Since 2000, craft practitioners have increasingly adopted digital fabrication technologies. Simultaneously, the public's engagement in making through various means has escalated, disrupting the makers' ecosystem. This study explores craft practitioners' motivation to acquire new digital skills in the context of informal learning and professional…

This research, commissioned by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, explores how a higher technical education offer with a focus on industry-specific skills, could help to address the needs of local people, local businesses and the local economy. Compared with its international competitors, the UK has a relatively low proportion of the workforce with…

Concerns over the supply of highly-skilled (HS) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workers are well established and have been a feature of policy discourse in the UK for more than 50 years. Since the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, these concerns have been exacerbated by uncertainty about the movement of labour…

Manufacturing is considered one of the major economic drivers in the United States. However, a challenge for manufacturing competitiveness can be the negative perception of the industry held by children, and society as a whole, which may make them reluctant to pursue manufacturing careers and fulfill the projected workforce demands. Accordingly,…

More than 10 million U.S. workers with college degrees, or one in six, are immigrants. While many have found jobs that make full use of their education and skills, nearly a quarter are underemployed, that is, they are either working in jobs that require no more than a high school diploma or are out of work. Tackling immigrants' skill…

In a rapidly changing 21st-century economy with growing competition from abroad, continuing to field a world-leading, skilled workforce is both more essential and more challenging than ever to the mission of delivering increasing prosperity for American families and preserving this nation's economic leadership. The US must therefore confront its…

Washington employment projections continue to show strong demand for workers with postsecondary education. Nearly 70 percent of all projected job openings require at least some education beyond high school, with two-thirds requiring midlevel education or higher. As businesses, industries, and workplaces become increasingly complex, employers need…

Faced with a pressing demand for eldercare workers, Japan signed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to recruit workers from Southeast Asian countries. The EPA limits the employment period for migrant workers, unless they successfully pass the healthcare licensure examination in Japanese. Therefore, they receive on-the-job training and prepare…

The UK's universities are a global success story; world-renowned for high-quality teaching and for supporting social mobility and economic growth across the UK. In February 2018, the prime minister launched the government's review of post-18 education and funding in England. The review aims to 'ensure that the education system for those aged 18…

The Ministry of Advanced Education provides leadership and direction for the world class postsecondary education and training system in British Columbia. Through a range of public and private post-secondary institutions, the Ministry has played a key role in ensuring B.C. has the skilled workers needed to capitalize on economic opportunities and…

Intermediaries--also referred to as bridge builders, boundary spanners, conveners, and other names--fill the critical role of connecting all the parties in the system to empower people with the skills required in the labor force. Those parties generally include employers, educators, workers, and prospective workers. Within these categories may…

England and Wales lag behind competitor nations in the proportion of people with higher technical skills. In this pamphlet, Scott Kelly proposes three overarching reforms to ensure employers have access to the skills they need: (1) There should be a well-defined set of institutions where the core mission is to deliver technical and professional…

The United States faces a pressing national security and competitiveness challenge rooted in a shortage of a diverse, highly skilled workforce, particularly in vital cross-disciplinary fields such as data science and analytics, cybersecurity, and information technology. To address this challenge, Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) launched the…

The Ministry of Advanced Education provides leadership and direction for the world class postsecondary education and training system in British Columbia. Through a range of public and private post-secondary institutions, the Ministry has played a key role in ensuring B.C. has the skilled workers needed to capitalize on economic opportunities and…

In the first decade of this century, India became one of the world's fastest growing large economies, and began to face serious skill-related shortages of workers. Its TVET system has not responded adequately to the growth in demand for semi-skilled and skilled workers. This article describes six sets of reforms that India's educational planners…