Online courses have become increasingly popular in education and professional development because of their user-friendliness, accessibility, and ability to provide specialized training beyond formal education for workforce preparation. We demonstrate the efficacy of using a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to teach specialized engineering…

This article explores cross-country patterns in how conditions relating to family background, education, and the labor market are related to literacy and numeracy skills. It seeks to assess whether these patterns are in agreement with models of skills formation as identified in the political economy literature. The novelty of this article resides…

This paper looks at the importance of mechanisms that give formal recognition to vocational skills acquired through work-based learning and how such mechanisms might be developed. It describes how skill recognition can benefit individuals, employers and society as a whole, and identifies in which contexts skill recognition has the highest…

Opportunities to improve skills and opportunities to teach or train others may be associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational commitment. The analysis reported in this paper used a subsample of 823 employees within two Japanese and three American worksites. We tested not only the direct relationships of each type of…

Describes employment policies and programs, incentive plans, and job creation programs to aid disabled young job seekers in Japan, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and the United States. (Author/JOW)

Examines the comparative labor market experience of youth in the United States and eight other developed countries from 1960-1979, focusing upon unemployment levels and rates. Finds that the situation worsened in industrialized nations after the 1974-75 recession and that Japanese and German youth continue to have the most favorable job prospects.…

This paper explores the background to and process of quality circles as well as the implications of circles for training. In the first section, the emergence and growth of quality circles in Japan and the United States are traced. Next, the theoretical and conceptual bases of quality circles are examined, while section 3 looks at implementation in…

The author examines technical and vocational education and training for 14- to 18-year-olds in Denmark, France, Sweden, West Germany, the United States and Japan. She aims to compare the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative of Great Britain with systems in other countries. (CH)

The Japanese education system provides a model for American school reform that effectively links school with entry into the workforce. Japanese schools maintain close relationships with businesses that expect teachers to nominate high-achieving students for jobs after graduation. (FMW)

Release of "A Nation at Risk Report" (1983) provoked citizens to embark on mission to improve schools, teaching, and learning. Evidence shows U.S. schools may not be in such dire shape as reported. Schools have shown they can prepare students for top universities but many do not graduate. To keep alive the promise of education reform and…

This report examines data and data quality on vocational education and training available from the seven highly developed countries that make up the G-7: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Following an introduction, chapter 2 describes the nature of vocational education and training opportunities at…

This analysis originally prepared for the Japan Study Meeting, held November 1985, compares high school graduates in the United States and Japan who will not attend college, and includes directions of vocational training in both countries. Vocational training in the United States involves five areas: secondary schools, post-secondary schools,…

A review of vocational education trends in Western Europe and Japan covers the following: curriculum and program structure, alternatives, cooperative education, on-the-job training, enrollments, admission, curriculum content, skills other than strictly occupational, mechanisms for curriculum development, and efficiency of training. (MSE)

A study examined the role of employer training in ameliorating skill shortages and enhancing productivity and competitiveness. The study established that formal training by specialized personnel accounts for only 5-10% of the time newly hired workers are engaged in training activities and that existing labor market research instruments fail to…

This report describes how key elements in the vocational education and training (VET) policies in the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, and Japan underpin the economic competitiveness of those countries. It focuses on how they support their effective response to changing markets and a rapidly changing economic environment and shows…