Search Results

This chapter discusses the changing and emerging characteristics of work, work practice and work requirements, and their consequences for vocational education. Changing patterns in work and working life are proposed as comprising: (1) the kind of work available; (ii) how individuals participate in work; (iii) what constitutes competence within that work; and (iv) those participating in work. The consequences for vocational education are systemic in terms of the kinds of occupations that need to be developed, variations in and complexity of work requirements, shifts in employer/employee relations, and the demographic shifts in those who will need to be supported by vocational education. The chapter examines these patterns of change to work and working life, and discusses policy and curriculum practice associated with each. Overall, it argues that the changes to work make it more demanding, and the frequency of change in work and how work is carried out demands careful, comprehensive and targeted preparation and on-going development. Moreover, with broader participation in the work force and longer working lives, the arrangement for this preparation and on-going development will need to be targeted, differentiated and sustained.

Published introduction.

The book from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 100.51. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 100.52 to TD/TNC 100.244. Show less

This book provides a comprehensive, international analysis of trends and developments in the teacher workforce in 25 countries around the world; research on attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers; innovative and successful policies and practices that countries have implemented; and teacher policy options for countries to consider. While documenting many areas of concern about teachers and teaching, the report also provides positive examples of where policies are making a difference. It spotlights countries where teachers’ social standing is high, and where there are more qualified applicants than vacant posts. Even in countries where shortages have been a concern, there are recent signs of increased interest in teaching, and policy initiatives appear to be taking effect. At a time when many countries are facing an ageing teaching workforce and having trouble attracting new recruits, this book provides insights into how governments can successfully deal with these issues.

Published abstract.

The chapters are: Introduction: the focus on teachers; Why is teacher policy important?; Making teaching an attractive career choice; Developing teachers’ knowledge and skills; Recruiting, selecting and employing teachers; Retaining effective teachers in schools; Developing and implementing teacher policy; Appendix one: how the activity was conducted; Appendix two: a framework for informing teacher policy. Show less

More and more adults are earning a tertiary qualification, but not all tertiary degrees have the same value on the labour market. In general, postgraduate degrees such as master's and doctoral degrees are associated with higher employment rates and earnings than bachelor's degrees. Labour market outcomes also vary by field of education. Some fields of education differ markedly in their gender composition, reflecting the sex-typing of occupations and gender stereotypes. Graduates' field of education is closely related with their occupational choices; therefore a better understanding of gender disparities in this area can help to identify some of the mechanisms that lie behind gender differences in the labour market and beyond.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The United States [US] has the largest professional nurse workforce in the world numbering close to three million but does not produce enough nurses to meet its growing demand. A shortage of close to a million professional nurses is projected to evolve by 2020. An emerging physician shortage will further exacerbate the nurse shortage as the boundaries in scope of practice necessarily overlap. Nurse immigration has been growing since 1990 and the US is now the world’s major importer of nurses. While nurse immigration is expected to continue to grow, the shortage is too large to be solved by recruitment of nurses educated abroad without dramatically depleting the world’s nurse resources. Moreover, the domestic applicant pool for nursing education is very strong with tens of thousands of qualified applicants turned away annually because of faculty shortages and capacity limitations. The national shortage could be largely addressed by investments in expanding nursing school capacity to increase graduations by 25 per cent annually and the domestic applicant pool appears sufficient to support such an increase. A shortage of faculty and limited capacity for expansion of baccalaureate and graduate nurse education require public policy interventions. Specifically public subsidies to increase production of baccalaureate nurses are required to enlarge the size of the pool from which nurse faculty, advanced practice nurses in clinical care roles, and managers are all recruited. Retention of nurses in the workforce is critical and will require substantial improvements in human resource policies, the development of satisfying professional work environments, and technological innovations to ease the physical burdens of caregiving. Because of the reliance of the US on nurses educated abroad as well as the benefits to the US of improving global health, the nation should invest in nursing education as part of its global agenda.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This report looks at a range of local employment and economic development issues in Saskatchewan and the Yukon, Canada, with a focus on Indigenous peoples. The report provides a comparative framework to understand the role of the local level in contributing to more and better quality jobs, and practical recommendations to help federal, provincial/territorial, and local policy makers in Canada build effective and sustainable partnerships that join-up efforts across employment, training, and economic development policies. Co-ordinated policies can help workers find suitable jobs, while also stimulating entrepreneurship and productivity, which increases the quality of life and prosperity within a community as well as throughout the country.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

