The three two-page briefs in this packet focus on the skills needed for America's workforce and student career aspirations. "What Do We Know about America's Workforce?" provides a statistical overview of the workforce and workers today, reporting the following: (1) the number of men and women in the labor force is about equal; (2) by the time…

This curriculum guide was developed to update information that is crucial to business and office students as they examine career possibilities and go about the job-seeking process. New information in the areas of job descriptions, career terminology, statistics related to career opportunities, placement, and careers with high rates of projected…

Ten case studies of collaborative arrangements between postsecondary vocational education institutions and companies manufacturing or using advanced technologies are reported in this document. The intention is to explore exemplary approaches to planning, developing, and implementing training programs for technicians in rapidly changing…

The Digital Economic Opportunity Committee (DEOC) was established to examine the information technology (IT) skills gap and make recommendations to eliminate this gap. DEOC believed the appropriate response to this skills gap is two-fold. The first was upgrading existing workers skills through training. The second was expanding the number of…

This volume is a survey of more than 125 Australian apprenticeship and traineeship references from 1985-99. Each item identifies author/editor/organization, date, title, organization and place of publication or development. A "key" provides a descriptive phrase relating to the reference type, such as an industry-body paper on training…

Lifelong learning and skill flexibility are especially important for workers in China, where structural economic adjustment has generated 22 million layoffs from state-owned enterprises since 1997. Skills that were in huge demand in previous years, such as accounting, international trade, and language translation, are now facing serious oversupply…

The Iowa Department of Education, in cooperation with the state's 15 community colleges and Drake University, completed an outcomes study of adult vocational training/retraining programs offered through the Adult and Continuing Education Divisions of the colleges. Study goals were to profile businesses served by the colleges, evaluate employer…

In order to help postsecondary technical colleges to keep abreast of changing technology, a study was conducted (1) to investigate the current and future status of three high technology areas in terms of their impacts on occupations, labor demand, and training requirements; and (2) to provide guidelines to help colleges change their programs to…

So that postsecondary institutions can meet the training needs of business and industry, this guide has been developed to help colleges increase and improve their active participation in assisting businesses and industries to use advanced technology. It provides suggestions for keeping faculty up to date, acquiring the latest equipment, and…

Employers are experiencing difficulties filling vacancies for information technology (IT) positions because of rapid growth in the demand for IT workers, high turnover, and the unique characteristics of IT work. In response to the growing demand for IT workers, public and private education and training providers are expanding their offerings and…

This paper synthesizes issues and directions that a review of Australian apprenticeship and traineeship literature suggested. An overview discusses the paper's basis, which was a survey of 125 Australian references from 1985-99. Chapter 2 categorizes issues into seven groups, discusses them, and draws out salient themes. (The groups concerned…

A 2-year study of the health care industry in the San Francisco Bay Area identified avenues for reducing health care labor shortages. Focus was on classifications where demand was expected to grow and where current demand exceeds supply: nursing, medical imaging, medical therapy, and medical records management. A modified job analysis technique…

From a macroeconomic perspective, the evolving demand for skills in the United States has been triggered by the accelerated expansion of computer and information technology, which has, in turn, brought significant changes to the workplace. Technological advances have made some wholly manual jobs obsolete. But even for many other workers, a rapidly…

This report presents evidence regarding skill shortages in the electrotechnology trades in Australia that was gathered by an industry-led working group. The report provides data concerning the following aspects of the problem: (1) the demand for skills in the electrotechnology trades (employment levels, growth, and prospects); (2) the supply of…

Case studies of 16 firms across Australia that employ adult apprentices in the "traditional" trades were conducted to identify innovative ways of getting adults into the trades. The case studies included interviews with the firms' apprentice managers, training providers, and adult apprentices. Although some adult-friendly innovations…