Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in…

Labor force participation rates, pay inequities, occupational segregation, positions in the hierarchy, interactions between diverse groups, and organizational culture all demonstrate that diversity in the workplace has not been fully achieved. Existing approaches to supporting workplace diversity have not worked, and, in many cases, have resulted…

These four papers are from a symposium on instructional strategies that was facilitated by Joseph Kessels at the 1995 Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) conference. "Developing Supervisory Expertise: The Effects of an Inductive versus a Deductive Training Method on the Job Behaviors of Supervisors" (Margaret C. Lohman) discusses…

This case study examined which outcomes stakeholders desire for Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree graduates at Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) in Australia and whether they find these outcomes among graduates. The four stakeholder groups were current BIT undergraduates, BIT graduates, academic staff of SUT involved with the…

Profound changes in the economy and the labor market have an effect on the role of employer-sponsored training in preparing and educating the country's work force. On the demand side of the labor market, these changes include the increase in international trade, the changing economic status of the United States relative to its trading partners,…

This document considers whether postsecondary education can change the way it operates. The introduction identifies six challenges of the 1990s, including heterogeneous student populations; quality of working life competence, basic competence, employability competence, learning-to-learn competence, common core competencies, and the arts and…

A study was undertaken to determine whether vocational and special educators differed from employers on the entry-level employment skills and characteristics that are needed to be gainfully employed in the competitive labor force in the Lewiston-Auburn area in Maine. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 110 secondary-level vocational and…

If high school graduates are to be fully prepared for entering and maintaining employment, a more substantial instructional effort is required from career educators in the teaching of work habits, attitudes, and interpersonal relations in grades K-12. To ascertain what employers feel are important qualities for their employees, twenty-three…

A long-term project entitled Agricultural Manpower Needs in North Dakota examined current and projected agriculture manpower needs in the state. Objectives of the project were to develop a methodology for obtaining and interpreting agricultural manpower needs data for North Dakota, to determine emerging employment trends and identify emerging…

An institutional review of Evergreen State College that was undertaken by the Washington Council for Postsecondary Education is described. A review of a higher education institution by a state agency was unusual but was a compromise action by the 1977 state legislature, which also considered closing the college, whose institutional cost level was…

These five papers are from a symposium on high involvement work teams that was facilitated by Catherine M. Sleezer at the 1995 Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) conference. "An Empirical Study of Employee Involvement in Designing and Managing Reward Systems" (William M. Kahnweiler) reports on a study of 300 organizations that…

Managerial motivation models have evolved beyond the human resource tradition of the 1960s and the 1970s to a form of corporate involvement with the personal needs of employees, many of whose family lifestyles have changed dramatically. To analyze the new role for companies and the corporate concern for employees' well-being, this research study…

A summer Career Guidance Institute, conducted for graduate credit, placed 16 secondary teachers in entry-level positions in jobs not requiring college education for six weeks. The teachers worked four days a week and attended seminars and group discussions one day a week. Study of this pilot program was conducted to investigate three questions:…

This paper defines curriculum development and discusses the curriculum development process. It emphasizes a variety of information that is essential for curriculum developers and policymakers to perform their tasks satisfactorily. A 1998 survey showed that attitudes of students, teachers, and employers toward current Library Information Science…

Nontraditional and traditional secondary vocational education program completers in West Virginia were surveyed to determine their attitudes toward their school preparation, work, and encountered work barriers. A questionnaire was mailed to 100 nontraditional and 100 traditional program completers, and a 10 percent sample was contacted by…