Paraeducators perform multiple roles in U.S. classrooms, including among others preparing classroom activities, working with students individually and in small groups, supporting individualized programming for students with disabilities, managing classroom behavior, and engaging with parents and communities. Yet, little research provides insights…

Current workforce trends show increasing numbers of older workers that will continue to work beyond retirement. To remain competitive, organizations will have to accommodate to emerging needs and provide alternatives to retirement. Scarce literature exists about career transitions beyond retirement. Recent scholarship is reviewed through an…

Reviews survey and other data on workforce skill needs and literacy levels of current and future workers. Concludes that technical educators should cooperate with employers in developing a more literate workforce. (SK)

Demographic trends show that areas such as Kentucky, Japan, and Sweden are experiencing very limited labor force growth and heavier reliance on older workers as the younger population declines. Implications of an aging work force for policy involve pensions, health benefits, retraining, flexible work options, and income support programs. (SK)

Debates surround whether high-tech or low-tech jobs are fastest growing and whether technology increases or decreases skill requirements. Technology education can aid productivity improvement by reinforcing academic content, enhancing higher-order skills, and promoting active involvement with technology. (SK)

In the period since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Blacks have continued to experience severe disadvantages relative to Whites in such areas as family stability, unemployment rates, average income, poverty rates, and dependence on government transfer payment programs. From the diverse statistical indicators of relative status two sharply…

Outlines trends and challenges in job skills development, theoretical links between human capital and economic performance, methodological and measurement problems in analyzing return on investment. Presents case studies of approaches in France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with public policy implications. (SK)

The changing role of Japanese women can be seen in the stages of a domestic labor debate which occurred at three different times in the past 30 years. The first debate began with Ayako Ishigaki's (1955) insistence that women should have a job outside the home. Wartime production helped break down traditional divisions of labor by encouraging women…

Canadian federal reports of current and future demographic and employment trends, altered demand patterns, changing technology, new challenges of employment and unemployment, and a narrowing global community indicate that a comprehensive, cooperative human resource strategy is essential to economic health and international competitiveness.…

Four major trends reshaping the American economy are having a tremendous effect on the number and nature of jobs in the United States: (1) corporate downsizing; (2) the outsourcing of work and services; (3) increasing use of "contingent" workers; and (4) the increasing income disparity between high school and college graduates. These trends have…

The recent report of the Grant Foundation Commission on Youth and America's Future, "The Forgotten Half," concerning the high school graduates who do not go to college is discussed, focusing on the value society places on a college education. (MSE)

Technology and international competition have transformed business practices and employment patterns. The migration of high-paying jobs from manufacturing to services, the growing importance of small firms in the U.S. economy, and the development of new technical occupations characterized by often sophisticated technologies and the absence of…

As part of an effort to identify ways in which Midland College (Texas) and local businesses can respond to the economic needs of the community, these three papers by the Midland's Business and Economic Development Center offer various perspectives on the economic climate and labor market of the Permian Basis. The first report, "Midland's…

This analysis assesses alternative explanations of the robust enrollment growth in community colleges in the 1970's, part of a larger trend of increased vocationalization of education. The conventional explanation is that community colleges offer the most appropriate training for rapidly increasing jobs requiring middle-level skills. Various other…

The most important educational process takes place outside of formal schooling. A development process which demands participation of the masses increases participation in acquisition of knowledge, particularly in the possibility of acquiring knowledge. Radical transformation in the relationship between production and power is required for mass…