Linking Education Policy To Labor Market Outcomes

'Linking Education Policy to Labor Market Outcomes' examines current research and new evidence from Ghana and Pakistan representative of two of the poorest regions of the world to assess how education can increase income and help people move out of poverty. This study indicates that in addition to early investments in cognitive and noncognitive skills which produce a high return and lower the cost of later educational investment by making learning at later ages more efficient quality, efficiency, and linkages to the broader macro-economic context also matter. Education and relevant skills are still the key determinants of good labor market outcomes for individuals. However, education policies aimed at improving skills will have a limited effect on the incomes of that skilled workforce or on the performance of a national economy if other policies that increase the demand for these skills are not in place. For education to contribute to national economic growth, policies should aim at improving the quality of education by spending efficiently and by adapting the basic and postbasic curricula to develop the skills increasingly demanded on the global labor market, including critical thinking, problem solving, social behavior, and information technology.

Education, which has been at the heart of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s history and civilizations for centuries, has a large untapped potential to contribute to human capital, well-being, and wealth. The region has invested heavily in education for decades, but it has not been able to reap the benefits of its investments. Despite a series of reforms, MENA has remained stuck in a low-learning, low-skills level. Expectations and Aspirations: A New Framework for Education in the Middle East and North Africa identifies four key sets of tensions that are holding back education in the region: credentials and skills, discipline and inquiry, control and autonomy, and tradition and modernity. These tensions are shaped by society and are reflected in classrooms. If they are not addressed, MENA will continue to operate at a level below its potential. This report outlines a new framework with a three-pronged approach that can help address these tensions and unleash the potential of education in MENA: • A concerted push for learning that starts early for all children regardless of background, with qualified and motivated educators, and that leverages technology, uses modern approaches, and monitors learning outcomes • A stronger pull for skills by all stakeholders in the labor market and society that involves coordinated multisystem reforms within and beyond the education system • A new pact for education at the national level with a unified vision, shared responsibilities, and accountabilities. Education is not just the responsibility of the education system—it is everyone’s business. The push, pull, and pact framework offers an opportunity for MENA to move forward to reclaim its heritage of a learned region and to meet the expectations and aspirations of its people. The current situation in MENA requires a renewed focus on education, not just as a national priority for economic growth and social development, but as a national emergency for stability, peace, and prosperity.

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Monograph comprising a compilation of research papers on higher education and the labour market for university graduates in the USA - covers trends affecting minority group graduates, educated labour force, the college dropout, employment opportunities for professional workers, trade unionism among college teachers, cost benefit analysis of higher education, employment policy and educational policy implications, etc. References and statistical tables.

This publication is the first from the Leverhulme program of study, which focused on the major strategic options likely to be available to higher education institutions and policy-making bodies in the 1980s and 1990s. It resulted from a specialist seminar on higher education and the labor market. The chapters are: "Employers' Perceptions of Demand" (Laurence C. Hunter); "Technological Manpower" (Derek L. Bosworth); "Response to Change in the United States" (Richard B. Freeman); "Higher Education Policy" (Maurice Peston); and "The Challenge of Market Imperatives" (Robert M. Lindley). Lindley notes that the British higher education system has never come to grips with the role it might play in economic development and examines some areas of need and improvement: the search for more students; the need to get the labor market more involved in the environment of higher education and to get education to respond to market need with qualified persons; the role of higher education in the screening and credentialism process; to encourage industry's role in funding and organizing higher education; and stabilizing the labor market environment. It is concluded that labor market issues have to be handled at a more sophisticated level than the debate about manpower alone. (LC)

Persuasive evidence demonstrates that gender equality in education is central to economic development. Despite more than two decades of accumulated knowledge and evidence of what works in improving gender equality, progress on the ground remains slow and uneven across countries. What is missing? Given that education is a critical path to accelerate progress toward gender equality and the empowerment of women, what is holding us back? These questions were discussed at the global symposium Education: A Critical Path to Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, which was sponsored by the World Bank in October 2007. Girls' Education in the 21st Century is based on background papers developed for the symposium. The book's chapters reflect the current state of knowledge on education from a gender perspective and highlight the importance of, and challenges to, female education, as well as the interdependence of education and development objectives. The last chapter presents five strategic directions for advancing gender equality in education and their implications for World Bank operations. Girls' Education in the 21st Century will be of particular interest to researchers, educators, school administrators, and policy makers at the global, national, regional, and municipal levels.

Labour Market Economics provides a mixture of theory and practice with a unique emphasis on Canadian policy issues. Written by four of the leading researchers in Canada in the area of labour economics and industrial organization - Dwayne Benjamin, Morley Gunderson, Thomas Lemieux, and Craig Riddell - the Eighth Edition has been refreshed to include updated content coverage, data, tables, and figures, and enhanced to support instructors teaching efforts with the addition of a Test Bank.

USA. Monograph on labour market problems resulting from discrepancies betwen higher education educational level and actual job requirements, causing a surplus in university graduate labour supply - presents definitions of overeducation as well as human capital theoretical explanations, analyses research methods and research results for interpreting trends between 1960 and 1976 (incl. Projections to 1985), and considers implications for job satisfaction, performance and workers' health, labour policy, etc. Bibliography pp. 129 to 143 and graphs.