Emerging and potential Australian industries were surveyed to identify the skills needed by their current and future workers and to determine how Australia's vocational and training (VET) system can best respond to those skill needs. The study investigated industries emerging from the work of Australia's Co-operative Research Centres program. The…

This book comprises an overview and 11 chapters that address issues related to flexible approaches to delivery and online learning in particular. "Overview" (Guthrie) highlights key points drawn from the chapters. "Does Digital Literacy Mean More Than Clicking Your Fingers?" (Candy) discusses the importance of information and…

Adult and continuing education developed as ad hoc responses to concrete and partial needs. The fact that adult education has gained a broader mission and become regarded as encompassing political and citizenship education, vocational training, general adult education and access courses, and leisure courses presents an ambiguous challenge to the…

In autumn 2001, the United Kingdom's (UK's) government published the following key documents concerning workforce development: (1) "In Demand: Adult Skills in the 21st Century"; (2) "The UK Productivity Challenge"; and (3) "Building a Stronger, Fairer Britain in an Uncertain World." Key positions and policies included…

Since 1997, policymakers in the United Kingdom and Europe have devoted extensive effort to devising policies and programs to reconnect young people with learning and work. In April 2001, England's government launched the Connexions Service, which is designed to meet young people's needs through a comprehensive, coherent, and holistic system of…

An intrinsic part of the transition to a modern market economy in Hungary has been the restructuring of the vocational education and training (VET) system. A positive side effect of the socioeconomic transition is the emergence of human resources development (HRD). The transition process has been successful in the school-based education system,…

This report on vocational education and training (VET) in Poland has nine chapters. Chapter 1 presents the socioeconomic situation; explains reasons for different rates of development in particular regions; and presents trends in job creation and rise and fall in unemployment. Chapter 2 deals with changes in the VET field in these areas: VET's…

Reduced training costs, worldwide accessibility, and improved technological capabilities have made Web-based training (WBT) a viable alternative to classroom instruction. WBT enables businesses to cut their training costs. Efficiency of operation is another major advantage of WBT. The flexibility of time, place, and programs offered via WBT…

This paper considers how colleges and universities can best fulfill the commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. Data come from interviews with key institutional representatives. The first section of the paper offers specific examples of how various colleges and…

Three presentations are provided from Symposium 32, Core Directions in HRD (Human Resource Development), of the Academy of HRD 2000 Conference Proceedings. "Exploring the Convergence of Political and Managerial Cultures in the Dominican Republic: Implications for Management Development and Training" (Max U. Montesino) reports a survey of…

The proportion of individuals with little training varies greatly among European countries. Throughout Europe, nonparticipation in the labor market and unemployment seem relatively synonymous. Three degrees of labor market openness with regard to individuals with low levels of training are apparent throughout Europe: (1) in Portugal, skill…

The first of the three papers in this symposium, "Scaling the Walls of Academic Silos: The Birth of a Cross-disciplinary Academic HRD [Human Resource Development] Program" (Ann K. Brooks, Kathleen Edwards, Alison Davis-Blake), describes and analyzes how one HRD program transcended the walls of the graduate school of business and a college of…

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "Examination of Critical Issues for Development and Implementation of Online Instruction" (Scott D. Johnson, Nilda Palma-Rivas, Chanidprapa Suriya, Steve Downey), reports on a descriptive and exploratory study that examined several critical issues affecting the development of online…

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "Trust and Distrust at Work: Normative and Dyad-exchange Influences on Performance" (C. Ken Weidner, II), proposes a theoretical framework for exploring and understanding trust and distrust in organizations. "Work Culture Adjustment: A Critical Ingredient to Organizational Change"…

This study is part of a regional study in industrial South Wales on the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. The study combines contextual analysis of…