Activation policies are widely adopted to encourage labour market participation of unemployed youth, and yet they are poorly understood and monitored with regard to the causal mechanisms unfolding through their implementation. Activation schemes are often based on the carrot-and-stick logic informed by microeconomic job search theory, but…

This paper discusses the scope of the employee's voice in lifelong education decisions, with a focus on qualified assembly-line workers and professional development schemes allowing their upward mobility out of the assembly line. Using a capability approach, it investigates voice as part of people's agency. Beyond examining the channels that allow…

Context: Existing studies have explored the association between workplace training and wages suggesting that training participation may have a positive association with wages. However, we still know very little about whether this association varies between men and women. Through its potential positive association with wages, training may balance…

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012…

Paul Ryan has brought together the writings of the most prominent British research into vocational preparation in Britain in comparison to the other advanced economies, primarily within the EEC. The book, originally published in 1991, documents various aspects of inadequacy in British practice at the time, concentrating upon intermediate skills,…

The Lisbon commitment for a European knowledge society together with the subsequently implemented policy of lifelong learning and social inclusion has significantly affected the German educational system and its teaching practices. This article examines the impact of these policy reforms on educational work in Germany through an analysis of the…

In this paper, the authors first discuss the Neumark and Troske piece, and then compare the U.S. context to that in Europe and Korea, as described by the Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench and the Cho and Shin contributions. Although they are in basic agreement with Neumark and Troske on the extent and depth of the current employment situation, they…

Comparison of British and German vocational education leads to the conclusion that, although an employer-led approach may help maintain high skills, an education-driven strategy is necessary to move England and Wales from the current low skills state. Focus should be on developing underlying values that support a training culture. (SK)

Examination of best practices for training and school-to-work transition in Germany, Sweden, Japan, and Singapore revealed commonalities: national full-employment policies; commitment to high-skill, high-wage economy through investment in education and training; continual upgrading of worker skills; and diffusion of costs across the public and…

Uses the example of Germany to examine how a center for vocational education and training is created, the effects on national policies, and the basis for determining center-periphery relationships. Concludes that, because vocational education is embedded in sociocultural contexts, transnational transfer of vocational education systems may be…

These conference proceedings consist of 15 presentations: "Trends in the Development of Vocational Adult Education" (Heinrich Wenidoppler); "Training Programmes for the Long-Term Unemployed in the Flemish Community in Belgium" (Frederik Geers); "New Technology and Non-Vocational Adult Education in Baden-Wurttemberg,…

In Germany, after elementary school, the school system splits into three branches, with students either preparing for an apprenticeship or continuing in school. A second system exists, parallel to this education system, which combines general education with basic professional training. The first key career decision point is in Grade 4, when…

Knowledge about the structure and availability of work, and the ways people prepare for it, are important issues for both career specialists and policymakers. This paper begins with a discussion of the concepts of work, employability, and employment. Work is described as a complex concept that means different things to different people, and…

Both Germany and Great Britain have recently experienced increases in unemployment. Both countries have developed substantial labor market programs. Germany offers full-time adult training and retraining courses for employed and unemployed persons. Great Britain has a system of youth training but, until recently, has done little for adults. It has…

This book presents the results of a study of the British work camps that were initiated in the 1920s as a result of the political need to reduce unemployment among ex-servicemen and that evolved in 1929 into a national system of residential centers to "recondition" long-term unemployed men by exposing them to hard physical labor. The…