The contents are as follows: Executive summary; Reader's guide; Policy context for employment and skills in Canada; Federal employment policies and programmes; Saskatchewan's employment and skills system; Yukon's employment and skills system; Overview of the case study areas in Saskatchewan and Yukon; Key findings from the OECD Local Job Creation Dashboard; Towards an action plan for jobs: recommendations for better supporting local employment and economic development. Show less

This report was presented to the Working Party on the Information Economy (WPIE) in December 2004. It provides an overview of information and communications technology (ICT) skills and employment across OECD economies and analyses some of the impacts on economic performance. It describes a new approach to identifying the diffusion of ICTs in the economy. Two measures of ICT-skilled employment are developed. The first is a narrow measure that uses occupational data to identify ICT specialists (e.g. programmers, software developers but also cable layers). The second is a broad measure that includes those who intensively use ICTs to perform their work (both basic and advanced intensive users), as well as the specialists. These measures are calculated for the economy as a whole and also by sector. The report provides a brief review of earlier attempts to identify the presence of ICTs in the economy and describes a new measurement approach developed for the 2004 ‘OECD information technology outlook’, which attempts to capture the diffusion of ICTs throughout the economy based on the degree of their actual use. The industry rankings based on the share of ICT-skilled employment in total employment are then compared to the results of other studies that classify industrial sectors on the basis of ICT usage. Some preliminary results from the analysis relating the ICT skills measures to productivity measures are presented. The report has expanded the analysis of ICT-skilled employment from the 2004 ‘OECD information technology outlook’ and extended it to include Canada. The analysis revealed that the narrow measure of ICT specialists followed a similar pattern across countries (European Union (EU)15, US, Canada and Australia), but that the trends for broad measure of ICT-intensive users and specialists diverged. The share of broad ICTskilled employment is increasing in the EU15, but decreasing in the US, Canada and Australia. The broad ICT-skilled employment measure was also analysed at the sectoral level. Findings reveal that many business services sectors have a very large share of ICT-skilled employment (e.g. computer and related services, financial intermediation services, and research and development), as well as certain manufacturing sectors (such as manufacturing of office machinery and computers). Personal services tended to have a relatively low share. Most sectors were found to have increased their share of ICT-skilled employment somewhat, particularly those that already had a relatively large share. Show less

In 1965, only 43 per cent of young adults aged 25-34 had attained upper secondary education or higher on average across OECD countries. As a result of the rapid expansion in education over the last five decades, the large majority of adults in OECD countries have now attained at least upper secondary education. This educational expansion started in different periods and countries have followed different trajectories: some have chosen to expand secondary education first and then tertiary education, while others have chosen to expand all levels simultaneously. In other countries educational expansion has slowed or remained stable in recent decades. Tertiary education has also experienced considerable expansion with many countries now witnessing the majority of their young adults reaching this level of qualification. Countries have seen a major increase in the educational attainment level of their populations.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

This report examines the performance of public employment services and the effectiveness of activation strategies in Switzerland. It covers the role of the key actors in labour market policy, the placement function of the Public Employment Service (PES), the structure of out-of-work benefits and the related incentives and disincentives for taking up work, and discusses the main features of active labour market programs (ALMPs). ALMPs fund considerable supported employment, rehabilitation and training programs. In a given year, over a quarter of all registered jobseekers participate in at least one active program. Show less

Across the OECD, the labour-market performance of foreign-born-adults tends to lag behind that of the native-born. Immigrants are not only more likely to be unemployed or inactive, but they also earn less and work in lower-skilled jobs. Foreign-born adults feel their skills are underutilised in some countries. This has considerable consequences for the successful socio-economic integration of immigrants. Differences in skills proficiency, language spoken and country of education explain a large part - albeit not the entirety - of these observed gaps. Policies should therefore aim to provide immigrants with effective language tuition, adult education and training programmes in order to ensure the successful integration of foreign-born workers into host economies.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

Summary of the results of the OECD's 'Definition and Selection of Competencies' (DeSeCo) project which provides a framework that can guide the longer-term extension of [Programme for International Student Assessment] PISA assessments into new competency domains.

Excerpt from OECD website. Show less