One of the major issues currently facing the United States is the impact of the emerging high-technology economy. Some experts suggest that the economy will require great numbers of very highly educated persons to fill the new high-technology jobs. Others, such as researchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), predict that few highly trained…

This report describes a study that was conducted in Georgia to determine the level and extent of postsecondary vocational-technical training needed in advanced technologies to meet current and projected industry demands in the state. The report is organized in six sections. Following an introduction to the problem of technical skill training for…

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…

Designed to assist in the selection of national priorities for the conversion of military curricula to civilian use, a study selected curricula pertinent to occupations with high growth potential and evaluated them against criteria important for curriculum conversion decisions. Procedures consisted of identification of priority occupational areas…

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 manual is designed to facilitate the planning and implementation of an environmental scanning project in Michigan's community colleges. (Environmental scanning is a systematic process for gathering and analyzing information about the external environment and relating it to an organization's internal environment.) This facilitator's guide is…

Recent and projected advances in and commercial applications of lasers and laser technology were examined in order to assist vocational planners in responding to skill needs that will be created by lasers in the next few years. Until recently, most laser applications were in research and development settings; however, in the last several years…

This report details the establishment of a cooperative planning group for high technology training programs and development of a brokering service model. The first three chapters present some background material on the geographic, educational, and industrial setting in Vermont and overview the changes facing the industrial work force. Chapter 4…

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…

As part of a multiphase study of Job Corps vocational education offerings and outcomes during fiscal year 1982, a study examined Job Corps efforts and procedures for identifying high growth occupations. Using input from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, researchers identified high growth occupations for which the Job Corps is either currently…

National priorities exist that can be served through federal legislation for the funding of vocational education. Four alternatives that are examples of national needs that vocational education would appear to have a potential to address are (1) training and retraining of workers in national critical skill shortage occupations, (2) training and…

Phase 1 of a two-phase study on employment demand in Agriculture/Agribusiness for New York State focused on data collection. Four objectives were to (1) compile a preliminary listing of current occupations by industry emphasizing grade levels, (2) review cross-coding systems for employment demand data, (3) develop a preliminary system for periodic…

A study identified the gaps between supply and demand for training in Washington State and recommended strategies for reducing them. The study considered the perspectives of both employers and workers and separately analyzed the needs of three groups: youth, adults, and adults with barriers to employment. The study found the following: (1) there…

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…