HRD is extensively concerned with human capital investment, but only focuses on how skills and knowledge become obsolete to a limited extent. In this paper we look at the speed of obsolescence. Using data from a survey among Dutch public sector employees, we find that the yearly rate of skills obsolescence is 2.6%. Subsequent analyses show that…

The current rate of technological change demands changes in the ways educational administrators are trained. On one hand, administrators need more systematic inservice programs to update their skills and they themselves must provide their staffs improved inservice training. On the other hand, increasing specialization precludes administrators from…

The paper describes and illustrates the utility of the Content-Based Group-Assessment Model for developing programs of continuing professional education. A recent study of physical educators is used to demonstrate the potential utility of the model in developing curricular programs. (Author/AJ)

The author looks at the Canadian short-term employment model and then examines characteristics of the Japanese employment model (recruitment methods, matching rewards to performance and investment, dealing with skill obsolescence and aging, and the advantages of Japan's long-term model). (CT)

A study identified alternative models of short-term upgrading and updating training for employed workers in business and industry. In phase 1, a literature review provided the basis for a nine-cell matrix that conceptualized alternative models of industry-based training as a function of the skill level the training addressed and the degree of…

This monograph, organized in two major parts, covers the role of educational needs assessment in adult education and its role in continuing medical education (CME). The first part discusses the concept of educational need and its relationship to classic program planning models and naturalistic program planning. It then covers various assessment…

Technical and professional persons are especially threatened by the potentiality of becoming outdated in their skills and their knowledge. It is not enough for workers in these fields to maintain the competence acquired in the years of formal education. Their information bank is anything but static; the norm is perpetual change. Psychologists,…

This working paper, part of a project on the applicability of the French training system in the United States, argues that a systematic national commitment to midcareer worker retraining is necessary for American prosperity and international economic competitiveness. Although findings of the early human capital theorists demonstrated that an…

Technological advances necessitate the continuous retraining of the work force. Three technologies are having greatest impact on the labor force: (1) the scope and depth of computer skills required by most jobs continue to expand; (2) robotics in manufacturing means that certain new jobs are more technical and require postsecondary education; and…