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The Group of Eight (Go8) applauds the government's intention to comprehensively reform the skilled migration program, and it welcomes the opportunity to submit this response to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) Points Test Discussion Paper. The Go8 has argued for some time that it is inappropriate to link international education to the skilled migration program. Educational decisions should not be driven by the availability of extra points for studying in Australia nor for undertaking courses with narrowly defined occupational ends. Rather, the level and quality of educational qualifications should underpin the new skilled migration program so that the government, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, can better meet Australia's short, medium and long term human capital needs. This paper provides the Go8's response to specific questions raised by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) in its 15 February paper.

The paper discusses report of The Spellings Commission for Future of Higher Education that was set up to look into the issues facing the higher education system in the U.S., outline the challenges and offer recommendations to tackle the problems. Most importantly, The Spellings Commission Report raised the issue of the role of federal government in the development of higher education system. The paper focuses on one of the issues raised by the Spellings Commission, access to higher education. The paper suggests that today access still remains an issue for higher education in the U.S. Adjusting to changing demographic trends, increased ethnic diversity and increased enrollments with limited federal resources and complicated federal aid system is still a challenge of the future. The question that remains to be answered is: "Will the federal government sustain its traditional commitment to equalizing opportunities for higher education?" (Contains a list of 9 references and resources.)

"Human capital" is quickly becoming the new site-based management, a popular strategy from the 1980s and 1990s that sought to increase autonomy in schools and spread decision making more widely. While few are sure what human capital means, everyone craves it, has a model to deliver it, and is quick to tout its restorative powers. It is trendy and impressive sounding, but too often it means recycling familiar nostrums or half-baked ideas with new jargon. What is needed instead is a serious effort to rethink what the teaching profession should look like in the twenty-first century. (Contains 10 notes.)

Industries in developing countries could counterbalance the western monopoly on higher education by investing more in research at local universities and consequently improving the local human resources talent pools and the overall world rankings of the local universities. What is more, with the perceived lack of necessity for university faculty to possess PhDs, it should not go unnoticed by any applicant as it may well be that his/her citation/publication index holds the actual key to being employed. On the whole, all parties involved need to be increasingly conscious of the changing situation in order to maximize their productive potential in the modern environment of higher education. Five appendices are included: (1) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; (2) Fixed-term Associate Professorship in English--College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo (3) Faculty Position at UCC/Tyndall (06/06/09); (4) Postdoctoral Research Associate Position at the University of Pittsburgh; and (5) Research Position--Spoken Dialogue. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

KIPP KEY Academy in Washington, D.C. North Star Academy in Newark. Roxbury Prep in Boston. Amistad Academy in New Haven. These, and perhaps two hundred other high-performing schools nationwide, are the bright lights of the charter school movement. Despite social and economic disadvantages, their students not only trounce their district peers on state tests but also top statewide averages and, in some cases, surpass students from surrounding affluent suburban districts. Among these "gap-closing" schools, one broad approach, frequently called "no excuses" schooling, appears to dominate. The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) network of schools is the exemplar, but this approach is proliferating in other networks, including Achievement First and Uncommon Schools, and in stand-alone schools, many of which aspire to replicate themselves in coming years. But to narrow America's shameful achievement gaps, we would need thousands more such schools. Is the "no excuses" approach sustainable, and can it be widely reproduced? To explore this question, the author turned to a locale well known for its concentration of strong charter schools, Boston, and examined whether the successful charter schools in Boston rely on privileged inputs of students or of financial or human capital. (Contains 18 notes.)

In her testimony presented before the District of Columbia City Council, the author makes three points. These are: (1) Teachers matter; (2) The variation in teacher effectiveness is greater within schools than the variation between schools; and the variation within schools serving students from the poorest backgrounds is greater than the variation within schools serving more advantaged students; and (3) The variation in teacher effectiveness, both within and between schools, is a "management problem that begs for attention." She offers key points of intervention. The first is recruitment/hiring. A second point of intervention is when teachers are on the job. There are two strategies, all based on how well a teacher is performing on the job. One is the point of tenure and the other is evaluation of ongoing performance. (Contains 1 footnote.)

