The vocational education system was started in the United States by a collaborative effort of employers, educators, and unions. If vocational education is to meet the critical skill needs of industry, Federal policies providing for broader governance and an incremental approach to the planning and delivery of vocational education programs are…

These proceedings of a conference on 1978 youth knowledge development activities implemented under the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act (YEDPA) of 1977 consist of the proceedings of the five sessions of the conference and the texts of 16 conference papers. Discussed in the first section of the proceedings are demonstrations and…

This document details the purposes and principles of community audits and presents guidelines for designing and conducting a community audit to assess a local community's workforce development needs and resources. Section 1 presents an overview of the U.S. Department of Labor's Community Audit Project and explains the following key steps in…

The Center for Workforce Preparation (CWP), a nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, initiated the Workforce Academies demonstration project to help businesses remain successful in a competitive, tight economy. More than 1,800 business members of the 6 chambers engaged with the Workforce Academies demonstration in 2001 were surveyed…

This document summarizes major postsecondary education issues and school-to-work and youth employment programs for the Education Task Force of the U.S. Senates's Committee on the Budget, and is based on General Accounting Office (GAO) studies completed during 1990-1997. The discussion of postsecondary education issues centers around five themes:…

New apprenticeships were introduced to Australia in January 1998 to provide practical training opportunities to a wider range of people than the traditional trade-based apprenticeship system did. The effect of the new apprenticeship initiative on the type of employment-based training being undertaken in Australia was studied by analyzing data from…

The Learning and Skills Development Agency agrees that national training organizations (NTOs) have a vital role to play in delivering the United Kingdom's skills agenda and that doing so will require strengthening their role. The agency particularly welcomes the fact that the NTO framework will do the following things: include clear statements of…

These proceedings are comprised of 23 presentations on research in European vocational education and human resource development. Papers include "Developing Information and Communication Technology Capability in Higher Education in the United Kingdom (UK)" (Nick Boreham); "Methodological Issues in the Study of Organizational…

The future of low-wage jobs is examined through a case study of firm restructuring in the retail industry. The study confirms that the retailing sector has come to be dominated by the Wal-Mart model, which emphasizes an efficient technology-driven inventory management system and a human resource approach that includes the following elements:…

The business press abounds with examples of innovative companies that have created high-quality jobs; however, low-wage, deskilled jobs filled by contingent workers are equally prevalent. More than one in six U.S. workers currently hold retail jobs. The effect of globalization of trade on the retail industry is unclear. The most significant…

The transition from education to working life in the European Union (EU) was examined through a review of data from the following sources: the European Labour Force Survey; The Vocational Education and Training Data Collection (an annual collection of data produced by Eurostat); and national data supplied to the European Training Foundation by…

Since 1976, the Correctional Clearinghouse (CCH), which is a unit of the Washington State Employment Security Department, has been committed to preparing offenders for the workplace and finding employment. The CCH's principal service delivery strategies are as follows: (1) providing direct services (teaching job readiness courses in prisons and…

This document contains the six of the seven keynote speeches from an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. "IVETA (International Vocational Education and Training Association) 2000 Conference 6-9 August 2000" (K.Y. Yeung) discusses the objectives and activities…

These Congressional hearings contain testimony pertaining to the future of job training in Ohio. Among the topics discussed are the following: the job training needs of selected special needs groups, including convicted felons on probation, dislocated workers, displaced homemakers, unemployed individuals, underskilled employees, disadvantaged…

These Congressional hearings contain testimony regarding options for restructuring the federal employment and training system. Representatives of the following agencies and organizations provided testimony at the hearings: National Commission on Employment Policy; Health, Education and Human Services Division, Education and Employment Issues, U.S.…