This presentation was made to a breakout session at the 2011 Skills Australia and Industry Skills Councils joint conference, "Putting Skills at the Heart of Economy". The paper addresses the challenge of measurement in workforce development planning and discusses the role of the various players in the labour and training…

The article focuses on how the present vocational education and training (VET) system in Australia might be modified to better accommodate possible VET futures change. It begins with the premise that VET's role is to contribute to skills acquisition through "formal" education and training. The authors propose a simple VET futures role…

Four scientists, trained as astronomers, describe their astronomical training and present careers in non-astronomy, industrial jobs. They recount some of the differences, positive and negative, between industrial and academic employment, and comment on some of the attitudes they perceive academic and industrial scientists hold toward each other.…

The author examines the impact of "high-tech" industries on labor markets, the division of labor and the organization of work, and the policy options open to societies for dealing with the effects. (CT)

The author recommends that teachers stress customer relations when preparing students for jobs in the construction industry. Students must also be taught that an aggressive business attitude is needed to deal with changing economic conditions. (CT)

In the mid-1990s, situations in which the specialties that young people had acquired turned out not to be in demand became quite a widespread phenomenon, and the professional future of a large proportion of young people was characterized as uncertain. Surveys in that period showed that a majority of young people suffered from a deficiency of…

Data suggest that it is premature to conclude that management has succeeded in appropriating workers' knowledge, accountability, and responsibility for work. The labor market has become fluid and dynamic and no longer conforms to the traditional construct of an internal labor market. A refinement of labor process theory is in order. (JOW)

Includes "Role of Computers in Reshaping the Work Force" (McConnell); "Semiconductors" (Moris); "Computer Manufacturing" (Warnke); "Commercial Banking Transformed by Computer Technology" (Morisi); "Software, Engineering Industries: Threatened by Technological Change?" (Goodman); "Job Creation…

Discusses the job loss in the textile and apparel industries because of fierce domestic and international competition that has closed mills and factories. Suggests that intensified competition and advanced technology will ensure turbulent and challenging years ahead for the domestic industries. (JOW)

America's older, larger cities are unable to provide employment opportunities and social mobility to its growing number of disadvantaged residents because cities' economic base of blue-collar industry has been replaced by the service and information industries. Cities currently face a residence-job opportunity mismatch. (ML)

The author examines the technological changes that are occurring in various job sectors. He investigates the past, looks at current conditions, and makes predictions about the effects technological growth will have on the job market in the next decade and in the twenty-first century. (CT)

Contrary to reports, high technology is not likely to add large numbers of jobs for highly educated and trained persons. A policy of recurrent education must be established so that individuals can move from the workplace to retraining programs and back. (MLW)

Describes where new job opportunities will be in the next 20 years. To stay employed, workers must accept new technologies and be willing to be retrained in new skills. Future patterns in unemployment and the changing relationships of government, labor unions, and private industry are discussed. (AM)

Cooperative links need to be forged among broadcasting, educational technology, and business programs on campuses if institutions of higher education are to assume a position of leadership in preparing graduates for the corresponding developing markets. (Author/CMV)

The decline in manufacturing employment associated with the recent recession, coupled with the continued growth of services, has renewed interest in the distribution of employment among the three major sectors: agriculture, goods-producing, and service-producing industries. (Author/SSH)