In this White Paper, the Business Roundtable recommends access to AMERICA 21, a 21st-century approach to lifelong learning for workers, as well as assistance for job dislocation. AMERICA 21 would channel funding from the myriad of existing initiatives into a modernized, streamlined system that leverages and builds on today's best private and public sector practices. The Roundtable urges Congress to create a bipartisan National Commission on Workforce Competitiveness to recommend the design and funding mechanisms for AMERICA 21 based on principles of portability, flexible access, simplicity, quality and public-private partnership. U.S. companies also need policies that will help them compete with powerful international competitors and adapt to a rapidly changing business environment driven by technological innovation; a surge in energy prices; and other economic, social and political forces. The Roundtable urges policymakers to address five interrelated domestic and international policy areas: intellectual capital; health care; energy and environmental stewardship; international engagement, and tax policy. (Contains 25 endnotes.)

This paper assesses the impact on economic growth of increased efficiency of public spending in primary and lower-secondary education. Higher efficiency in public spending in schools can bolster growth through two main channels. On the one hand, it can allow a transfer of labour from the public sector to the business sector at unchanged educational output. On the other, it can enhance educational output and productivity of the future labour force at unchanged public employment and expenditures. The paper argues that, in most cases, efficiency gains might have larger effects on GDP in the long run if they are used to increase educational outputs rather than to reduce inputs. A 10% increase on educational output might raise GDP by, on average, 3% to 6% in the long run in most OECD countries, whereas using efficiency gains to transfer resources to the business sector might have an impact of less than 1% on GDP. However, some trade-off can appear in the short run because input-decreasing efficiency gains materialise more rapidly on growth than improvements in output-increasing efficiency. (A bibliography is included. Contains 12 footnotes, 3 figures and 2 tables.)

Over the last two decades, there has been a surge in public policies seeking to give low-income families more choice about where to send their children to school. These changes in policy have both reflected and accommodated an influx of new educational providers, including school operators, technology firms, back-office service providers, tutors, and recruiting and hiring organizations. What has become clear in these cases and elsewhere, however, is that the quantity of new entrants has not always been matched by quality. While educational entrepreneurship may hold much promise, there are serious challenges and barriers standing in the way of tapping its full potential. These challenges are multifaceted, ranging from a host of obstructive policies toward entrepreneurial activity, to the lack of a well-developed financial capital market for educational entrepreneurship. One crucial barrier is the apparent dearth of talented entrepreneurial individuals willing to enter K-12 education in the first place, or to stay involved past an initial foray, say, as a teacher. The key points of this discussion are organized into three sections. The first frames the issues. The second delves into the challenges that inhibit the entry of more entrepreneurial talent into the sector. The third probes potential strategies and tactics for fueling that pipeline--some currently underway, some easily implemented, and some worth considering for the future. (Contains 1 note.) [This report was published by the Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University.]

For the past twenty years policy initiatives at the state and federal levels have reflected the call for significant improvement in educational outcomes to support the human capital needs of the 21st century. An argument is presented on the basis of longitudinal data that the basic structure of the current system of education undermines national efforts to improve levels of academic achievement for underperforming students. A brief outline of an alternative structure for the education system is provided that might overcome the limitations of the current factory model.

The Business Roundtable prepared this paper to: (1) help policymakers and the public better understand the facts about the United States' role in the worldwide economy; (2) offer context and perspective on employment trends; and (3) recommend a package of policies that will stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, create jobs and help workers develop skills for the jobs of today--and the jobs of tomorrow. Included among the Business Roundtable's recommendations for federal and state leaders are the following steps for improving education and training: (1) Identify how all of the public programs that now provide worker education, training and adjustment assistance can increase their flexibility, accessibility and effectiveness; (2) Modify existing trade adjustment assistance programs to include workers in services; (3) Launch a national initiative to design a new worker education, training and adjustment system for the 21st century; (4) Stay the course on implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act to improve reading and math achievement of the students who are tomorrow's workforce; (5) Move dedicated support for improving math and science education to the top of the list of federal education funding priorities; and (6) Design education and immigration policies to address the impact of demographic and higher education enrollment trends on the scientific and engineering workforce. (Contains 54 endnotes.)

