This paper was presented at the 2009 Economic and Social Outlook Conference, November 5-6 at the University of Melbourne. It takes a sceptical view of the push for "green skills", arguing that skills required in the labour market evolve relatively slowly, and that the way business operates is driven by changing costs, new technologies…

Business communications, a career field tangential to that of journalism, was shown in a major research survey during 1975 to be an attractive, alternative profession for journalism majors. A questionnaire mailed to the membership of the International Association of Business Communicators contained 261 items, including demographies; questions on…

According to the 1980-81 edition of the "Occupational Outlook Handbook," the market for graduates of technical communication programs is good and likely to get better during the 1980s, especially in the areas of electronics and computer and environmental science. The first step in setting up a technical communication program at a college or…

A growing number of speech communication graduates are unable to find employment in their field. To ameliorate this situation, speech communication educators should consider the following three recommendations. First, the mission of higher education should be reassessed. In addition to the creation and dissemination of knowledge, higher education…

Economists are aware of the importance of human capital in the process of development, whereas policy makers are only now exploring its implications, pressed by demands for more jobs and higher incomes. Recent research in the dynamics of labor markets illustrates how the results can help shape education and training policy in the United States.…

Trends in the current job market in the field of dance are identified, and aspects, such as personal qualifications, training requirements, income potential, and employment possibilities, are discussed. Employment opportunities in the professional world, the field of education, and the corporate environment are explored. Career opportunities for…

The Personnel Development Program is essential to the national economic development of Taiwan, Republic of China. The program consists of vocational training, employment services, and a labor market information service. Thirteen public vocational training institutions, along with in-plant training programs, aim to increase the number of skilled…

The problems inherent in the relationships between education and work present difficulties and opportunities for education. Increasing segmentation has come to characterize modern life and the role of education in it. The period of youth is mostly filled with education, the middle years are usually devoted to work, and old age has come to be…

A four-stage feminist research project investigating European Social Fund (ESF)-funded vocational training for unemployed women used the grounded theory approach. Stage 1 involved the formation of the research questions and design. Steps included the ontological, epistemological, and methodological positioning of the researcher. Stage 2 was the…

Because the changing demographics of the U.S. work force are making cultural diversity the rule rather than the exception, the skills necessary for people to work in a multicultural environment are becoming a natural employment requirement. Those skills are integral to the tool that is called cross-cultural/intercultural/multicultural…

Several factors influence learning as it occurs in the workplace and in other settings where learning is undertaken for the expressed purpose of acquiring or improving competencies that will be used in the workplace. Over the past decade, the nature of the workplace has changed, and workers must continually strive to learn in order to keep up with…

The percentage of speech communication doctoral graduates employed full time and the percentage working in academic institutions have declined considerably since 1968. The glut of humanities doctorates appears to present three courses of action: increase undergraduate enrollments, decrease graduate enrollments, or increase nonacademic employment…

A Committee of Inquiry into Education and Training, established to investigate the provision of Australian educational facilities and services and the relationship between the labor market and the educational system, is discussed. The committee considered flexibility in education and training, apprenticeship, accessibility of education and…

Three major models of vocational education and training provision for the 16- to 19-year-old age group have been identified: schooling model, which emphasizes full-time schooling until age 18; dual model, which involves mainly work-based apprenticeship training with some school-based general education; and mixed model. Germany is an exemplar of…

This document, a review of labor market effects of human capital, focuses on two related topics. Part I describes the following early findings of the research on effects of education and job training on the wage structure, labor turnover, and unemployment: decline of training with experience, positive and significant effects of training on length…