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This is the final report of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) into strategies for retaining late-stage apprentices and identifying pathways from apprenticeship to career. The report gives an employer perspective on contemporary workforce development plans and strategies. The work was carried out between October 2010 and July 2011. A major finding of the report is that most employers believe workforce and career development plans and strategies are important for retaining completing apprentices and new tradespeople. While this report highlights the finding that many employers do not have formal or documented workforce development plans, it also shows that employers generally support such plans and more systematic approaches. The report underlines the good practices of those employers who use workforce development plans and strategies to assist completing apprentices to develop their careers as tradespeople.

The National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) system was introduced in Sri Lanka in 2004. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether competency based training (CBT) can be extended to the handicraft sector under the NVQ system. The study recommends using the conventional CBT methodology for the provision of training in the handicraft sector.

Internationally there is much political consensus on the key role higher education has in developing the knowledge society. One can argue that a key condition for establishing a knowledge society is the need to coordinate policies across different areas, at least linking higher education with research, innovation and labour market policies. In all these policy areas, 'quality' has been emphasised as an important dimension, and this article undertakes an empirical check as to how coordination regarding 'quality' is taking place in [European Union] EU policy formation. A key finding of the article is that much variety can be found as to how, and to what extent various policy areas are linked with respect to 'quality,' and that considerable political ambiguity exist as to how different policy areas should and can be combined. Implications of the findings are discussed, not least in relation to assumptions concerning increasing horizontalisation of policymaking in the EU.

This study investigates the influence of perceived learning culture, developmental feedback and team cohesion on team creativity. The results showed that the demographic variables, the three antecedents and their interactions explained 41 per cent of variance in team creativity. Team creativity was positively correlated with a higher level of learning culture, developmental feedback and team cohesion. In addition to the main effects, two interaction effects (developmental feedback and team cohesion; learning culture and team cohesion) were significant. In view of these results, organizations seeking to increase team creativity need an integrated strategy incorporating elements of culture management, effective coaching and team development. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

As there was a huge demand for technically skilled people in both local and international labour markets, the number of technical colleges increased to 38 which are spread island wide. The Department of Technical Education and Training has become the major provider of technical education to the students who are unable to achieve a stable position after schooling. Around 48 courses are conducted in commerce, engineering, and trade streams with the hope of making talented and qualified technicians for the global industry. National Certificate of Engineering Craft Practice (NCECP) courses were introduced in 1987. As an impact of the modernization of the apprentice draftsmanship course which had been conducted in the early 1960s, NCECP courses started to be conducted since the year 2000. At the beginning, the courses were conducted in 28 technical colleges out of 38. It was intended to fulfill the requirements of the industry and business with the introduction of this new course. At the completion of one year or two year full time courses, graduates will be issued the certificate. Even though the demand for these courses is still high it is doubtful whether the competences they obtained from technical colleges would cooperate with current industry needs. Through this study the attempt is to find out the employability of graduates who have followed NCECP courses of electronics, industrial electrician, fitter machinist and gas and arc welder in technical colleges in 2005. The study was confined mainly to find out whether the graduates are employed, the relevancy of the course they followed to find the jobs that they do and the satisfaction of their wages. Moreover, it is expected to forward the findings to the policy makers and the curriculum developers.