This paper discusses the policy dimensions to increase the nation's educational capital by providing at least two years of education beyond high school for almost every young and working-age adult who is motivated and able to benefit. It focuses on creating multiple pathways resulting from collaborative efforts across educational sectors or redesigned structures. Section 1 describes the economic and social imperatives for significantly increasing higher education access and attainment in the population. Section 2 addresses public policy challenges to achieving this goal. Section 3 identifies the elements of the public policy infrastructure needed for large-scale educational reform, with particular attention to accountability systems and finance and governance changes. It suggests these three characteristics to make state-level accountability more effective: provide a diagnosis, monitor progress, and use information for improvement. Examples are provided of successful governance and decision making initiatives and of allocation and reallocation of resources. The final section makes observations on the political challenges that must be addressed to extend access to postsecondary education to all. (Contains 16 references.) (YLB)

This report draws on research, statistics, and the voices of rural young people to document the extent and causes of rural child poverty, and related problems and reasons for hope in specific focus areas. About 2.5 million rural children are chronically poor. Rural poverty is concentrated in central Appalachia, the deep South, the U.S.-Mexican border, the Southwest, the central valley of California, and American Indian reservations in the Northern Plains. Child poverty is greater in rural America than in urban areas, and for different reasons. The education provided poor rural children is often inadequate and substandard; child and youth development opportunities are limited; rural children do not receive adequate health care; poor rural communities lack basic services; wages in rural areas do not lift families out of poverty; and rural jobs are less likely to offer benefits. Government funding has been directed more toward helping poor rural families survive, day-to-day, than toward creating strong community institutions that provide good physical and mental health care, education, and positive growth and development. Policy recommendations for alleviating rural poverty focus on building human capital in rural areas by providing incentives to retain educated and skilled youth and adults, training rural people, and recruiting people with the skills needed to serve children; building and supporting comprehensive community centers; strengthening the economic self-sufficiency of rural families; and finding new ways to target public and private investments specifically for poor rural children. Appendices contain references in end notes, data sources and definitions, and members of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Rural Child Poverty. (TD)

This article offers an explanation and economic rationale for the failure of vouchers to be generally accepted by the public, suggesting that public schools are in fact a local public good. The reason economists fail to notice this is they look exclusively to the educational activity of the schools. Education is actually a private good, being both rival in its consumption and excludable in its provision. Its only arguable "publicness" stems from the benefits that cannot be appropriated by the person educated. These spillovers are best internalized by state and national subsidies to private education. The publicness of public schools accrues largely to the parents of schoolchildren and to other adult community residents. Having children in a local school enables voters to get to know one another better, which in turn reduces the transaction costs of providing other local public goods. Community-specific social capital makes it easier for residents to round up others to oppose the "ugly" building proposed in their neighborhood or to lobby the city council to build a bypass to alleviate local traffic congestion. This benefit cannot usually be obtained from private education because private schools have a geographically dispersed clientele, living in different political jurisdictions. Vouchers would disperse students from their communities and thereby lower the community-specific capital of adult residents. (Contains 40 references.) (Author/SM)

Career and technical education (CTE) is the appropriate and preferred channel for leading a software-supported experiential mission shift to prepare, support, and evolve flexible, information-producing, high-performance knowledge workers for a continuous innovation society. Knowledge management attempts to capture human knowledge in the form of units or objects that can be networked to other people or to software/machines. Five learning approaches share this common purpose: human capital development and application. Heuristic scenarios of work forces using these learning approaches and their supporting technologies convey a profound shift away from learning and performance as ends in themselves, in favor of continuous innovation as a process of working, living, and learning. Deconstruction of repetitious tasks frees human and other resources for continuous innovation. Information-based skill-concentrated distributed competence (DC) software is at the same time a direct threat to all repetitive human functions at work, in learning, or in community and the most hopeful and compatible equalizer for the ignorant, unskilled, slow, blind-sided, and unimaginative. Performance-based learning can effectively create learning in the context of tasks supported by DC software. CTE, with its technical focus and performance innovation outcomes mandates, is ideally positioned to lead the rest of education into new leadership and prominence. (Contains 61 references.) (YLB)

Written by a 2000 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, this paper explores the assumptions and foundations of current policies toward skill formation. The paper examines the conventional wisdom articulated by political leaders and draws on a body of recent scholarship that challenges many of the premises that govern popular policy discussions. This scholarship suggests that taking a broader view of the way skills are produced in a modern economy is more appropriate and, ultimately, more beneficial. The paper asserts that by focusing on cognitive skills as measured by achievement or IQ tests, policies exclude the critical importance of social skills, self-discipline, and a variety of non-cognitive skills that are known to determine success in life. Furthermore, the paper maintains, this preoccupation with cognition and academic "smarts" as measured by test scores to the exclusion of social adaptability and motivation causes a serious bias in the evaluation of many human capital interventions. The paper also discusses recent research demonstrating the vital importance of the early preschool years for skill formation and the success and cost effectiveness of early intervention. (EV)

