Because of rising life expectancy and declining birth rates, reducing early retirement and prolonging employees' working lives have become major goals on social policy agendas. In this context, ensuring the adaptability and employability of the existing workforce has become an important issue. The aim of this article is to conduct a review of the…

This article scrutinises the normalised realities behind integration policies and training for refugees and immigrants that are claimed to be inclusive. The 'great narrative' of Finland has been focused on equal opportunity via education and training, which makes it even more important to examine the hidden realities and how such realities affect…

Dr. Jacobson's analysis of "hard to serve" is well founded, especially from an academic and theoretical perspective, yet the author is left wanting. Is the solution to merely change the language, the terminology of the legislation, or the terminology used by policy makers as well as practitioners? Are these adults hard to serve or ill…

Stewardship of place refers to the public engagement activities and approaches colleges and universities enact to enhance the regions and communities they serve. A group of colleges and universities known as regional comprehensive universities (RCUs) has been uniquely committed to stewardship of place throughout their histories. As state-supported…

Since it was signed into law, the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) has been the subject of continuing scrutiny. One commonly shared concern is that the evaluation metrics of the Act (e.g., employment, salary, etc.) may incentivize programs to work with learners who will more readily meet expected outcomes (Pickard, 2016). Others…

Businesses throughout the United States are facing a tight labor market and a growing need for skilled workers. At the same time, millions of U.S. adults have foundational skills gaps in areas such as literacy or numeracy. This issue is especially acute among Americans with disabilities, who are twice as likely as their non-disabled peers to have…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in the wake of the September 11th 2001 terrorist events. DHS's formation, the largest reorganization of a governmental agency in over 50 years, brought a new emphasis on the protection of the nation, its citizens and its infrastructure to government emergency management policy. Previously,…

The Covid-19 pandemic has vividly illustrated the centrality of frontline workers to the everyday functioning of the American economy and daily life. But while some articles have mentioned the high proportion of immigrant workers in these roles, there has been much less attention paid to the high number of English learners in particular. The…

This article explores the efficacy and cost effectiveness of New Labour's skills-based policies to help low paid workers adjust to the pressures generated by globalisation, of which the leading example was Train to Gain (T2G). It also analyses the more general issue of how, why and under what circumstances education, training and skills can help…

In the United States, adult and workforce education (AE) seems to be located, simultaneously, both everywhere and nowhere in particular. Ongoing shifts in national economic demands and changes in requirements for training and education have brought learning in the adult years into the federal public policy arena. Sometimes referred to as lifelong…

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning's (CAEL's) 40th anniversary year provided an opportunity for the "Forum and News" to examine the world of the adult learner from multiple perspectives and to invite CAEL friends and supporters to reflect on the evolution of the field and of CAEL as an organization. This publication presents…

This paper examines Canadian federal and cross-provincial higher education policy from 1960 to 1990, a critical time when provisions for vocational and adult training came under the auspices of governmental concern, justified under both an economic rationale and as a way to address persistent forms of inequality. The problematisation of skill…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to review the policy literature on green jobs and green jobs training in the USA and to present findings of a qualitative study on the start-up of two Energy Training Partnerships (ETP) funded by the US Department of Labour to train workers for green jobs. Design/methodology/approach: The paper includes a review…

To facilitate individuals to adjust their skills to changes in market demands, Sweden has a relatively generous policy to stimulate formal adult education at the compulsory, upper secondary and tertiary levels. This paper provides an overview of what research has reported to assess if and/or how it may be an efficient use of tax payers' money.…

Companies received more than 5 billion British Pounds last year from the Exchequer in tax relief for work-related training. That is equivalent to the turnover of more than 250 further education colleges. And it vastly overshadows the 50 million British Pounds Growth and Innovation Fund set up to support employers' initiatives to improve skills and…