Immigrants and others who didn't grow up speaking English are often at a disadvantage when entering the workforce. One of the best ways for non-native English speakers to level the playing field is to enroll in targeted courses and job-training programs offered through their local community colleges. The best of these programs combines important…

Transfer of training is the degree to which trainees can apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained in training to the job. Currently only between 5% and 20% of what is learned in training is ever applied on the job. At this time, little is known about the effects of work environment factors, such as support, feedback, and goal setting, on…

This article describes how out-of-work miners are engaged in the Empowering Education Initiative, a unique alliance between Country Music Television (CMT) and community colleges in Appalachia. The initiative, which includes a website and a series of country music concerts, is changing the conversation in the Appalachian region, giving hope to…

Vocational training systems that take the needs of the word of work seriously and maintain strong and dynamic connections with it are faced to growing complexity and instability. Some countries try to cope with this through creating new mediation mechanisms between the systems of training and work that allow higher level complexity while…

Accelerating Opportunity (AO) combined integrated career pathways at two-year colleges with team teaching, acceleration strategies, supportive services, and policy changes. It aimed to help low-skilled adults earn occupational credentials, obtain well-paying jobs, and sustain rewarding careers. This final implementation report documents activities…

This report presents findings from a review and analysis of literature on the importance, effectiveness, and availability of support services for participants in job training programs in the United States. It assesses current knowledge about these services by examining reports on training and education programs, as well as literature on the…

This paper investigates early employment influences on postsecondary expectations and enrolment for working men and women who have recently completed high school in the United States. We find that young workers still have very high expectations for postsecondary education, but that women are more likely to enrol. However, this difference is…

This brief, the ninth in a series, explores issues and promising practices in paving career and technical education (CTE) pathways to high-STEM occupations--a key piece of the STEM college and career readiness puzzle. Other briefs focus on related parts of the puzzle, such as the role that math and science standards play in students' college and…

This Research-in-Brief is one in a series of publications highlighting the Institute for Women's Policy Research's (IWPR) most significant research contributions to policy issues affecting women across IWPR's twenty-five year history. Recognizing that education is the gateway to opportunity, the IWPR has been a significant source of research on…

This descriptive qualitative case study investigated the perceptions of dislocated workers offered program services through the Workforce Investment Act's (WIA) Dislocated Worker program in Minnesota. This research focused on recently dislocated workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and hence were eligible for unemployment…

Washington could add as many as 110,000 new jobs by 2017 by closing skill gaps--the mismatch between the skills people have and those employers need, according to a March 2013 Washington Roundtable report. STEM professions face the most critical demand. Of the 25,000 jobs vacant for three months or more due to a shortage of qualified candidates,…

This hearing reviewed ways individuals can make federal job training programs more efficient and effective. Such programs are critical to fostering a competitive workforce and assisting unemployed citizens. However, serious concerns about program fragmentation and potential duplication exist that could result in significant waste. This Committee…

Most of the authors in this issue of "Future of Children" focus on a single strategy for helping both adults and children that could become a component of two-generation programs. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, on the other hand, look at actual programs with an explicit two-generation focus that have been tried in the…

The rapid change in the graduate labour market in the globalizing era calls for responsiveness from the higher education systems all over the world. Enhancing graduate employability has become a topic of both concern and debate in higher education worldwide. However, the issue is somehow different in Western developed countries and in Eastern…

Preparing employees for the immediate work in front of them is a challenge. While most companies are still mastering effectively training their own workforce, some, such as "Training" magazine Top 10 Hall of Famer The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, have set up for-profit academies open to the public. When Ritz-Carlton won the national Malcolm…