employment, and economy. The following are among the aspects of the UK's VET system discussed in section 2: evolution of the system; organization of education and training (the…

The purpose of this book is to provide a basic resource that defines the ethical issues in higher education and to offer a starting point for means of resolution or policy development in regard to them. Part 1 establishes an interpretive framework for the book in the following papers: "Institutional Culture and Ethics" (David Smith and…