Aggressive community colleges are fostering linkages with government programs, large and small businesses, and educational institutions for special training to upgrade worker skills, prepare workers to cope with plant closings, and meet the skill requirements of advancing technology. (MSE)

The information and service industries are and will remain the largest areas of growth/employment. Among current/projected changes in the work environment are the following: greater competition within/beyond the continental borders of the United States; increasing reliance on new equipment/processes; more/constantly changing information to be…

Despite its high unemployment level, Germany is experiencing a shortage of specialists and managers. Germany's need for highly qualified information technology (IT) workers and engineers is particularly great. Approximately 10,000 posts for computer scientists and IT specialists remained vacant in 1998. Because of the shortage of such specialists,…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This executive summary summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida,…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This report summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida, Mississippi,…

Examines the community college's role in state economic development, describing the North Carolina model, which teams community colleges and the department of commerce to insure adequate program funding. Encourages similar linkages in other states to provide resources for occupational training of skilled workers in high technology, critical…

States that the U.S. economy exhibits a voracious demand for information technology (IT) certification programs and, it is claimed, the U.S. system of education isn't producing them. Explains that most IT certification providers operate outside the formal postsecondary education system, do not participate in federal student aid and reporting…

These three papers focus on various aspects of high technology training at Greenville Technical College (GTC). First, "High Technology and the Community College," by Thomas E. Barton, discusses what high technology should mean to educators and argues that changes in the nature of industrial production require that community colleges not only keep…

The accuracy of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projections of occupational employment growth was investigated for the period 1972-1989. BLS was found to have consistently underpredicted the growth of skilled occupations and overpredicted the growth of occupations requiring low or moderate skills. A regression-based forecast was indicated as…

Progress to date is reported for a project initiated in 1979 to apply a workforce planning methodology to the operations and maintenance sections of the Cuyahoga County Sanitary Engineering Department in an effort to document the human resources utilized by the Department during 1979 and to determine its personnel needs for 1980 and 1981. After…

Industrial maintenance in Northeast Georgia is facing an acute crisis. Contributing factors are economic development that is depleting the work force, aging of the population, downsizing of the military, and lack of technical school graduates. Solutions to the crisis fall into three categories: short-term, mid-term, and long-term. For short-term…

In spring 1991, a survey was conducted by Northern Nevada Community College (NNCC) to determine the vocational education needs of local employers. Ninety-one employers were interviewed at their worksites using a modified open-ended question approach. Survey findings included the following: (1) employers most frequently used newspapers to obtain…

This analysis assesses alternative explanations of the robust enrollment growth in community colleges in the 1970's, part of a larger trend of increased vocationalization of education. The conventional explanation is that community colleges offer the most appropriate training for rapidly increasing jobs requiring middle-level skills. Various other…

This narrative account summarizes the 2-day research forum of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP). Presentations focus on the central theme of the forum: new qualifications versus skill shortages. They include Kees Meijer's outline of the research undertaken in a series of national studies on skill shortages…

This Policy Brief is intended to help the National Commission on Adult Literacy consider state and federal policy strategies that hold promise for increasing the number of lower-skilled adults, including those with limited English skills, who earn postsecondary credentials that can open the door to family-supporting jobs and careers. It examines…