This study responds to a national conversation about the role that Career Technical Education (CTE) might play in meeting workforce demand for soft skills. It is challenging for CTE programs to offer soft skills for several reasons. Both educators and employers tend to associate CTE with hard skills, or technical skills and therefore the programs…

This paper reports results from a resume-based field experiment designed to examine employer preferences for job applicants who attended for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges have seen sharp increases in enrollment in recent years despite alternatives such as public community colleges being much cheaper. We sent almost 9,000 fictitious resumes…

Although the most recent International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) work plan report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission no longer includes a timetable for the U.S. adoption of global financial accounting standards, experts predict that the United States will transition to some form of convergence later this decade. In…

We study employers' perceptions of postsecondary degrees using a field experiment. We randomly assign the sector and selectivity of institution to fictitious resumes and send them to real vacancy postings on a large online job board. According to our results, a bachelor's degree in business from a for-profit "online" institution is 22…

How do students and alumni of for-profit colleges feel about their schools and the value of their education? Do they have distinct expectations, priorities, and needs compared with students who choose to study at not-for-profit institutions? Are prospective students effectively weighing their options before deciding to enroll at for-profit…

The Bilingual Advantage draws together researchers from education, economics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics to examine the economic and employment benefits of bilingualism in the US labor market, countering past research that shows no such benefits exist. Collectively, the authors draw on novel methodological approaches and new data to…

Public community colleges enroll nearly half of all undergraduate students in the United States and many of these students are enrolled in 1- and 2-year Career and Technical Education programs. Employers have indicated that colleges should place more emphasis on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Career Technical Education can address…

Purpose: This paper seeks to examine the basic employability skills needed for job performance, the reception of these skills in college, and the need for additional training in these skills after graduation. Design/methodology/approach: The research was based on a triangular design approach, in which the attitudes of three distinct groups--recent…

This report on the nexus between postsecondary education and workforce development discusses the question of how California's colleges and universities address the state's need for a highly educated and skilled workforce. It includes a detailed review of the systems and their roles, and considers issues regarding how those roles are being carried…

The globalization of business has led to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) around the world. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a roadmap for IFRS implementation starting in 2014, with earlier adoption permitted. Yet according to recent surveys, few U.S. universities have a strategy in place to…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the satisfaction levels of Silicon Valley employers with the communication skills of newly hired college graduates. Employers reported that oral and written communication skills needed improvement in several areas, including the use of vocabulary and self-expression. College graduates' skills are not always…