In this commentary, the authors review one area of federal policy, adult basic education policy, since its inception in the 1960s as an example of how educational policy can drift from its broad purpose as it responds to political, social, and economic forces. The authors argue that its current narrow focus on workforce development underestimates…

The relationship between education policy and workforce policy has long been uneasy. It is widely believed in many quarters of American society that the U.S. education system is in decline and, what's more, that it bears significant responsibility for a wide range of social ills, including stagnant wages, increasing inequality, high unemployment,…

Futures research is gaining increased prominence in educational research and development (Tesar, 2021), and particularly now as we emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has provided a lever for change and an opportunity for innovation in learning, teaching and assessment (Hall et al., 2020; Jandric et al., 2022; Tesar, 2020). Designing…

Graduate attributes are now a fixture in higher education. They are perceived as statements of desirable graduate learning outcomes, yet this space is becoming increasingly crowded. In this study, we examine how universities contextualise their graduate attributes statements for the curriculum quality space. We analysed the way Australian…

Education reformers have spent decades doggedly working to improve student outcomes in K-12 education by championing policies spanning federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Higher education is a much different story. Policy ideas at the federal level are plentiful; however, state- or institution-level policies are examined and implemented far…

The "future of work" is an evolving concept with wide-reaching implications for the economy, workforce, education, and society--including workers, business owners, students, and the people who serve them. The impact from these changes brings a sense of urgency to stay a few steps ahead and address systems' gaps and faulty machinery that…

As states grapple with competing priorities and constrained resources, there is an increasing focus on efficiency and alignment of programs and resources across state agencies. The College and Career Readiness and Success (CCRS) Center recently analyzed and compared four federal laws that govern the education-to-workforce pipeline. They are: (1)…

Today, more than 60 percent of teachers in the United States work under a union contract. The rights of teachers to unionize and bargain together have expanded dramatically since the late 1950s, when states began passing "duty-to-bargain" (DTB) laws that required school districts to negotiate with teachers unions in good faith. Recently,…

The competence discourse issued by the Colombian Ministry of National Education defines an ontological duty, a set of logics for the education of subjectivity. Some interesting elements result from this analysis. The first level, or denotative level, manages a management or business cultural code. This code is closely related to the second level…

The Lisbon European Summit in 2000 has been a milestone in reframing education policies to foster a "knowledge economy", whilst amid the challenges of the new decennium Lifelong Learning (LLL) has been propounded as a powerful lever for attaining "sustainable growth". The present article aims to elucidate the development of an…

The series Investing in Youth builds on the expertise of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on youth employment, social support and skills. It covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies. This report provides a detailed diagnosis of the youth…

This report is Iowa's response to the four questions that the United States Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), requires of all states and territories receiving federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II, Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). The overall goal of…

A number of factors have led to the crisis of work force unpreparedness that the United States now faces, including revolutionary changes that mean businesses now succeed on the qualities of their human rather than material resources. Jobs are demanding better reading, writing, and reasoning skills, and mental agility has replaced manual dexterity…

Human capital is one of the central strategic factors in the location of production facilities in Germany. It can be formed and maintained only by qualified basic education, vocational training, and further training. The best possible and continuously updated qualifications are necessary and advantageous for the individual as well. Unskilled…

Although most people agree that not enough entry workers possess the skills required for success in the workplace, few individuals are able to articulate clearly why and where the skills gap occurs. Despite the popularity of blaming schools and curricula, little hard evidence exists to support the claim that U.S. secondary school performance is…