Global megatrends, such as digitalisation, and contemporary crises have highlighted the importance of continuous development and learning in the work context. Learning can be inspiring and motivating but also stressful when generating competence that is not applicable or has poor utilisability. In this study, we approached the ambivalent nature of…

The automation of job tasks due to technological change increases the pressure on workers whose jobs consist largely of such activities. In this context, politics and science attach great importance to further training, although the benefits for affected workers have hardly been investigated. Drawing on human capital theory and the task-based…

Competence in contemporary working life requirements is increasingly aligned with electronically mediated tasks and work roles: ie, the digitalisation of work. This alignment necessitates workers learning and utilising the conceptual knowledge and ways of working needed for this work. This knowledge is often distinct from and displaces workers'…

Robert LaLonde of the University of Chicago and Daniel Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago suggest that retraining through our nation's community colleges is a way to reduce the skills gaps of at least some of these displaced workers and increase their reemployment earnings. Although workers may still experience significant earnings…

The article deals with the efforts of nine different countries to overcome the problems of job obsolescence due to automation and the education and training of youth to fit the needs of the times. (EK)

The most striking general features of the Danish education system are these: a high degree of centralization, learner-centeredness, open access, precisely defined conditions of service for teachers, and virtually non-existent training for educational managers. Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 7 and 16 years. Optional…

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…

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 working paper, part of a project on the applicability of the French training system in the United States, argues that a systematic national commitment to midcareer worker retraining is necessary for American prosperity and international economic competitiveness. Although findings of the early human capital theorists demonstrated that an…

A survey of French research by CEREQ ("A French research centre for analysis of occupations and of vocational education and training") shows that firms have undertaken a number of experiments, most of them large scale, to retrain their work force. These initiatives are situated within a general context of change. Training programs based…

The Professional, Industrial, and Commercial Updating Programme (PICKUP) of the United Kingdom is aimed at improving the performance of British industry through the colleges. In Wales, PICKUP is part of the Welsh Office Education Department. Various factors have encouraged educational institutions to take on PICKUP work: the Education Reform Act…

Implications for universities of high technology industries and the labor market are unclear. There is a need to ease the transition for those categories of workers who will be affected: women, low- and medium-skill workers in manufacturing, and certain categories of middle-level managers. The provision of highly qualified personnel is the…

The eight articles in this theme issue of CEDEFOP's twice-yearly multi-lingual bulletin focus on continuing education to maintain and upgrade the workforce. "Force--The Community's Action Programme for the Continuing Training in the 1990s" describes the objectives of this new program to improve the skill levels of the European…

This paper addresses the extent to which retraining and training programs are available for employed and unemployed adults. First, demographic and economic shifts and projections into the next century are discussed as the context for needed training. Second, the promise and positive impacts of new technologies in office and business settings are…

Dislocated workers are distinguished from chronically unemployed individuals in that the former have a stable work history and are generally unaware of the community's social services programs and how to use them. Dislocated workers frequently lack job search skills and do not see the transferability of their work skills. Often, they have heavy…