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Education reform has shifted to focus on these key competencies, particularly as they pertain to life and career skills. The move towards making people both college and career ready essentially amounts to finding ways to learn basic knowledge, and transforming these capabilities into deeper learning in order to create a flexible and adaptable individual with the appropriate skills to survive in the twenty-first century. We are only at the very beginning of the dialogue and experimentation on exactly how we should teach these skills. What we do know, however, is that the learning curve is gentlest when these skills are introduced to students within a practical framework and appropriate context.

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Background: We groaned, too, when we learned about the Common Core and considered how it could affect thoughtful, appropriate and evidence-based transition services if not carefully implemented. Objective: Without watering down either, we have developed a model demonstration project that meets the needs of late adolescents/young adults with autism, autistic-like presentations, mental health/behavioral challenges, and other developmental disabilities by successfully preventing them from falling off 'The Cliff' between IDEA-mandated and eligibility-based, underfunded adult services when they exit out of IEP-land. How? By helping them to achieve employment prior to exiting IDEA-funded services. Conclusion: This paper discusses the challenges presented by the Common Core and describes what the components of our model are in response to these standards.

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This research describes the exploration, expansion, and enhancement of fashion merchandising internships from 1998-2010 in a small fashion merchandising program of 100 students in a mid-sized southern state university. This study examines the relationship of the college internship and the graduate's current job. Academic departments continuously review curriculum and consider the inclusion, continuation, enhancement, or deletion of a college internship in their programs. Often questions arise, such as: Should the fashion merchandising program curriculum require an internship for credit? What is the value of the internship? Is an internship experience measurable? Internship records were kept for 13 years at a United States public university. Number, internship placement sites, and current employment of college graduates [were] analyzed. The purposes of this study were to examine the components of fashion merchandising internships and assess the impact of factors such as university regulations and small town internship employers on students' careers after graduation.

This research study revealed that internships at non-local fashion businesses were positively related to successful current fashion employment. Continuation of an internship program is determined by internship placement sites, graduates' current jobs and locations, local and non-local fashion businesses, and faculty recommendations.

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As we progress into the 21st century, we find ourselves at a transition point in the field of education. Preparing students for future careers and economic prosperity requires a dramatic change in the traditional American high school education system. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to identify if the participants' high school experiences provided the skills necessary for college and career preparation after graduation, ensuring their economic prosperity as adults. Three research questions were addressed in this study: (1) If students graduate from high school unprepared for college and career after graduation, what is the economic impact on the community? (2) Does the completion of career-related programs such as career pathways, career technical education (CTE), or science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) prepare students for college and career? (3) Does A-G course completion, participation in honors programs, early college, or dual credit courses completed in high school prepare students for college and career? This population was identified because they would have time after graduation from high school to provide answers if their high school education program affected their college and career success or lack thereof.

The findings demonstrated that the participants' high school college and career preparation could influence students' future economic success as adults. Also, the findings suggest that the specific types of experiences the participants had while in high school that led to their economic success varied and depended on the type of educational programs, opportunities, experiences, support, and motivation they had in high school.

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This report is the second in a series designed to take the vast amount of background and assessment information that has been collected from the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) and the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and produce a set of papers that deal with topics of interest and importance to a range of constituencies. The first report, 'The twin challenges of mediocrity and inequality: literacy in the US from an international perspective' [indexed at TD/TNC 86.290], focused on the literacy performance of US adults in comparison to adults in other high-income countries. This second report helps us to understand these performance patterns in greater depth by focusing on the literacy proficiencies of the nation's immigrant population. The authors characterize the literacy proficiencies of our nation's foreign born and compare their performance not only with adults born in the US but with their foreign-born counterparts in other high-income countries around the world. This information comes at an important time in our nation's history. New immigration reached historically high levels during the decade of the 1990s, with between 13 and 14 million new immigrants arriving on our shores. These individuals accounted for more than 40 per cent of our nation's population growth over this most recent decade. High levels of immigration are projected for the current decade as well.

