Amid persistent concerns about the well-documented skills gap, community colleges have the potential to provide low-cost, high-quality education and training to students. Robust relationships between colleges and local industry partners are critical to building strong workforce development programs for students. In this context, this toolkit…

Work-based courses are an innovative way to bring college to the production line by using the job as a learning lab. This toolkit provides guidance to community college administrators and faculty who are interested in bringing a work-based course model to their college. It contains video content and teaching tips that introduce the six steps of…

"ARL" is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). "ARL" reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and users; higher…

In light of recent data showing that educational attainment rates in the United States have stagnated, the Obama administration and others have called for renewed efforts to bolster higher education outcomes. Strengthening the role of community colleges is undoubtedly an important component of any plan to dramatically increase the number of…

Corporate leaders of high-growth initiative employment sectors, such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, biotechnology, health care, hospitality, information technology, and homeland security, are not the only ones who list intercultural communication and management skills as business requisites. The entrepreneurs who are expected to…

Outlines the school-business partnership developed by Funkstown Elementary School (Hagerstown, Maryland) with Maryland Ribbon Company. Includes a list of points to consider when developing such a relationship. (MD)

As college textbooks have become more attractive, sophisticated, and useful, the textbook industry is suffering from high costs, increased popularity of used books, effects of rapidly advancing information and instructional technology, the atypical business structure of the college textbook market, and changing textbook development processes. (MSE)

Describes optical data disk products currently on the market and discusses publishers to users' needs. Ways in which librarians can influence product development and design are suggested. (CLB)

This annual review of the library automation marketplace presents profiles of 15 major library automation firms and looks at emerging trends. Seventeen charts and tables provide data on market shares, number and size of installations, hardware availability, operating systems, and interfaces. A directory of 49 automation sources is included. (MES)

A structure to foster creativity in a research and development environment is described. Features of the system include an emphasis on selection of the right mix of employees, collaboration within and between groups, encouragement for risk-taking, viewing problems from new angles, and an understanding by management of many different aspects of…

The Dallas (Texas)-based Alliance for Higher Education is a consortium of colleges, universities, corporations, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations that strategically links business and higher education through distance education initiatives. The consortium has created an infrastructure that supports economic development in the…

The private sector is a mostly untapped source of student financial aid. Colleges and universities themselves are the largest sources of funds, but corporate sources are important. The Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America (CFSA) administers over 720 scholarship programs for corporate and other sponsors, up from 400 five years ago; other…

My experience of teaching the Rhodes University/Speciss College Environmental Education Course in Zimbabwe alerted me to a tension between the industry course participants who largely (although not entirely) wanted a skills/vocational training orientation and the course curriculum developers, who wanted a critical/theoretical/praxis-based…

The literature urges business schools to change their undergraduate curricula in response to changes in the models and methods currently used by corporate America. Critics contend that business schools should place more emphasis on teamwork and integrative models. Business schools are urged to "break down the silos" between functional subjects by…

The tuition benefit policies of 10 companies are described, along with a summary of the results of a benefits survey of major companies. The survey items and responses are provided for 650 companies, representing the industrial Fortune 500 and the service Fortune 500: banks, insurance companies, retailers, and transportation and utility companies.…