This innovative session provides a vehicle for facilitating dialogue and practical application of effective tools for linking human resource development (HRD) strategies with business/organizational strategies. The primary goal is to provide an increased understanding of and skill using practical, research-based approaches and techniques to build organizationally aligned training and HRD strategies resulting in increased return on investment (ROI). The paper is structured to first provide a theoretical framework. The session is designed in these six parts: introduction; strategy and culture development; competency development; selection, training, and communications; evaluation for ROI; and project management and knowledge transfer. The objectives and design of each section follows. It concludes with sections on the outputs of the session and contributions to HRD. (Contains 8 references.) (YLB)

This document provides information relevant to the commission's communication on "Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality." Section 2 presents a selection of illustrative examples of lifelong learning in practice throughout Europe, grouped under these same priority areas used in the communication itself: valuing learning; information, guidance, and counseling; investing time and money in learning; bringing together learners and learning opportunities; basic skills; and innovative pedagogy. The examples show how various actors implement lifelong learning and explain what the priorities for action mean in concrete terms. Section 3 addresses (in greater detail than in the communication) these two important tools for delivering lifelong learning: learning organizations and local learning centers. Section 4 provides further information on the development of indicators that can be used for monitoring the implementation of lifelong learning throughout Europe. Monitoring indicators to be developed for each priority area are proposed and discussed. Appendixes include 8 references and 18 endnotes. (YLB)

This document provides European social partners' responses to the Commission's memorandum on lifelong learning. Part 1, Opinion of the European Center of Enterprises, makes comments and proposals related to the memorandum's six key messages, which are new basic skills for all; more investment in human resources; innovation in teaching and learning; valuing learning; rethinking guidance and counseling; and bringing learning closer to home. Part 2, a resolution adopted by the European Trade Union Confederation, addresses lifelong learning for all and a challenge for Europe; structural conditions required; access; increased investment in human resources; time for training; recognition of results of formal, nonformal, and informal learning; work and training organization; new partnership concept; role of education and vocational training systems--skills for each person; innovation in teaching and training methods--role of teachers and trainers; bringing learning closer to home; and social partners' specific role. Part 3, position paper of the European Association of Craft, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises, discusses challenges enterprises face, including dependency on employee skills, shortage of skilled labor, and lifelong learning as a shared responsibility; stresses that education and training are member states' responsibility, the entire workforce must have the opportunity for continuous training, regional organizations have a role, use of new methods must be promoted, and the individual is responsible for his/her skill development; and comments on the key messages. Part 4, Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe's position paper, provides detailed comments on the key messages through responses to related questions. (YLB)

The next 10 years provide an opportunity for the European Union (EU) to renew the science and technology (S&T) base and build necessary knowledge-society capacities and capabilities in Pre-Accession Countries (PACs). Applied research has faced a major downsize; redressing the balance in the research and development systems is urgently needed. Stated research priorities in national policy frameworks in PACS indicates a mirroring of priorities found across EU member states. The central challenge concerns ways in which S&T demand and supply are balanced. Research suggests PACs have the potential to sustain high-level research systems. Upgrading and updating applied research capacity and connecting it to the industrial demand side are urgent priorities; developments reveal promising trends that could provide a starting point. Direct technology transfer is limited and impacts survival of companies dependent on the speed of change in their productivity and competitiveness. A brain drain has led PACs to devote attention to attracting youth into research careers. Aspects of the process of building human capital and learning capabilities are to meet present skills gaps in the labor market; guarantee medium-term capacity of the S&T training system to deliver technical specialists, researchers, and teachers; and ensure longer-term sustainability of society and economic growth by opening good-quality education to all citizens. (Appendixes include an 89-item bibliography, S&T priorities, and S&T framework and priorities in PACs.) (YLB)

The relationships existing among human capital theory, Australian public policy, literacy education, and the plight of Australia's long-term unemployed were examined. The following topics were considered: human capital theory-based public policies and literacy education; social capital and learning; building and using social capital; the "social justice" and "social coalition" approaches to policy; and the notion of "mutual obligation" in social welfare policies. Next, a case study of the effects of policy changes on the long-term unemployed was discussed. The findings of the study, which involved interviews with 23 people (including 15 long-term unemployed individuals who had been or were currently enrolled in adult literacy courses) were shown to support the following conclusions: (1) to be successful, welfare policy related to unemployed persons must address both human and social capital elements; (2) although the skills associated with human capital are important in accessing and controlling the kinds of social factors that come with globalization, they are not enough to prepare individuals to cope with the knowledge explosion accompanying globalization; and (3) adults requiring the "second chance" learning provided in adult literacy and communication education need help in developing the networks, social norms, and trust that is included in the concept of building social capital. (Contains 29 references.) (MN)