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Conventional wisdom holds that recent college graduates have a harder time finding jobs today than in the past. But a new approach to assessing job suitability suggests otherwise. To bridge the chasm between competing viewpoints on college's utility, this study uses statistical and earnings tests to measure how many college graduates were overqualified for their positions. The approach can be applied in different years to identify whether an occupation is a good fit for a college-educated worker based on each year's conditions. By using this technique, the author finds a higher percentage of college-educated workers in good-fit jobs than other approaches do.

All occupations can be divided into good-fit bachelor of arts (BA) jobs and overqualified BA jobs. In 1980, 39 per cent of employment was good-fit, but this figure rose to 45 per cent in 2014. Several external factors affected the rising level of education-based earnings inequality during this time. The share was 24 per cent in 1980, when many new college-educated baby boomers entered the labor force. After declining to 21 per cent at the end of the Clinton boom in 2000, it rose during the economic troubles sparked by the 2008 financial crisis and reached 25 per cent in 2015.

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Debate continues to feature prominently in many countries on such notions as skills, skill shortages and employability. Clearly such notions remain significant internationally in the rhetoric of both economic reform and training policy and practice. However, the problem remains of differing perceptions. The purpose of this comparative study was to examine the expectations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when they recruit young people. Focusing on Germany, Australia and the United States, interviews were held with 30 managers in two diverse job roles - hospitality front-desk staff and automotive technicians. In addition to differences in the range of desired skills between the job roles in these countries, difficulties in recruiting young people were highlighted by the study. Generational differences and academization were perceived as having effects on the hiring of young workers. Various problems with each country's general education system were also emphasized, as managers perceived many young people being inadequately prepared for work. The study also demonstrates the influence of the skill formation system of the countries is less relevant in comparison to the sector in which the SMEs are active.

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This document demonstrates how assessment systems from two of America's major testing organisations can be used together to form a comprehensive assessment system for skills required for employees to be productive in the workplace. The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems' (CASAS) Workforce Learning Systems provide assessments of the basic skills needed in the workplace. The American College Testing Program's (ACT) Work Keys system provides assessments of more advanced skills required for productivity in the workplace. This report gives an overview of each system and then outlines the 'Extending the Ladder' research project designed to study the relationship between the two systems and to establish a system linkage in support of better skill development. The major objective of the project was to provide educators, trainers, employers and employees with a common assessment system for basic and advanced workplace skills and the standards to measure them. The report outlines the methodology, which included a content/cognitive review and an empirical study, the results, recommendations and a brief outline of potential practical applications for the information on linking the two systems. Show less

Purpose: In response to recent calls for research relating to employers' perceptions of the workplace readiness of new graduates in a variety of fields, the purpose of this paper is to report North Florida employers' perceptions of information technology (IT) program graduates' workplace readiness. These findings are relevant to stakeholders in growing technology regions. Design/methodology/approach: Researchers conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with IT employers in North Florida. Data were deductively coded with codes derived from national standards. Interviewee verbatim was also inductively coded by theme. Findings: While employers valued a blend of technical and general skills and hands-on experience, they also sought new professionals who possessed fundamental understandings of business and computer programming to tailor their problem-solving skills to the specific company environment.

Research limitations/implications: This research represents a limited number of employer viewpoints in one representative community. Practical implications: Ongoing industry input into curricula and expanded experiential opportunities may ensure that graduates are prepared to address current and future IT developments. Because the region under study was typical of many regions with growing technology sectors, these findings may inform partnerships, curriculum, and program design. Originality/value: Given the rapid growth and constant advances of the IT sector, institutions with IT degree programs are challenged to ensure that their curricula are current and meeting the needs of employers. This study's findings may offer timely insight into elements of workforce preparedness.

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There is a strong consensus that students ought to leave high school ready for both college and careers. If a student cannot successfully complete a community college two-year certificate or degree program leading directly to a job, that student will have a very hard time supporting a family above the poverty line. So it is reasonable to say that if a student leaves high school unable to succeed in the initial credit bearing courses in their local community college, that student is ready neither for work nor college. This research study addressed a simple question: what kind and level of literacy in mathematics and English is required of a high school graduate if that student is going to have a good chance of succeeding in the first year of a typical community college program?

On 7 May 2013 during a day-long meeting, key education and policy leaders joined the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) to discuss the results of the study and its implications for community college reform, school reform, teacher education, the common core state standards, and vocational education and the workplace.

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