This report contains findings from a study to examine the impact of Pennsylvania's Customized Job Training (CJT) program upon clients (trainees), business/industry, local education agencies (LEAs), and local communities and the commonwealth. Chapter 1 details study purposes, design, and procedures. Chapter 2 presents a summary description of the…

Implications for universities of high technology industries and the labor market are unclear. There is a need to ease the transition for those categories of workers who will be affected: women, low- and medium-skill workers in manufacturing, and certain categories of middle-level managers. The provision of highly qualified personnel is the…

The research literature on the preparation of young people for work proves that policy recommendations are based on two false premises--academic skills are good substitutes for occupation-specific skills and increases in job turnover and skill obsolescence rates have caused a decline in the return to occupation-specific training by schools.…

During the next two decades, vocational education will face a major challenge to keep up to date with technology. National crises usually lead to new technologies. The United States today faces major problems in the areas of energy, productivity, and foreign trade. Solutions to these problems will generate new knowledge and technology that will…

The eight articles in this theme issue of CEDEFOP's twice-yearly multi-lingual bulletin focus on continuing education to maintain and upgrade the workforce. "Force--The Community's Action Programme for the Continuing Training in the 1990s" describes the objectives of this new program to improve the skill levels of the European…

The effects of technological change on the manpower and training needs of New York State industry were studied in a survey of 281 Industrial situations. The study was designed to help answer questions about the effects of factory and related technological change in displacing workers, in creating recruitment and training needs, and in altering the…

This paper summarizes a comparative study of the impact of market and technological changes on human resources in banks and insurance companies in five countries: France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. The research was organized around case studies of changes in 12 firms--9 banks and 3 insurance carriers. The paper discusses the…

Impacts from the major high technological changes now underway cut across all industrial sectors and most occupational clusters. Technological innovation can increase or decrease the total number of types of jobs. Decline in employment may be offset, however, by new applications and capabilities of goods and services or by employment shifts. While…

Technological advances necessitate the continuous retraining of the work force. Three technologies are having greatest impact on the labor force: (1) the scope and depth of computer skills required by most jobs continue to expand; (2) robotics in manufacturing means that certain new jobs are more technical and require postsecondary education; and…

This audioconference report consists of nine sessions, each featuring a panel of experts who discussed a variety of issues related to collaboration in education and employment. The focus is on practitioners and employers and how they can collaborate to improve the quality of schooling and employment opportunities for secondary- and…

A study examined management perspectives on retraining workers and educational alternatives for such training. During the study, more than 300 senior human resource executives from Fortune 1500 firms across the nation were interviewed by telephone. Of those interviewed, 84 percent felt that their workers are concerned about such issues as: losing…

Workplace literacy was the focus of attention during the era of the National Workplace Literacy Program (NWLP), funded by the U.S. Department of Education from 1988-1996. Since then, it has not disappeared, in part because recent legislation such as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and Welfare Reform Act has increased the work-related focus of…

The Older Worker Project was conducted to provide employment services to unemployed persons aged 45 and older who live in the western part of the Hennepin County (Minneapolis, Minnesota) area. Although the expected result was permanent employment of the participants, the intention of this demonstration project was to refine service approaches…

This report, the first of a series on productivity and job security, presents five case studies to illustrate retraining to achieve worker's adjustment to technology. The first of seven chapters addresses the following issues: the availability of job training/retraining data, the desirability of informing workers in advance of technological…

Changes in the economy and the workplace are changing job skill requirements and the process of skill acquisition. A study analyzed occupational trends and projections, performed case studies of four industry sectors (apparel and textile, accounting, management consulting, and software development), and reviewed research on changing skill demands…