The Foundation Skills Framework (FSF) is a work-based model developed in 1999 in response to a need for common language and understanding of the skills needed by Pennsylvania's workforce. Through funding provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE), the original project was designed to…

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student-athletes represent a unique subculture on college campuses, and the athlete must balance the rigors of coursework, athletics, and the non-traditional dynamics associated with being an athlete, which include "dumb jock" stereotypes, isolation, negative criticism, and the fear…

"Middle-skills" jobs require more education and training than that provided by a high school diploma but less education and training than a four-year college degree. Employers struggle to find workers with the needed combination of knowledge and skills to fill middle-skills jobs; this search for workers is particularly pertinent to the…

The authors of this report aim to understand the health of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and labor market in the Appalachia region -- defined as the intersection of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia -- with a focus on the mining and extraction industry. This report is the third in a three-part series.…

This second of five annual reports focuses on employment and wages in energy and advanced manufacturing-related industries and on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education indicators in the Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) region, comprising twenty-seven counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Together,…

This first of five annual reports focuses on employment and wages in energy and advanced manufacturing--related industries and on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education indicators in the Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) region. Together, these reports will capture trends over the next four years to (1) inform the…

Communities face powerful challenges--a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy--that require powerful solutions. In a climate of increasingly constrained resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant,…

Despite skepticism about the viability of an educational investment strategy for rural development, coordination between education and rural employers may be a key to rural economic growth. Interviews with 101 employers in 6 rural counties surrounding Hagerstown, Maryland, as well as a mail survey (95 of the 101 employers responded), examined…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) identify and cluster occupational titles, (2) identify, rate, and cluster groups of competencies, (3) determine whether there are differences in level of competencies needed, (4) determine the experience background preferred, and (5) determine the type of "nservice education being provided employees of…

The purpose of a study was to analyze employers' secretarial skill requirements and the secretarial curriculum requirements of postsecondary proprietary business schools in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area and to determine if and how the requirements differed. Data were gathered through a survey mailed to the 10 largest nongovernmental employers…

When a program with demonstrated effectiveness is expanded, knowing how it works and why it works the way it does is an indispensable first step in preserving its quality. This report draws on P/PV's experience with different programs to show how to define a model's essential elements to increase the chances of successful replication. It contains…

A study was designed to develop a model that would describe the development of commitment to the administration profession in vocational-technical education and the degree to which it might be found among the individuals who possess it. Study participants were 197 administrators from 63 postsecondary vocational-technical institutions identified…

To determine the need for shorthand instruction in business education programs, a study and literature review were conducted on the status of shorthand as a job requirement for secretaries and stenographers. The literature review covered studies published prior to 1976 and indicated that shorthand was still considered a necessary skill at that…

A study examined which agricultural mechanics skills were being taught by vocational horticulture teachers in Pennsylvania and compared the degree of proficiency possessed by teachers for particular competencies with the indicated relative importance of these competencies as perceived by employers in the horticulture industry. Also examined were…

A survey of employers in Delaware, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania provided (1) information on organizational characteristics, employers' perception of the relative importance of nine previously identified successful transition skills, and their perception of the deficiency of these skills in today's employed youth; and (2) a model procedure…