This article explores how responses to a generic skills framework are materialised in Irish schools, and the main aim is to shed light on multiple dimensions of policy enactment. The Key Skills Framework (KSF) was introduced as part of a curricular reform in Irish lower secondary schools -- a reform that has met substantial resistance locally and…

This article examines the relationship between the valence of formal learning (perceived usefulness of the outcomes of formal learning for daily work and ambitions) and the employability-related competences of public sector employees. Furthermore, the moderating roles of social informal learning and transformational leadership (TFL) are…

The nature of global labor markets places new demands on the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector in developing countries. Capacity building programs have become a strategy for governments to increase the standard of TVET. The aim of this article is to analyze conditions for the formation of an intended and enacted…

This article critically reviews the World Bank's latest high-profile report on skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the Report's prescriptions and recommendations are broadly in line with those of national skills development strategies elsewhere in both the developed and developing world, its overall analysis is quite limited and…

Despite the technical competence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) graduates of the Department of Computer Science (DCS) at the University of Guyana, stakeholders' perception generally holds that they lack affective and behavioural (soft) skills. These soft skills are expected of them to lead and champion technological change in…

Context: Against a backdrop of dwindling oil resources and increasing unemployment rates, the government of Oman has set out to diversify its industry and establish a knowledge-based economy. In this context, forming a highly-skilled Omani workforce is considered to be of crucial importance. Yet, the national TVET system suffers from low social…

Accelerated aging trend has become a serious issue in meeting workforce demand in many developing and developed countries. Various workplace interventions have been sought to address this issue. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent that there is a typology of older workers whose skill proficiency and skill utilization are influenced…

"Public-Private Partnerships for Skills Development" discusses the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) and its application in the domain of skills development. Volume I proposes a three-dimension typology of PPPs for skills development, and identifies common elements and governance characteristics of these PPPs. Volume II…

To ensure that young people and adults acquire the skills they need to render them employable, vocational education and training systems around the world construct various forms of collaboration between the public and private sectors. Public-private partnerships that focus on skills development are one form of collaboration in the provision of…

All countries in the EU Neighbourhood and Central Asia have been hit by the COVID-19 outbreak to a greater or lesser extent, with overall lower infection numbers compared to some of the EU Member States, although issues of under-reporting may impact on the reliability of data. All countries, apart from Belarus and Turkmenistan, made similar…

This paper provides an overview of VET (vocational education and training) in Ireland. In Ireland, the main providers of VET are the national Training and Employment Authority (FAS--a non-commercial semi-State body, part of the public sector) and vocational education committees (VECs--public sector bodies at county level responsible for vocational…

On the basis of official statistics, poverty has halved in Ghana over the period from 1991 to 2005. Our objective in this paper is to assess how far this fall was linked to the creation of better paying jobs and the increase in education. We find that earnings rose rapidly in the period from 1998 to 2005, by 64% for men and by 55% for women. While…

Lifelong learning and professional development have been the focus of government organisations after the 21st century was declared the "learning century", amidst the impact of globalisation and growth of knowledge-based economies. Although lifelong learning and professional development opportunities are available in most government…

HRD is extensively concerned with human capital investment, but only focuses on how skills and knowledge become obsolete to a limited extent. In this paper we look at the speed of obsolescence. Using data from a survey among Dutch public sector employees, we find that the yearly rate of skills obsolescence is 2.6%. Subsequent analyses show that…

Interviews (n=350) and a survey (n=323) of managers, trainers, and union representatives in British health care agencies showed that technology caused some job enlargement and enrichment; positive or negative effects depended on context. Other jobs were deskilled due to work organization, not technology. Technology's impact on job change was…