This collection of 16 case studies is intended to illustrate how the public and private sectors have managed to collaborate in helping workers adapt to changing employment circumstances. The case studies are grouped into three categories. The first six case studies are examples of programs that have been developed to assist in training for new…

Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The vast majority of the workers affected by structural change in the American economy appear to make employment transitions fairly swiftly and smoothly, with no need for public intervention. Undertrained workers, mostly employed and scattered in all…

Reported is a validation study of the Dubin technical updating model, one which identifies variables that may be combined with expectancy theory to predict whether or not engineers will need technical updating. The basic hypothesis is that the likelihood of engaging in updating activities is a function of individual motivation and characteristics…

The Skills Conversion Project conducted by the National Society of Professional Engineers sought to study the transition mechanisms required to transfer available technical manpower from aerospace and defense industries into other areas of employment in private industry and public service. Fourteen study teams assessed the likelihood of future…

Recommendations favoring generic academic rather than occupationally specific skills are based on false premises. Research evidence contradicts the following assertions: (1) academic skills are good substitutes for occupational skills; (2) skill obsolescence reduces the payoff to vocational training; and (3) rising job turnover reduces the payoff…

This document reports the results of work in identifying promising approaches to the provision of technological update to vocational/technical teachers and barriers as well as facilitators to the use of those approaches. (Technological update refers to the technical, as opposed to pedagogical, knowledge and skills needed by vocational teachers to…

This issue discusses the problems that frequently accompany involuntary job loss. The types of problems experienced by dislocated workers are discussed under these categories: emotional, family, financial, physical health, job skill obsolescence, and lack of basic academic skills. The report also presents approaches that were taken by four…

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,…

Technological change is a complex term involving many more factors than "changes in machinery or automation." Six changes which affect jobs and influence skills in our industrial systems that could logically be called technological change have been identified: (1) scientific management, or time and motion studies, (2) mergers and consolidations,…

The papers compiled here were presented at a conference held for professionals from many fields to enable them to explore issues regarding mandatory continuing education. The papers are presented in six sections. The first is the introduction, while the keynote address, "Change, the Professions, and Continuing Education," comprises section 2.…

This document reports a survey of employers in the Stamford Labor Market Area (Connecticut) that was undertaken during the fall of 1978. Chapter 1 outlines the survey, its findings, and these four objectives: (1) identify nature and extent of jobs and skills mismatch problems, (2) identify nature and extent of career-stagnation problems among…

Reported is the development of a set of behavior anchored scales (BAS) for evaluating the job performance and technical updating activities of engineers. A total of 327 engineers and technical supervisors participated in the various phases of this project. Separate groups: (1) identified 11 factors related to job performance and technical…

The purpose of the study was to explore the possibility of developing a comprehensive conceptual framework for measuring the costs and benefits of foreign trade to American workers. Foreign trade was conceived of primarily as a number of parts of the dynamic world production-distribution-consumption process rather than as an aggregate exchange of…

Despite current questions about the rate of return on educational investments, there is still a positive correlation between years of schooling and income, as well as job satisfaction. The real problem is not study and work; rather attention should be directed to the problem of nonstudy and work. (Author/AF)

This report addresses the degree to which retraining has met the challenge of ensuring that the American work force has adequate skills to cope with the changing world of work. Chapter 1 sketches economic, social, and technological changes that help explain why the current reactive approach needs to be more active. In chapter 2, the extensiveness…