Postsecondary education and middle-skills occupational training are viewed as important paths to higher-paying jobs and careers. Lifelong learning pathways geared toward working learners aged 25 and older also seem essential for career advancement and professional growth in the current job market. However, many learners face financial and other…

Individuals with low incomes often struggle to advance in the labor market, yet at the same time, some employers report difficulty finding workers with the necessary skills. WorkAdvance is a workforce development model that seeks to address the needs of both of these groups through its "dual customer" approach. The model offers training…

Is there an optimum age to be an apprentice? For most people, their image of an apprentice would be a teenage school leaver. Yet, in England, the majority of apprentices are over the age of 19 when they start their apprenticeship, and 40 per cent are 25 or over. This would be very unusual in other European countries. In this article, the authors…

While theories of adult learning and motivation are often framed as being either biological, psychological, or sociocultural, they represent a more complex, integral process. To gain a more holistic perspective of this process, a study was designed to concurrently investigate relationships between a biological factor (age), psychological factors…

"Research Messages 2013" provides a summary of the research published in 2015 by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The research published in 2015 covered a wide variety of the themes, reflecting the relevance of the VET sector to the Australian economy and its increasingly important role in the higher…

The authors accept urban reform as their main calling with their aim being to break the poverty cycle with a multi-faceted, educational, and family-centered approach. The authors speak about providing a broad range of education programs and social services including low-cost housing in comfortable apartments for single mothers, early childhood…

Most of the authors in this issue of "Future of Children" focus on a single strategy for helping both adults and children that could become a component of two-generation programs. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, on the other hand, look at actual programs with an explicit two-generation focus that have been tried in the…

Childcare workers play a significant role in the learning and development of children in their care. This has major implications for the training of workers. Under new reforms of the childcare industry, the Australian government now requires all workers to obtain qualifications from a vocational education and training provider (e.g. Technical and…

This report presents findings from a review and analysis of literature on the importance, effectiveness, and availability of support services for participants in job training programs in the United States. It assesses current knowledge about these services by examining reports on training and education programs, as well as literature on the…

Suggests using Kirkpatrick's four-point framework to design evaluation of training programs. The points are (1) trainee reaction to the course, (2) trainee learning, (3) trainee behavior on the job, and (4) organizational results. (CH)

New Careers is a training program for the underemployed or unemployed. It has two objectives: helping the poor help themselves and the democratization of society. The first has been more effectively dealt with and is of greater relevance to adult educators. Current strategy is based on the belief that even professional jobs can be broken down into…

The stock-in-trade of trainers are the models, frameworks, and structures used for teaching, coaching, and counseling. The authors argue that the better the conceptual models that managers and trainers use for managing their thinking, the better performance they will achieve. (JOW)

Describes a model using correctional industries to train inmates for successful existence in the labor force after release. (CH)

The contents of this book deal with worker education in France, England, the Soviet Union, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Finland and with the international activities of the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT). Examples are presented of what can be done and what has been done to develop the potential of the worker in Europe. The…

The Training Effectiveness Evaluation system provides three categories of tools for planning evaluation of industrial training programs, gathering the needed information, and reporting it. These categories are (1) satisfaction, (2) learning, and (3) performance. (CH)