Three law students at New York University (NYU) detail components and implementation of NYU's loan assistance program for graduates with low earnings (usually employed by public interest firms, the government, or small firms). NYU's program is intended to preserve student body diversity and minimize debt concerns as a factor in career choice.…

Discusses methods by which small businesses can plan and implement training for their employees to meet government mandated environmental regulations. Suggested steps include assessing the company's needs, choosing options to meet training requirements, and examining cost effectiveness. (MDH)

Describes a project that helps students solve real business problems, share leadership roles, delegate duties, write collaboratively, present orally as a team, and manage conflict as they serve as consultants to small business owners. (RS)

In Tompkins County, New York, the Business Innovation Center (BIC) uses "intellectual capital" to help local entrepreneurs succeed. Founded by faculty from Cornell University and community members, BIC helps successful scientists start up businesses and uses the combined expertise of area businesspeople and college faculty to solve the…

Presents arguments supporting a social model of learning linked to situated learning and cultural capital. Critiques training methods used in cultural industries (arts, publishing, broadcasting, design, fashion, restaurants). Uses case study evidence to demonstrates inadequacies of formal training in this sector. (Contains 49 references.) (SK)

Focuses on links among mothers' (N=71) perceptions of their parenting practices, their parenting values, their children's behavior, and the work conditions they experience in small and large workplaces. Results found significant relationships between work conditions and parenting, and significant differences between small and large workplaces.…

Interviews with 1008 business owners and managers in 30 small Iowa communities found that the majority were committed to their community and provided support to youth programs, local schools, or community development activities. Business social responsibility was related to operator age, education, success, and perceptions of community collective…

Explores the planning processes a grassroots environmental group used to determine its goals for its Websites; examines the rhetoric of two of the group's Websites; and studies the reactions of audiences of the Websites to their Web rhetoric. Provides people working in small organizations with information about how they might improve the…

Discusses a controversial benchmark study by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1998 that supported a form of affirmative action for minority-owned small businesses, focusing on some of its questionable methodology and conclusions. Examines program specifics, the benchmark study, data collection and evaluation problems, and who is doing the…

Includes "Introduction" (Childe); "Local Universities as a Resource for Local SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises)" (Edmondson); "University of Sheffield's Technical Audit Programme" (Lowe, Ridgway); "Benchmarking as the Gateway to Knowledge Transfer for SMEs" (Nelder, Skandalakis); and "Assessing the Likely Effectiveness of Intervention…

In Norway, 32 secondary and postsecondary institutions serve as regional centers for continuing education and inservice training for business/industry. Information/communications technology solutions are focused on the needs of participants, not simply on transferring old methods to Internet delivery mechanisms. (SK)

Three important elements of a South African vision for high skills must be spreading skills improvements across the population in general, creating policy coherence and constructing new institutions. This article examines these issues through an investigation of the micro and small enterprise (MSE) sector and, in particular, through an analysis of…

In contemporary China, there are two far-reaching developments that impact directly on graduate employment: (a) a highly entrepreneurial and rapidly growing small business sector and (b) a rapidly expanding higher education sector. Paradoxically, while the small business sector continues to suffer from acute skills shortages, new graduates are…

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have a major advantage over larger organisations in regard to addressing sustainability issues--their size means they are able to react very quickly to changes in the business environment. They are disadvantaged, however, by lack of information on marketplace changes that make sustainability an opportunity…

Understanding how learning for small businesses should best proceed constitutes a worthwhile, yet challenging, pedagogic project. In order to maintain their viability, small businesses need to be able to respond to new practices and tasks. Yet small businesses seem neither attracted to nor to value the kinds of taught courses that are the standard…