This study aimed to comprehend the patterns and scope of the education mismatch in the Moroccan labor market by collecting and analyzing an extensive database of the types of skills that fuel economic expansion and growth. A self-assessment approach was used to determine the extent of mismatch in Morocco by adopting the World Bank's Skills Toward…

This study aims to develop a scale that will determine the factors causing professional obsolescence in the field of education. In this context, the Professional Obsolescence Scale (POS) has been developed to determine the professional and organizational obsolescence of primary, secondary and high school administrators. In this scale development…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on issues regarding the influence of skill-polarized workplace on jobs, human capital and organization from human resource development's (HRD's) perspective, this research identified 30 displaceable skills from endangered jobs and examined 423 adult employees' awareness and…

In November 2018 the European Training Foundation (ETF) launched an international reflection to investigate how global trends impact developing and transition economies and to discuss what actions need to be taken to prepare people for a changing world and manage their transitions towards uncertain futures. This study on the future of skills in…

Getting a good and relevant education is difficult enough to achieve within a context where social and economic needs are constantly unsettled by political policy. The public funding of the education sector has become a contested arena irrespective of a government's ideology. Recent graduates from various disciplines from Town Planning to…

The debates between vocational/technical training and education are getting old. On one side, we have academics arguing for the timelessness of an education--learning that is not specifically tailored toward work or "the what." On the other side, there are employers retreating more and more from training candidates--and blaming…

This paper examines the factors that may have impact on the extent to which the knowledge and skills of master's degree graduates in Norway are utilised at work, three years after graduation. The focus is on the impact of the quality of the study programme as well as the graduates' fields of study, when also taking into account other factors…

Mike Rowe wants high school students to rethink that $140,000 art history degree. The creator, executive producer, and host of CNN's Somebody's Gotta Do It and former host of TV's Dirty Jobs has long been passionate about promoting vocational, aka middle-skills, professions. Over the past decade, Rowe has given countless public and private…

Tectonic changes are reshaping U.S. workplaces as the economy moves deeper into the knowledge-focused age. These changes are affecting the very nature of jobs by rewarding social, communications and analytical skills. They are prodding many workers to think about lifetime commitments to retraining and upgrading their skills. And they may be…

While acknowledging that a system of vocational qualifications might be perceived as having any number of possible purposes, this paper identifies three primary functions that any vocational qualification must fulfil by dint of being a vocational qualification. It is argued that current arrangements are unable to fulfil these essential functions…

Overeducation and underemployment are of increasing national concern. Recent research estimates that 48% of workers are overeducated for their positions. The wage penalty for overeducation varies significantly across majors by gender. Using the American Community Survey (Ruggles et al., 2010), the authors examine the extent of overeducation among…

The idea of a skills gap suggests that employers have jobs available but cannot find skilled applicants because higher education is poorly aligned with workforce needs. This idea is shaping higher education and workforce development policy at the national and state levels, yet limited research exists on the experiences of employers and educators…

Grades are broken. Students grub for them, pick classes where good ones come easily, and otherwise hustle to win the highest scores for the least learning. As a result, college grades are inflated to the point of meaninglessness--especially to employers who want to know which diploma-holder is best qualified for their jobs. An alternative is to…

Technology shifts gears. The workers who control it need to learn how to shift gears, too. Workers brought up with universal schooling would respect authority, learn enough "geometry and mechanics" to use in their trades, keep invention alive, and finally see through "the interested complaints of faction and sedition." In other…

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…