The author discusses the shortage of qualified engineers and the importance to the United States of high-quality engineering faculty, high-quality engineering graduates, and strong math and science departments in high schools. The author argues that it is up to the private sector to encourage these trends. (CT)

The principle of supply and demand has been chosen to capture and present quantitatively an important data source for describing employment potential. The Pennsylvania State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee has developed an Occupational Information System (OIS) and companion microcomputer version (Micro-OIS). This system contains…

Sweden has worked in the last decade to strengthen the connection between education and employment, but still needs to make futher improvements. Recent shifts in the country's labor markets led to more youth unemployment, the displacement of less-educated workers by the more highly educated, and greater problems in the transition from school to…

Vocational education in the United States has come under increased scrutiny, and its proponents need the tools to convince the critics of its merits. Many economic conditions have a strong impact on vocational education, and understanding of economics is important in offering a rationale of vocational education. In a time of shrinking revenues,…

Technological advances have created changes in working life. Automation displaces more workers than the service industry can absorb. The jobs that are left are often downgraded from the complexity they have formerly enjoyed. As society becomes more and more automated, unemployment becomes structural. How do we prepare young people for the jobs of…

Research findings point up the need by vocational educators for better ways to apply labor market information in doing program planning and evaluation. This report describes a procedure that state and local education agencies can use to develop a long-range program plan for vocational education, and special emphasis is given to the many ways in…

Locating and assessing new and emerging occupations is a required task for those vocational/technical educators who want to prepare for meeting the needs for skilled workers in the future as well as for those currently in demand. This ongoing process requires contact with a wide range of people and organizations. Information concerning job duties,…

The major issues surrounding the relationship between work and education now concentrate on the effects of education on productivity, on the effects of technology on the changing demand for education, and on the value of vocational education. In replacing the human capital theory of the value of education in the workplace, some recent theories…

This paper's overiew of the relationship between vocational education and productivity includes the presentation of results from a multiple regression analysis of vocational education enrollments and various productivity indices. This tentative analysis contributes additional observations to the studies reviewed and offers pertinent suggestions…

Educational performance has become a crucial element in the United States' capacity to prosper in a new global economy of fierce competition. In addition to the traditional question of how the educational system contributes to students' intellectual growth, a new question is being asked: How does the educational system contribute to national…

The role of vocational education and training (VET) in the context of the dynamic and changing demands of the world of work is explored through a more comprehensive approach to the overall system of human resources development (HRD). HRD is the concern of both educationists and economists. To an educationist, HRD should first be human and then…

Review of the methods for estimating future employment opportunities shows that there is an ongoing system, involving the Department of Labor and state employment agencies, for making projections for the United States as a whole and for states and major metropolitan areas. This system combines national research on economic growth, technological…

This document contains the proceedings of a conference on technology and the future as it applies to occupational educators, with an emphasis on determining how vocational and technical education must change to meet the needs of the future. Following the introductory remarks on the themes of the conference, five presentations were given. In the…

Four trends will alter the way the education and training system and other human resource agencies will do business. Themes that reflect them are captured in four words: flexibility, quality, diversity, and scope. The reaction to the current economic downturn remains one of flexibility. Flexibility has emerged as the way in which employers look at…

This serial issue, which is devoted to the challenges that recent changes in the U.S. workplace pose for society and labor-management relations, contains nine papers focusing on the following aspects of building a new workplace for the 21st century: historical and current perspectives; workforce and workplace changes; education and training of the…