This reports synthesizes the research literature on the challenges facing adult learners in higher education today and emerging strategies for increasing the number of adults over 24 who earn college credentials and degrees. This synthesis is meant to provide perspectives on key issues facing adults as more and more of them see the need for higher…

The vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone a prolonged period of substantial and significant restructuring. Reforms have been driven by a pressure to increase market forces within the system, and to gear "outputs" ever more closely to economic considerations and the needs of industry. This paper…

Despite recent talk about the worsening condition of the U.S. workforce, more highly skilled workers are still needed to help America maintain its competitive edge. But that insight doesn't exactly constitute a "Eureka!" moment for community college leaders. In reality, community colleges have been working with industry executives and…

The United States, as well as the rest of the world, will face critical civil, environmental, energy, communication, manufacturing, and health-care challenges in the coming decades, and more scientists and engineers will be needed to address those problems. The number of jobs in the U.S. labor force requiring science and engineering skills, in…

Against a background of declining employment in agriculture, a mobile workforce plays a crucial role in meeting seasonal labour demand in Australia. The dynamics of this labour force have received surprisingly little attention. We situate seasonal migration within the rising diversity of present-day mobility, and capture images of its early…

The Department of Labor's (DOL's) worker protection functions touch the lives of nearly every worker. Its approaches to carrying out these functions may have met the needs of an earlier time, but today's work world presents new demands and challenges to the federal government's traditional role. Today it is time to question the DOL's role in the…

The United States is facing a great crisis: skills gaps in the work force imperil the nation's future. The crisis is elementary: the United States is not educating and training its citizens to be productive and competent members of the work force. Consequently, its people are not qualified enough to meet the demands of the high-technology economy…

Although projecting what the labor market will be like in 10 years is extremely difficult, it is useful to consider what is in store for the nation in terms of employment. In 1985, the civilian labor force of the United States averaged 115 million persons, with 8 million (7.2 percent) unemployed. Unemployment was much higher for young people and…

This pamphlet on labor history highlights some of labor's economic and political actions during the past 200 years. The purpose is to provide inspiration and motivation for greater participation in union work. The introduction explains the purpose of unions--to pursue economic independence and social stature for all individuals--for defenseless…

Will there be radical changes in the workplace by 1997? Four predictions, two full of gloom and doom and two full of promise, are common in current literature. One recent theory holds that we are facing a polarization of American society through the erosion of the middle class. Another gloomy prediction suggests that not only is the middle class…

The investigation explores the impact that changing economies have had and will continue to have upon Human Resources Development (HRD)--the collective body responsible for training and retraining labor--and from that perspective offers recommendations to improve the impact HRD has upon society. The challenge for HRD is to recognize the economic,…

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency created in 1935 by Congress to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the basic law governing relations between labor unions and business enterprises engaged in operations affecting interstate commerce. In its statutory assignment, the NLRB has two principal…

Changes in skill requirements, training needs, the industrial and occupational mix of employment, and the spatial location of jobs are 'natural' consequences of a dynamic economy. These changes, in turn, influence employers' hiring and staffing patterns, workers' career paths, and economic growth and development. However, the evolving nature of…

CONDUCTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TECHNOLOGY, AUTOMATION, AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS, THIS STUDY PROJECTS THE MANPOWER REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES TO 1975, UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WILL BE 3 PERCENT. THE MAJOR CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY, WHICH TAKES INTO ACCOUNT EVERY TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN AMERICAN…

See TE 499 864, above.