The rhetoric surrounding career education programs was examined by exploring two questions. The first question was which employment sectors anticipate significant job growth and what skill levels and academic competencies were required to work within those sectors. The second question was whether increasing the level of student knowledge and skill made a difference in addressing the problems identified as the motivation for various skill initiatives in career education programs. The analysis focused on labor patterns in British Columbia. The analysis established that little evidence exists to support the widespread assumption of a growing skills gap separating the academic abilities of students leaving secondary school and the actual competencies required for current and projected employment opportunities. Rather, the major job growth areas in Canada and other industrialized countries appeared to be in low-salaried, low-skill service occupations in the hospitality, food service, and retail sectors. The assumption of many policymakers that a highly skilled labor market protects national competitiveness and that investment in education and training helps form the human capital that is vital to ensuring economic growth and individual advancement and reducing inequality were also concluded to be flawed. Career education was called a reflection of neoliberal ideology. (Contains 29 references.) (MN)

This booklet is compiled from all the Adult Learning Australia (ALA) Commentaries produced in 2000. Emailed to ALA members each week, ALA Commentaries are written by people in the field of adult learning in the broadest sense, usually in Australia, sometimes overseas, and designed to stimulate discussion. ALA hosts an online discussion forum about them that anyone with an email address can join. The 34 Commentaries cover these topics: social capital, learning and teaching contexts, the system, technologies for learning, and learning towns and cities. Titles include "Telling Tales Out of Class" (Falzon); "Earning Interest on Social Capital" (McIntyre); "Learning Social Literacy" (Cox); "Human Capital and Social Capital" (Falk); "Lifelong Learning, Social Capital, and Capacity Building" (Seddon); "My Arms Ache" (Stalker); "Teachers on Screen" (Brown); "Confident Engagement in Other Cultures" (Schofield); "Eating, Drinking, and Adult Learning" (Tuckett); "Sunday on the Bridge" (Della); "Adult Educator in the Grains Industry" (Crombie); "Solidarity Forever" (Foley); "Community in Education; Education in Community" (Lawrence); "(Re)presentations" (Butler); "Heroes and Villains" (Burchill); "Transforming Students into Self-Directed, Independent Adult Learners" (Carbone); "Limits of Parliamentary Democracy" (Sutherland); "Finding Our Many Founders" (Pamphilon); "Is a Good Adult Education Worker a Christian?" (Childs); "When Will It All End? Restructuring Higher Education" (Wagner); "Coming to Grips with ANTA's Lifelong Learning Strategy" (Sanguinetti); "Librarians in the Information Revolution" (Murphy, Greenshields); "ACE Is Not Education" (Brown); "Public or Community Education?" (Flowers); "'It's Life Jim, But Not As We Know It'" (Lucardie); "Olympic Dream, Education Nightmare" (Kell); "Putting the Political Back into Community Education" (Law); "Being Critical" (Brown); "Business of Education" (Traynor); "Demolishing the Silos" (Heriot); "Hidden Assets in Community Radio" (Page); "Radio Through the Internet for ALW" (Ryan); "Challenge of Change" (Candy); and "Learning Communities" (Latham). (YLB)

The question of why some employers opt to lay off current workers and hire new workers with different skills while other employers retrain and retain their workers was examined. First, the literature on employer-provided training and the role of social capital in the workplace was reviewed. Next, data from a 1994 national employers survey of firms in the manufacturing sector with more than 100 employees (of the 4,633 eligible establishments contacted, 3,358 (73%) responded) were analyzed to test the following hypotheses: (1) retraining should be more common where employers use work systems that rely on social capital (strongly supported); (2) the incidence of retraining should be greater where fixed employment costs are greater (mixed support); (3) retraining should be greater where other employer-provided training is greater (rejected); and (4) employers who retrain at-risk employees do so as part of a general policy of progressive employment practices (not supported). The analysis established that retraining is driven by the goal of preserving the social capital among current employees that is generated by specific systems of work organization. The explanations that retraining is just an employee benefit driven by employer paternalism or is simply part of an overall strategy of investment in training were rejected. A variable correlation matrix is appended. (Contains 59 references.) (MN)

