The Nigeria's oil industry has been criticized for some time now for its inability to render adequate services to the general public. This criticism is predicated on the fact that the standards of productivity in their services are low and that their facilities (i.e. the refineries) are not working up to capacity. This is evident in their…

Research messages 2010 is a collection of summaries of research projects published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The summaries are clustered under five broad themes used by NCVER to organise its research and analysis: Industry and employers; Students and individuals; Teaching and learning: VET system; and VET in…

This study examines corporate establishment demand as the quest for foreign education in Nigeria and seeks to expose the motivation behind the rush abroad for foreign education; explicated by the increasing level of university seekers within and outside Nigeria. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodology was adopted for…

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers' requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and…

Enrollments in Information Technology (IT)-related academic programs have declined significantly in recent years. Paradoxically, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the demand for IT professionals will grow much faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2016. To meet increasing demand, IT-related academic programs must…

Childcare workers play a significant role in the learning and development of children in their care. This has major implications for the training of workers. Under new reforms of the childcare industry, the Australian government now requires all workers to obtain qualifications from a vocational education and training provider (e.g. Technical and…

This paper investigates large differences in employer satisfaction with vocational education and training (VET) between 2005 and 2007. Employer satisfaction was measured using the Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET System, which was first conducted in 2005 and repeated in 2007. It measures employer satisfaction with vocational…

Although career development and early work experiences are associated with improved postschool employment outcomes for youth with disabilities, transition personnel report having few natural community partners to support and enhance these experiences. We surveyed 135 chambers of commerce and other employer networks to examine (a) whether and how…

Research on student-learning outcomes indicates that university graduates do not possess important skills required by employers, such as communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership, emotional intelligence, social ethics skills as well as the ability to work with people of different backgrounds. Today, engineering graduates are…

The majority of ICT graduates must begin their careers by successfully fulfilling the requirements advertised within online recruitment sites. Although considerable research into employer requirements is commonly undertaken when preparing curricula, studies investigating how well the graduate attributes on which curricula are based match those…

As the phrase "Employability Skills" increasingly cropped up in speeches from august platforms, appeared in titles of conferences, peppers publications exhorting more effort for and by UK plc and formed the title of an increasing number of qualifications, Learning and Skills Network (LSN) has been intrigued to find out more about this…

Sectoral levelling funds are an arrangement aimed at alleviating a well-known theoretical problem of underinvestment in worker training because of free-rider behaviour of firms. In the Netherlands, collective agreements require firms to participate in such funds in a number of sectors. Using a comprehensive dataset of Dutch firms, we attempt to…

This article explores the overlaps and disconnects between the competencies evaluators acquire during graduate school and those required and desired by employers. To investigate this relationship, two different surveys are administered, one for job seekers and the other for employers; 205 postings in the American Evaluation Association job bank…

This report presents a case study of the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC), which brings together auto manufacturers and community colleges across 12 states to identify and implement wide-ranging improvements in technical education for automotive manufacturing workers. A "Big Collaboration"--AMTEC…

Current UK skills policy is centred on the need to drive up qualification obtainment and make the system more employer-led with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) being given the role of articulating the "voice" of employers. Through a study of recruitment and selection processes in the fitness industry, this paper explores employers'…