The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a…

In the wake of the general election, the new government--and the United Kingdom--face a range of pressing challenges. In this article, the author sets out what he believes to be the principal challenges and calls for action to create a learning society. The agenda set out would, if followed by the new government, pave the way to a genuine learning…

This study examines the sensitivity of future long-term care demand and expenditure estimates to official demographic projections in four selected European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. It uses standardised methodology in the form of a macro-simulation exercise and finds evidence for significant differences in…

In a comparison of self-employment patterns in Germany and the United Kingdom, data from the Labour Force Survey (United Kingdom) and Mikrozensus (Germany) were analyzed to identify the personal characteristics of self-employed individuals in the two countries, the characteristics of their self-employed activity, and movement in and out of…

A discussion of higher education in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland assesses policy and provision of education in the two jurisdictions and places them in their international context. The jurisdictions' demographics, trends in participation, and patterns of expenditure are examined first, in the context of both the United Kingdom and…

Between March 1994 and March 1996, 31 academics, managers, and consultants attended 8 seminars to review current/future trends in careers in the United Kingdom and consider how those trends can best be managed. It was determined that changes in the economy, technology, business culture, the population, and employment patterns are radically…

A representative survey of over 30,000 people aged 16-64 years across the 15 member states of the European Union and Norway sought Europeans' preferences for increasing or reducing the number of hours worked per week. Key finding included the following: (1) 51% preferred to work fewer hours in exchange for lower earnings while 12% preferred to…