"VET partnerships powering a dynamic workforce" is the theme for the 33rd National Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research Conference 'No Frills.' In keeping with the conference's theme, this discussion paper focuses on Australia's workforce demands and the importance of equipping the workforce with necessary skills through…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on public education worldwide as well as in Virginia. In the years since the pandemic's onset, students' test-based performance dropped dramatically and has not yet fully bounced back, chronic absenteeism increased, mental health worsened, and incidences of student misbehavior rose. School…

Previous stages of "The Skills Imperative 2035" research programme involved projecting what jobs will be available in the future labour market and what skills will be needed to do those jobs. The skills projections identified a set of skills that are intensively utilised across the labour market today, but which will be in even greater…

As we approach this Labor Day, the Pennsylvania economy is growing steadily. Working families are sharing in prosperity in a more sustained way than at any point since 1980--although many families still struggle to make ends meet and, in our polarized nation, a big partisan divide exists in perceptions of whether the economy is better than four…

This playbook provides ways in which business and industry can blur the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Business and industry play a significant role to Raise the Bar for student success by developing an "education-to-workforce system" focusing on Unlocking Career Success.

This paper provides an analysis of government-supported workforce development programs in the United States and selected states as of the end of 2024. We provide an overview of the topic of workforce development, defining this to include activities and funding mechanisms that aim to increase the skills of workers and help them succeed in the labor…

A key question raised by the Australian Universities Accord is how the tertiary education system can enhance participation rates and align vocational education and training (VET) with the evolving needs of the labour market. However, the alignment between VET in Schools enrolments and local labour market needs remains unclear. This study…

Active labour policies are globally adopted to tackle unemployment and enhance job matching. In Chile, a predominantly supply-focused approach involves training workers, especially in vulnerable groups, as it is believed that investing in human capital will align job demand and available skills. This subnational Chilean case study in the Coquimbo…

The Indonesian labor force remains poorly educated and ill equipped to tackle the growing challenges of meeting contemporary industry requirements. While many countries aspire to equip future generations with the skills, knowledge and attitudes for a future working life, the relationship between the 'world of work' and the current Indonesian…

Short-term certificate (STC) programs at community colleges represent a long-standing policy priority to align accelerated postsecondary credentials with job opportunities in local labor markets. Despite large investments in developing STCs, little evidence exists about where and when STCs are opened and whether community colleges open new…

A multigenerational caregiving crisis is emerging at the interface of family and work, and human resource development (HRD) should pay attention. This perspective considers the impact of multigenerational caregiving-induced responsibilities on human capital frameworks, and their implications for HRD. We believe traditional models often neglect the…

Researchers have posited various theories to explain supposed declines in teaching quality: the expansion of labor market opportunities for women, low relative wages, compressed compensation structures, and substituting quantity for quality. We synthesize these previous theories and expand on the current literature by incorporating a useful…

This report is designed to be read after "Rethinking skills gaps and solutions, Working Paper 4 of The Skills Imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow's workforce." Its purpose is to give further depth and weight to the key findings and recommendations reported in Working Paper 4 by describing the analyses that were conducted using…

This research examines regional skill problems and the strategies adopted to reduce skill shortages by a set of employers (n = 16). The data collected in 2019 in a northern region in Portugal indicate considerable and persistent shortages of engineering and IT graduates and non-graduates for operational jobs. The employers implement anticipative…

This stand-alone appendix discusses additional context and findings from a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the science- and technology-focused (STF) workforce ecosystem in the seven-county Pittsburgh region. It augments a report focused on the demand for and supply of STF workers, training pipelines, anticipated growth, unique regional…