Current rural policies at both the federal and state levels do not meet the needs of rural people and communities; they are designed for the past, not the future. Agricultural subsidies absorb most federal resources directed to rural areas, with no evidence of benefits for rural communities. The continuing state-level pursuit of low-wage, low-skill manufacturing jobs is no longer viable. Without public action, rural decline will continue, often leading to the relocation of those with the most intellectual, financial, and social assets. Therefore, we must change both why and how we invest in rural America. Public policy in rural America must produce three societal benefits: survival of the rural middle class, reduction of concentrated rural poverty, and sustainability and improvement of the quality of the natural environment. To achieve these benefits, several outcomes should be pursued: increased human capital, conservation of the natural environment and local culture, increased regional competitive investments, and investments in infrastructure that supports expansion of new competitive advantages. A policy framework is proposed that addresses each of these outcomes for each of four types of rural areas: urban periphery, sparsely populated, high amenity, and high poverty. Human capital strategies focus on the replacement of the land-grant university with postsecondary institutions that better serve rural areas and on the potential of immigrants as risk-taking entrepreneurs. (Contains 27 references.) (TD)

This paper examines the extent to which rural America is digital--has access to the Internet and to newer technologies such as wireless broadband--and discusses rural supply and demand for "going digital." Supply aspects include issues of both infrastructure and public policy. Demand aspects include entrepreneurs (business users) and others with the education and skills to take advantage of digital technologies. Much of the benefit of digital technology involves intangibles, not only products and services of an intangible nature, but also social well-being enhanced by new modes of information and communication. Telecommunications technology is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for rural economic growth. A more fruitful approach to rural development is to build and enhance the capabilities of local firms and to attract a share of experienced entrepreneurs, many of whom are looking for the quality of life offered by rural areas. Attracting migrants should be complemented with education and training of people in existing businesses. Building networks to encourage interaction among entrepreneurs, and between entrepreneurs and other local leaders in education and government will increase information-sharing that might not take place otherwise and will enhance business success. Telecommunications is but one piece in the more complex puzzle of rural development. Because the issue is wrapped up in human capital, it is far more than a simple infrastructure supply issue. (Contains 78 references.) (TD)

In the face of changing agriculture, an aging population, and the outflow of citizens seeking livable wages, rural Southern communities are challenged with how to enhance their economies to insure long-term business viability. Home-based businesses are an effective aspect of rural economic development. They allow flexibility and choice of work style while enabling families to remain in their community, and communities benefit by obtaining supplies and services that would otherwise not be available and because home-based businesses generate and spend money locally. However, home-based businesses need community support to make a marked difference in their community's social and economic well-being. Communities can facilitate the development and growth of home-based businesses by providing education and exposure to knowledge and skills that will enhance entrepreneurial ideas; building strong collaborations between state and private agencies and organizations, colleges, vocational-technical schools, and microlenders that are interested in strengthening businesses; increasing home-based business visibility and community involvement; facilitating networking of home-based businesses to other businesses in the community; increasing home-based businesses' access to financing; and developing local entrepreneurial leadership. (Contains 29 references.) (TD)

This speech by Richard W. Riley asserts that education is becoming a more important component of modern society and is absolutely crucial for any society wishing to modernize. The wealth of any nation in the information age is dependent upon its human capital, which is valuable in direct proportion to its level of education and training. There are a number of factors that bear directly on the quality of education; one is technology. Technology can and is transforming education. It is a powerful tool to supplement teacher training and preparation. Teacher quality is also crucial, and there is a growing shortage of talented, well-qualified teachers around the world, especially in the fields of math and science. Decentralization is a growing trend in education around the world, as countries with strong traditions of centralized educational institutions look for ways to capture the dynamism and innovation that may accompany a loosening of central control. The demand for higher education is increasing most rapidly, and is direct function of the growing importance of technology and the importance of human capital; it is higher education that most effectively makes people "capital intensive." A function of growing globalization of the world's economy is an increasing level of international educational exchanges. Advancing education around the world is in the interest of all nations and all people. (KFT)

