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In February 1992, the Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) commissioned the Australian Language and Literacy Council (ALLC) to review the current and future role of the community based education sector in the provision of adult English language and literacy. The term ‘English language and literacy’ incorporates the two similar yet different specific areas traditionally known as ‘adult literacy’ and ‘adult English as a second language’. The term ‘community providers’ denotes relatively small, independent, non-profit organisations that are managed by representatives of a specific community rather than those ‘institutional providers’ of adult and community education, such as TAFE, that are part of a governmental or other large-scale institution. Their contribution is particularly valuabe in areas of special need, such as people from a non-English speaking background, people with a disability, Indigenous people, women, older people, youth under the age of 25, geographically and/or socially isolated people, and unemployed and/or disadvantaged job seekers. The sections of the report are: introduction; considering the compass of the commmunity-based education sector; accessibility; quality of provision; issues of implementation, structures and funding; conclusion. Appendices contain: Working Party members, written submissions, commissioned reports, seminar participants, and references. Show less

The apprenticeship system in Germany is based on cooperation between government, employers, and organised labour (unions) and between the organisations that conduct the training, enterprises and vocational schools. It is a relevant, effective, and efficient system that gives young adults instruction and experience, on- and off-the-job, in the practical and theoretical aspects of a skilled occupation. Under Germany's apprenticeship system (also known as the dual system), young adults are simultaneously apprentices in an enterprise and students at a vocational school. The basis for apprenticeship training is described, with details about the Vocational Training Act, enterprise training, the apprenticeship contract, workplace responsibilities, training regulations, the role of the chambers (autonomous not-for-profit organisations) and guilds and the sources of funding to finance the dual system. The volume from which this chapter is taken may be found at TD/TNC 64.411, and the individual chapters may be found from TD/TNC 64.412 to TD/TNC 64.427. Show less

The economic dimension of copyright-based industries sector in Romania is becoming of higher interest, on the one hand, for policy-makers taking into consideration its increasing contribution to [gross domestic product] GDP, employment, foreign trade and investment and, on the other hand, as a multidimensional vector for social inclusion, increasing self-confidence, supporting better education in a globalised and multicultural world. The opening of the Romanian economy and society has contributed to higher employment in the creative activities. The new jobs - 'high-knowledge jobs' in creative activities or in 'non-creative industries' - have several features that could support higher performance. We underline the size and features of employment in the copyright-based industry sector and in core activities in Romania and some performance of labour force. On one hand, press freedom, the increase in the role of civil society, the elimination of censorship represented positive influence factors for new jobs creation in the cultural industries. In this way, the copyright-based industries have become a factor of tension reduction and increased flexibility on the labour market. On the other hand, there are big differences regarding the value of the operational profit per employee and its evolution in time among the core component industries. The analysis of the core copyright industries with respect to the size and evolution of the operational profit per employee, both in the overall sector and the component industries, led us to an interesting and useful classification of the core industries which could be helpful for better decision-making and copyright industries policies.

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This digest, published each month except July and August, provides summaries of recent information pertaining to vocational education and training issues in the United Kingdom and Europe. The feature articles are: Terminology prevents clear thinking / John Twining; and National Skills Agenda. Respectively, these articles deal with an analysis of the three terms: lifelong learning, information and communication technologies (ICT) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and a report on the recommendations and evidence of the National Skills Task Force. Show less

Information technology (IT) is so much the fabric of the university that its presence is often not fully recognized. The focus in the IT organization has shifted from a tactical to a strategic perspective. With the demand for IT only growing, understanding how IT leaders can best lead in these efforts is essential. In early 2014, EDUCAUSE and Jisc came together to address a common concern: understanding the skills required by technology leaders in higher education was an issue often overlooked and one needing immediate attention. The two organizations convened a working group of 10 leading US and UK IT leaders to define a set of desired technology leadership characteristics and capabilities, now and in the future. This report identifies 10 key roles played by the IT leaders, describes what each of these roles entails, and outlines the essential skills required to perform them.

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This report examines recruiting difficulty and skills shortages in the U.S. as well as recruiting and training strategies organizations use to address these challenges. Data are reported by organization size and industry, and each section of the report includes an expert view or a case study. Key findings include: 68 per cent of human resources (HR) professionals across industries report challenging recruiting conditions in the current talent market; one-half of organizations cite factors such as a low number of applicants (51 per cent), lack of the needed work experience among candidates (50 per cent) and competition from other employers (49 per cent) as reasons for difficulty finding candidates for their open positions; 84 per cent of HR professionals report seeing applied skills shortages in job applicants over the last 12 months; and 70 per cent of organizations leverage social media as a recruiting strategy.

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As a result of their learning techniques, organizations tend to generate dominant behavior of either exploitation or exploration making a balanced attention to them hard to achieve. But how can the process through which this undesirable phenomenon develops be made more complicated? Largely this problem remains a neglected one in organizational learning theory. It is important to better understand how organizations can take measures to reduce the pathological effects that learning breeds. In this article I explore the idea of ‘complicating the organization’ in order to constrain organizations from becoming swiftly locked in learning behavior of excessive exploitation or exploration. I suggest that contemporary organizations should complicate their learning through various interorganizational collaborations. In interorganizational learning activities, organizations have the potential to learn slowly because of being poorly focused in their attention to their experiences. Hence, they may remain open to reflect upon their current operations. They will be learning, but not in a too simpleminded and myopic way by reducing the speed through which competency traps of exploitation and exploration develop.

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In this report, the author begins from the premise that the informal employment sector should be recognised by government policies on economic and social development, education and training. As well, it is suggested that this sector has not received sufficient attention from researchers in the fields of employment, education and training. The study reported here, based on case studies of Southern Indian non-government organisations (NGOs) seeks to understand the ways in which skills are developed in the informal sector and how workers are trained, if at all. Skill transfer cases which combine social and technical learning processes are mapped with a view to drawing lessons for formulating policy and programs. A central argument of the study is that the concepts of skill development, capacity enhancing and training may need to be reformulated for the informal sector. Show less

Non-profit organisations are generally staffed by a combination of employees and volunteers. Staff often use the resources provided within the organisation and these resources can enable them to maintain their skill set or to upgrade other skills. This Canadian study investigated non-formal and informal learning in non-profit organisations to identify the predominant type of learning process occurring and the available resources associated with the organisation that promote such predominance. Non-formal learning is defined as ‘learning that is not provided by an education or training institution and typically does not lead to certification’. Non-formal learning is structured and intentional on the learner’s part. Informal learning is defined as ‘the learning resulting from daily life activities related to work, family or leisure’. It is not structured, does not usually lead to certification and is mostly non-intentional or incidental from the learner’s perspective. Participating organisations were asked to describe the learning opportunities available within their organisation. An open-ended survey was conducted with a representative sample of non-profit and co-operative organisations in the Canadian province of Ontario. The occurrences of informal and non-formal learning varied across the organisations. Non-formal learning was apparently more predominant within the sample (78.77%). However, informal learning opportunities were also available within the organisations in the sample (66.51%). Generally, there was a greater variety of informal learning resources than those of non-formal learning. Having a charitable status and organisation size were also positively related to the value given to informal learning. Although non-formal learning was apparently more predominant than informal learning, the authors suggest that, because there are a greater number of informal learning opportunities available within the organisations, it is premature to state unequivocally that informal learning does not have an important place. Show less

This paper explores the implementation of a human resource information system at an Australian university in 2007 as an opportunity for the systematic management of organisational knowledge. Systematic management of personal formal and informal learning is needed if lifelong learning futures for individuals and institutions are to be maximised.

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