Vocational Education And Youth Employment

Research report on the role of the training employment relationship in effective training policies for youth employment in the USA - identifies the major target group as low income, socially disadvantaged youth with below average educational levels; examines causes and social problems arising from youth unemployment; includes vocational training, career planning, job placement and work experience among desirable policy components; makes suggestions. Bibliography.

This report examines the human resources development and training dimensions of the gradual, but inexorable, shift towards knowledge-, skill-, and service-based economies and societies, and the stupendous growth of the information and communications technology sectors. It offers the following four conclusions: (1) all countries will feel the impact of these changes; (2) older, more mature economies with skilled workers may resist change and suffer from a mismatch between skills and needs, and so need to stress education and training and make them more widely available in order to maintain employability and productivity over a lifetime; (3) in developing countries, more workers need to be educated so that they are not forced into unemployment, and young workers are most likely to benefit from training programs undertaken in a well-established institutional context; and (4) in all countries, major structural reforms are needed to adapt training continuously to the changing nature and dynamics of labor markets and to improve access to training for everybody throughout life. The report raises points for discussion of the role of human resources development in all types of economies.--Publisher's description.

This book analyses the accessibility and success of vocational training programmes for unemployed and disadvantaged youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Examining the implementation of vocational education and training programmes, the author assesses various internal and external enabling factors that can help foster youth employment. In doing so, the author presents a solid base for robust and evidence-informed practice and policy making for vocational training programmes, analysing such themes as employability skills, the labour market, and work-integrated learning. It also emphasises the importance of stakeholders taking into account the enabling and disabling environments found in a given local, regional or national context. It will be of interest to scholars of vocational training programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, as well as of youth poverty and unemployment.

The ways in which vocational education can be strengthened to contribute most effectively to national education and economic goals are the subject of this book. It discusses changes in the economy and in the nature of jobs that affect the skills needed in the workplace; unemployment conditions, particularly among the young; and the educational implications of these changes and conditions. The book takes a critical look at vocational education, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the system, and makes specific recommendations for its improvement.

Which non-American education systems best prepare young people for fulfilling jobs and successful adult lives? And what can the United States—where far too many young people currently enter adulthood without adequate preparation for the twenty-first-century job market—learn, adopt, and adapt from these other systems? In Schooling in the Workplace, Nancy Hoffman addresses these questions head on, arguing that “the smartest and quickest route to a wide variety of occupations for the majority of young people in the successful countries—not a default for failing students—is a vocational program that integrates work and learning.” As she notes, the programs that successfully integrate work and learning all share a fundamental commitment to helping young people find successful careers: “The purpose is not ‘college for all,’ as in the United States today, but rather to provide the education and training young people need to prepare for a career or calling.” Schooling in the Workplace explores the vocational education programs in a wide range of countries, focusing in rich and useful detail on six in particular: Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland. Framing these discussions, however, is a persistent focus on American circumstances and challenges. Far more than a survey of six “foreign” programs, this is a book prompted by and organized around the policy and practical challenges facing the United States.

First published in 1983, Youth, Education and Employment tries to highlight the scale of the problem of youth unemployment in industrial societies by examining it from a variety of angles, and by drawing upon developments in other countries including those of the developing world. Examples are taken from France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden as well as from the United Kingdom, and also from Cuba and small island communities. This important volume shows the underlying causes of youth unemployment and offers positive solutions in particular stressing the need for a reappraisal of many educational practices. This book is a must read for educationists, policy makers and students of public policy.