The changing nature of work and the role of educational processes and cultures of practice and research in helping put people back into the center of learning and preparing individuals for lifelong learning were examined in the context of Australia's technical and further education institutes, higher educational facilities, and private providers. The examination focused on the following issues: (1) critical/interpretivist and deterministic/technocratic frameworks; (2) political and economic discourses; (3) economic rationalism (instrumentalism); (4) neocorporatism and federal corporatism; (5) managerialism; (6) human capital theory; (7) functionalism and vocational education and training policy initiatives; and (8) merger of the cultures of practice and research and the delivery of higher education to mature lifelong learners. The notions of lifelong learning as a culture of learning practice and lifelong learning as a culture of learning via research were explored through case studies of a carpenter with a master's degree and a plumber with a Ph.D. The Melbourne University Faculty of Education's alignment with the shifting trajectories of university education, training, teaching and research were discussed. Special attention was paid to the faculty's new Master of Educational Management program, revised Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training, and movement toward an inclusive model of practice and research. (Contains 21 references.) (MN)

This booklet discusses some consequences of internationalization for national training systems from the standpoint of the following two broad approaches often taken by international organizations: (1) the human capital ideology, which assumes human capital is an appropriate basis for education policy; and (2) the human rights and human development ideology, which asserts that education is best conceived in humanistic terms rather than in terms of the instrumentalism espoused by human capital ideology. The booklet is divided into four parts. Part 1 considers the three main ways international organization impact on national education systems and explains why it is important for applied linguists, literacy experts, and human capital economists to engage in "professional conversation." Part 2 focuses on the following three topics: the concepts of internationalization and globalization; nations and the global economy as entities on a collision course; and the concept of the multicultural nation. Part 3 traces how the left and right wings of politics have traditionally regarded states' response to globalization and how most political entities have come to adopt a common ideology of market liberalization. Part 4 explores how human capital has become the theoretical framework that dominates thinking about education in many societies. (Contains 16 references.) (MN)

The role of vocational education and training (VET) in the context of the dynamic and changing demands of the world of work is explored through a more comprehensive approach to the overall system of human resources development (HRD). HRD is the concern of both educationists and economists. To an educationist, HRD should first be human and then professional. An economist would emphasize the need for as accurate a matching of supply and demand in educational and labor market planning as possible. Labor market planners are frequently faced with the dilemma of whether to sacrifice some individual aspirations and social ideals to ensure the adequacy of labor supply or to sacrifice the fulfillment of some economic needs the better to respond to individual claims and social pressures. Three main systems exist in practice in VET as a component of HRD frameworks and institutions: the school system, the enterprise (on-the-job) system, and the integrated (dual) system. One or more such systems might exist in a country. Three main criteria for evaluation of VET programs are linked with varying degrees to the criteria and changing demands of the world of work: internal, economic, and external evaluation. The role of the world of work, represented by the various types of enterprises in VET, is explored through four main functions: planning, financing, implementation, and identification of training needs. (YLB)

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. Based on this data, three alternative ideal-typical orientations to education and training are proposed to supplant the current utilitarian human capital model. Type A orientation holds that if there is some knowledge or skill that is required on the job, then either it will be picked up as the employee or potential employee goes along, or the employer should arrange for the employee to acquire it. Type B orientation, credentialism, holds that education and training credentials give one a better chance of the job one wants, but considers the actual content of the education and training to be unimportant. Type C orientation holds that one should educate oneself before one gets the job so that one will be able to do the job better. Employers usually hold to Types A and B orientations. Type B, which is closest to the human capital theory, has been the determinant of educational and economic policy in the United Kingdom (UK), but this orientation may not be helpful to economic success in the country. Those countries, such as Germany, which have been more successful, have more Type C oriented-workers who prize education for its own sake and for making them better workers. Thus, the UK's policy of producing more Type B-oriented workers may not improve the country's economic position, despite enormous amounts of money spent on training. (Contains 72 references.) (KC)

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. Discussion begins with an examination of the way in which the official discourse of the learning society is dominated by a particular social theory of lifelong learning, called human capital theory. It demonstrates that human capital theory involves an unwarranted abstraction of economic behavior from social relations more widely, maintaining that participation in lifetime learning cannot be understood in terms of the narrow calculation of utility maximization. This critique provides the basis for the development of the lineaments of a theoretical account in which learning behavior is conceived as the product of individual calculation and active choice, but within parameters set by both access to learning opportunities and collective norms--parameters that vary systematically over space and time so that place and history must accordingly play a central role in any adequate theorization. The paper concludes that this kind of theoretical approach has important implications for empirical research and strategies aimed at creating a learning society. (Contains 49 references and 16 notes.) (YLB)