This book examines how quality management is implemented in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. It presents the survey results as two sector studies. Competitive and specialization tendencies of the sectors and company concepts of "quality" and…

Although large companies are more apt to provide training than smaller companies are, size is becoming less of a predictor of training than complexity of the environment, degree of market competition, and internal makeup of the company. The increasingly technological nature of the workplace has prompted many small businesses to increase their…

Recent (within the past 6 years) research on returns to Australian enterprises from investment in vocational education and training (VET) was reviewed. Special attention was paid to the following topics: relationship between enterprise size, specialization, and location and investment in formal training; approaches to appraising enterprises'…

This report from the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, a federal agency that coordinates and promotes public and private efforts to enhance the employment of people with disabilities, discusses the current status of small business and self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities and offers…

This educational kit from the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, a federal agency that coordinates and promotes public and private efforts to enhance the employment of people with disabilities, is designed to assist employers in promoting the employment of people with disabilities. Committee activities carried out in…

The demand for workers with entrepreneurial skills is increasingly driving innovation in the education system, both at the K-12 and postsecondary levels. A growing number of education groups are augmenting the training programs currently offered in high schools by teaching entrepreneurial skills. The National Foundation for Teaching…

The Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning (REAL) program is a network of teachers from 150 high schools, colleges, and universities in 23 states and 2 foreign countries. The program uses experiential learning to link rural schools with rural development by drawing on schools' resources to revitalize the community, while using the…

Describes Northwest Indian College's Business Assistance Center which provides technical support, advice on business planning and operation, and assistance in dealing with local lending institutions for entrepreneurs starting or expanding businesses on the Lummi Reservation. Highlights the success of the new center's first client, a carpenter.…

This paper examines a data set that has its origins in European Social Fund Objective 4 financed training programmes in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain to examine the extent to which three different personal development outcomes are attributable to different types of skills acquired during the training process. The three…

China's recent economic success resulted, to a great extent, from the release of the entrepreneurial potential inherent in its business sectors. Yet, entrepreneurship education as a whole remains a relatively new concept and practice, in particular in the higher education sector. This explorative article reviews the recent developments in…

This article explores the state of skills development for smaller enterprises in South Africa through a consideration of two recent empirical studies of very small and micro enterprises (VSMEs--those with 2-10 employees). It provides new evidence about the complexity of the VSME sector and the mixed performance of state attempts to engage with it…

As part of a review of its Small Business Management courses and seminars, William Rainey Harper College in Illinois conducted a study of students currently enrolled in spring 1995 and students who had enrolled from fall 1993 to fall 1994 to determine the students' characteristics, the effectiveness of marketing efforts, and students' perceptions…

Functional illiteracy is an urgent problem for the U.S. business and industrial communities. Employers can uncover literacy problems among employees by conducting analyses of the literacy tasks needed on the job and assessing the basic skill levels of their work force. The design of a basic skills training program should be based on clearly…

An international meeting explored work on business start-up undertaken jointly by CEDEFOP (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) and France's Agence Nationale pour la creation d'entreprise. One opening presentation (Melis) addressed the basic idea underlying the research: to identify and highlight the role of training and…

Apprenticeship is the main avenue to self-employment in micro-enterprises and thus a cornerstone of informal sector development in West Africa. Survey results for Ibadan, Lome, Dakar, Niamey, and other cities demonstrate that apprenticeship as practiced by informal sector artisans is often very similar from one country to the next. Dropout rates…