The current pressure to look seriously at the connection between the economy and the educational and occupational skills of adults is being driven by changes in both economic conditions and the makeup of the U.S. labor force. Manufacturing has declined, taking with it low-skill, high-wage jobs, and the work force has more immigrants, women, and…

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the individual states have exclusive responsibility for publicly run education, which includes vocational schools. Responsibility for vocational training on the job rests exclusively with the federal government. The roots of vocational training are in medieval apprenticeship training and religious and industrial…

During the next two decades, vocational education will face a major challenge to keep up to date with technology. National crises usually lead to new technologies. The United States today faces major problems in the areas of energy, productivity, and foreign trade. Solutions to these problems will generate new knowledge and technology that will…

The eight articles in this theme issue of CEDEFOP's twice-yearly multi-lingual bulletin focus on continuing education to maintain and upgrade the workforce. "Force--The Community's Action Programme for the Continuing Training in the 1990s" describes the objectives of this new program to improve the skill levels of the European…

This document analyzes the labor market problems of displaced older workers. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 describes the magnitude of the problems of unemployment, discouragement, and displacement of older workers. The outcomes of unemployment are discussed, with attention to the duration of unemployment, the effects of displacement, and…

The effects of technological change on the manpower and training needs of New York State industry were studied in a survey of 281 Industrial situations. The study was designed to help answer questions about the effects of factory and related technological change in displacing workers, in creating recruitment and training needs, and in altering the…

This study was conducted to supply information for vocational education planners concerning the employment needs of the health services industry in Colorado. It should also provide some indication of the demand for trained workers in the occupations surveyed by coordinating expected company expansion and replacement needs with the number to be…

This paper summarizes a comparative study of the impact of market and technological changes on human resources in banks and insurance companies in five countries: France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. The research was organized around case studies of changes in 12 firms--9 banks and 3 insurance carriers. The paper discusses the…

This paper addresses the extent to which retraining and training programs are available for employed and unemployed adults. First, demographic and economic shifts and projections into the next century are discussed as the context for needed training. Second, the promise and positive impacts of new technologies in office and business settings are…

A study of the involvement of continuing higher education in professional and occupational regulation should focus on the growth of practice regulation, roles of higher education, and issues and areas for cooperation in meeting the practitioners' needs. Knowledge obsolescence and the definition of more specific fields have led to a heightened need…

Public Law 88-444 asked the Commission to identify, assess, describe, and define aspects of technological change and to recommend specific legislative and administrative steps which should be taken by federal, state, and local governments. The Commission was to concern itself for 1 year with the coming decade. Their examination covered (1) The…

Life-long education, in which the learning process is continuous and unbroken, for the professional is discussed from the standpoint of obsolescence, its symptoms and causes, and present efforts to cope with it. The concept of half-life is used to describe a professional's competence, and it is stated that the two factors that are most prominent…

Dislocated workers are distinguished from chronically unemployed individuals in that the former have a stable work history and are generally unaware of the community's social services programs and how to use them. Dislocated workers frequently lack job search skills and do not see the transferability of their work skills. Often, they have heavy…

Impacts from the major high technological changes now underway cut across all industrial sectors and most occupational clusters. Technological innovation can increase or decrease the total number of types of jobs. Decline in employment may be offset, however, by new applications and capabilities of goods and services or by employment shifts. While…

The 15 papers in this book consider the issues, opportunities, and challenges facing higher education with regard to postbaccalaureate education, focusing particularly on how to ensure a productive, competitive workforce in today's global-based economy. Titles in Part 1, "Emerging Markets for Postbaccalaureate Education," are: (1)…