Workforce development represents a central priority in a comprehensive effort to create wealth, industry thickening, and broad-based prosperity. From the onset of the Great Recession in 2007, the Sacramento Region experienced anemic economic growth and remained behind the nation in job creation. Contextualized in the aftermath of the economic…

Current scholarship views organizational socialization as a learning process that is primarily the responsibility of the newcomer. Yet recent learning research recognizes the importance of the social interactions in the learning process. This study investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned job-related tasks…

The current economic climate in the United States and the difficulty employers face in hiring and maintaining a skilled workforce in an increasingly competitive and global economy have generated interest in developing and promoting policies and programs that can most effectively help low-skill individuals gain job skills and move up the economic…

Through partnerships with four other state agencies, the LifeTech Institute was designed to provide life skills and technical workforce skills to male parolees. The purpose was to alleviate prison overcrowding, reduce recidivism rates, and prepare a trained workforce to supplement the demanding workforce needs of the state's construction industry.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a comparison of how human expertise is perceived by human resource development (HRD) scholars across several Western European countries and in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative, exploratory approach using electronic mail was used for this study. In total, 36 leading HRD scholars from…

Problem Statement. There is a growing need and demand for the "knowledge worker" within the business community. The limited amount of research on the role and impact of public universities suggests the need for addressing the training and workforce development needs of private industry. Purpose. The purpose of this study was fourfold:…

The purpose of this research was to identify a well-defined, comprehensive portrait of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) expected of students graduating from baccalaureate institutions conferring four-year degrees in hospitality management and further, to utilize those KSAs as foundations for curriculum development. This study provided a…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review the use of competence frameworks in the UK healthcare sector and to explore characteristics of the sector that may influence the success of projects to develop new frameworks. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on project reports and evaluations of practice in a range of recent projects…

Due to the large number of individuals retiring over the next ten years a critical shortage of people available to work within the manufacturing industry is looming (Dychtwald, Erickson, & Morison, 2006). This shortage is exacerbated by the lack of a properly educated workforce that meets the demands of the 21st century manufacturer (Judy…

Chapters in this book include: (1) Internationalization and Globalization in Higher Education (Douglas E. Mitchell and Selin Yildiz Nielsen); (2) Higher Educational Reform Values and the Dilemmas of Change: Challenging Secular Neo-Liberalism (James Campbell); (3) "Red Light" in Chile: Parents Participating as Consumers of Education Under…

Community colleges are recognized by business and industry as the prime provider of career and technology education. This recognition has been earned by the strong links formed between these entities and the responsiveness of community/junior colleges to workforce needs. An important consideration in maintaining this preferred provider status is…

The Gulf Coast Petrochemical Information Network (GC-PIN) is a workforce development partnership among industry businesses and area institutions of higher education in the four-county Gulf Coast region. GC-PIN partners develop new industry-specific curricula, foster industry career awareness, and retrain existing employees in new technologies.

California's education system--the largest in the United States--is an essential resource for ensuring strong economic growth in the state. The Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative (referred to as the Initiative in this report), which became law in 2005, brings together community colleges, K-12 school districts, employers, organized…

The mission of the Virginia Community College workforce development leaders is to expand their training and development services to new and emerging high growth occupational areas in support of Virginia's economic growth and changing workforce needs in each of their regions. This research was designed to identify: high demand occupational skill…

This publication outlines the outcomes of forums held in 2005 to introduce the consortium research program which has investigated ways of building vocational education and training (VET) provider capability. It found a range of issues were of concern to participants as they considered how registered training organisations might position themselves…