In the past decade, significant advances in information technologies in the Euro-American world have fostered the creation of information monopolies. The prices imposed by the monopolies, whose products are largely in the English language, have caused academic libraries to focus almost exclusively on international scientific and cultural materials…

The Learning and Skills Development Agency agrees that national training organizations (NTOs) have a vital role to play in delivering the United Kingdom's skills agenda and that doing so will require strengthening their role. The agency particularly welcomes the fact that the NTO framework will do the following things: include clear statements of…

Case studies of 16 firms across Australia that employ adult apprentices in the "traditional" trades were conducted to identify innovative ways of getting adults into the trades. The case studies included interviews with the firms' apprentice managers, training providers, and adult apprentices. Although some adult-friendly innovations…

Canadian population trends were examined from a life course perspective to identify needed social policy changes. First, the following principles underpinning the life course perspective were discussed: (1) aging involves biological, psychological, and social processes; (2) human development and aging are lifelong processes; (3) individuals' and…

This guide offers insight, advice, examples, and resources aimed at community education practitioners in the United Kingdom who want to establish sustainable community education and neighborhood renewal programs promoting active citizenship and social change. The following topics are discussed: (1) neighborhoods in crisis; (2) proposed government…

This paper explores the value of encouraging adults in the United Kingdom to participate in learning in science through extensive consultations with practitioners in the field of science education. Data were also collected through a literature review and a brief survey to collect views regarding adults' participation in learning opportunities in…

Ireland's economic and social problems in the 1980s spawned a new kind of community education. Key characteristics of the new community education are as follows: (1) it is a learning environment and located in the community; (2) it provides learning programs based on identified needs; (3) its control remains in the local community's hands; (4) its…

The relationship between lifelong learning, active citizenship, and neighborhood renewal was explored in the context of the British government's declared intention to address the consequences of poverty through neighborhood renewal, encourage public participation in renewal, and make lifelong learning a central strategy for ensuring future…

Too many students entering colleges or universities find that they lack the essential skills and knowledge required for college. One reason for high school graduates' lack of preparedness for college is a serious lack of communication between the preschool-12 and postsecondary education systems. Like other states, Minnesota has focused…

The adult general education programs administered by the Division of Workforce Development in Florida's Department of Education were subjected to a justification review. To assess the programs' performance, the number of literacy completion points (LCPs) earned by each program and system and the number of LCPs earned per enrollee were analyzed.…

"Perspectives on Progress: The School-to-Work (STW) National Customer Dialogues" was a series of six regional and two national discussions that were held between December 1999 and July 2000 to gather the views of more than 700 employers, educators, labor union representatives, students, parents, community-based organizations, and state…

The SOCRATES Program was conducted in 1995-1999 to increase transnational cooperation between institutions in the field of adult education (AE) and thereby enhance the quality of AE in Europe. In 1997, a project called Monitoring of Projects: Evaluation as Dialogue (MOPED) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of 101 transnational…

Educational strategies for social inclusion are based on particular definitions that do not always take account of the complexities of exclusion and inclusion. By attempting to "normalize" the unemployed and disaffected, social inclusion efforts often legitimate the status quo of systems that might otherwise be regarded as contributing…

This report examines the financing of the two components of France's vocational education and training (VET) system. They are initial vocational training (IVT), which includes upper secondary and short forms of higher education, and continuing vocational training (CVT), which aims to help workers adapt to changes in working techniques and…

Curriculum reform in vocational education and training (VET) in Central and Eastern Europe was examined through case studies of VET in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. Special attention was paid to the following: each country's VET system; curriculum…