From their beginnings, community colleges have evolved and continually improved their mission to better serve community residents. Previously, two-year colleges were mainly private institutions, committed to occupational and professional preparation, general education, and academic transfer. After 1965, legislation provided federal funds to…

This paper presents specific steps elected officials, program managers, and other policymakers can take to craft a more effective workforce development system intended to give workers the tools they need to succeed in the new economy. First, the new labor market and work systems are discussed. The paper then lays out eight principles for all…

This publication is comprised of 12 position papers from the National Equity Workshop held at the University of Technology Sidney (Australia) at which participants summarized their positions on the way equity should be understood, their views on the strengths and weaknesses of current vocational education and training (VET) policy, and what they…

This document is a practical guide that demonstrates how human resource (HR) professionals can use performance measurement to link HR to organizational strategy and business objectives, and thereby raise the profile of HR within their organization. The following are among the topics examined: (1) the strategic context of measurement (the role…

This document is intended as a guide to help employers, training providers, and others develop effective partnerships with leading-edge community colleges. The document begins with an overview of the strategies used by four effective training partnership initiatives involving the following corporations and community colleges: Sequins,…

The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) is a longitudinal survey that was developed over a 3-year period by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and Statistics Canada in consultation with provincial and territorial ministries and departments of labor and education. The YITS is designed to provide policy-relevant information about school-to-work…

This paper explores the traditional European model of vocational training in light of a new focus on employability and lifelong learning that is becoming more common in Europe. It includes the following four sections: (1) an overview of some examples of vocational training systems in Europe and the proposal that they share enough to be considered…

The potential of distance learning (DL) to expedite the U.S. Army's efforts to redress personnel shortages in Army enlisted occupations was studied by evaluating how DL-based training strategies might affect skill shortages in the following occupations: helicopter repairer; electronic switching system operator; microwave systems…

This paper examines trends in occupational mismatch in the metal, building, vehicle, and electrical trades and questions whether the process of award restructuring that began in the late 1980s has created incentives for unskilled blue collar workers to pursue skill-based career paths in the trades. Chapter 1 discusses the paper's aim and history…

This document contains materials for use in conducting a 1-hour presentation on school-to-work (STW) programs in New York State for area employers in order to elicit their support for the state's STW initiative and encourage them to share information about the initiative with others in their communities. The document begins with nine tips for…

The New Economy Work (NEW) Scholarship is a proposed scholarship designed to reform federal training programs and to make them universally accessible to dislocated or disadvantaged workers. NEW Scholarships would accomplish the following things: (1) make access to training for dislocated workers as universally available as access to college; (2)…

This booklet presents 12 examples of innovative initiatives to skill shortages nationwide. The description of each one provides this information: the challenge, partners, the story, and contacts with addresses and telephone numbers. The initiatives are Communications Workers of America and Cisco Systems: Military to Work Project; Knowbility and…

This book provides a policy update on the school-to-work (STW) transition in a wide range of countries. Fourteen chapters give a comprehensive overview of the main issues in policy formulation and a detailed consideration of how policies have been considered and implemented in those countries. The chapters are: "Introduction: STW Policies in…

These four papers are from a symposium on evaluation in human resource development (HRD). "Assessing Organizational Readiness for Learning through Evaluative Inquiry" (Hallie Preskill, Rosalie T. Torres) reviews how evaluative inquiry can facilitate organizational learning; argues HRD evaluation should be reconceptualized as a process…

The first of the four papers in this symposium, "What Is It Like To Be an Independent HRD Consultant?" (Alexander Ardishvili), reports on a phenomenological study that investigated the experience of being an independent HRD (human resource development) consultant through interviews with 10 successful HRD consultants. The study identified eight…