This document is the 1996 update to a 1994 Comprehensive Plan for Workforce Training and Education in Washington State. The plan focuses on collective actions that public and private sector partners need to take to have the best work force development system in the nation. The plan details how jobs are increasingly demanding higher-level skills,…

Work-based learning (WBL) is one response of education and training institutions to criticisms they have failed to adapt to changing economic times and the changing nature of work. Formal educational institutions are challenged by the perception that they are inadequate to the task of preparing the present and future work force with the necessary…

This document provides a general overview, in broad terms, of the activities of the European Training Foundation (ETF) planned for 2001 and beyond. Section 1 presents ETF activities under four main headings: obligatory activities; support to the European Commission; information provision and analysis; and development activities. It also provides a…

This paper addresses the issue of what business leaders can do to help schools prepare the workforce of tomorrow. As the pace of change in American businesses quickens and their communities broaden, the need to recruit both a highly skilled and diverse workforce increases. Businesses should take more responsibility for setting employment…

Maintains that the development and functioning of educational systems are characterized by specific internal contradictions, which are reflected in the form of theoretical problems. Discusses social functions of educational systems, including education and labor and the problems of continuing education. (CFR)

Asserts that productive education programs combine academic study with productive work. Discusses drop-out prevention and the difficulty of integrating academic study and vocational training. Concludes that there are many successful examples that can be used as models. (CFR)

This interview with Carolyn Golding, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), discusses new requirements that global competition and technological changes are creating for American workplace and reviews the role of the DOL in the national debate on education. Training for participation in the global…

Discussion of the pressures for expansion in Norwegian higher education looks at both long-term trends (need for a better-educated workforce and rising level in parents' education) and current demographic, individual, and political forces (a deteriorating labor market, younger students, competition for admission). Whether this situation is unique…

Texas has made good progress in education since the school reform movement began in earnest 15 years ago. State test scores are up for all groups of students in all grades in all subjects. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Texas is close to the top in student performance in math, and has finally begun to make real progress in…

The Competitiveness Policy Council (CPC) concludes that the United States continues to face major competitiveness problems despite recent increases in the growth of both the economy and national productivity. It proposes sweeping educational reform in three areas: developing content and performance standards; ensuring that schools have the…

The economic profile of Malaysia has changed from an economy mainly based on agriculture and the production of tin ore to a more balanced economy with continuing growth in the manufacturing and industrial sectors. Educational programs need to be upgraded and improved, particularly the direction and development of technical and vocational education…

Research and development help employers work better with schools to the extent that there is connectivity from one to the other. Project SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) Integration has been implemented by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Germany. These U.S. schools, teachers, and students are situated in…

For many students, the community college is the first and perhaps only place where technological and humanities instruction will be articulated. It is suggested that technology has never been far from the set of practices, usually academic, called "humanities" and the boundary between the two has long been unstable and contested. However, while…

Friesland College (FC) in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands, provides students with an array of vocational education, including full-time senior secondary vocational education in 3- or 4-year programs; 2-year programs of full-time short courses; and an apprenticeship system, in which students learn a trade at a company while attending the…

This document examines employer involvement in school-to-work (STW) through the lens of seven business organizations: American Society for Training and Development; Business Coalition for Education Reform; The Business Roundtable; Committee for Economic Development; National Alliance of Business; National Association of Manufacturers; and U.S.…