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The issue of skills development in the informal sector needs to be tackled at two levels. It is firstly necessary to find activities or jobs for the many uneducated, undereducated and even qualified young people who find it extremely hard to enter the world of work. It will then be necessary to develop technical and vocational skills for this group of young people, as well as for the economic and professional stakeholders in this sector, that can help them further develop their own activity and, more generally, progress from the subsistence economy to one of wealth and added value.

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A survey collected data on the factors influencing the engagement of 143 information technology (IT) professionals in informal learning activities. Analysis of the data found that this group of professionals relies mostly on searching the Internet to learn informally in the workplace. When they are unable to address their learning need via this activity, IT professionals turn to more interactive activities, such as talking and sharing resources with others. Six environmental factors were found to inhibit IT professionals from engaging in informal learning activities: lack of time, lack of proximity to colleagues' work areas, unsupportive organizational culture, inaccessibility of others, lack of equipment and technology, and lack of meeting/work space. In addition, nine personal characteristics were found to enhance the motivation of this group of professionals to engage in informal learning: (a) initiative; (b) self-efficacy; (c) love of learning; (d) interest in the profession; (e) integrity; (f) outgoing personality; (g) teamwork ethic; (h) curiosity; and (i) open-mindedness. These findings have implications for theory, research, and the facilitation of informal workplace learning (IWL) among IT professionals.

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Higher education (HE) is one of the routes that refugees who come to the UK from professional and highly educated backgrounds can re-establish their lives and professional identities. This research follows up a group of such refugees who were on a programme designed to support refugees gain access to HE or appropriate employment. The findings highlight the challenges facing the group over the three-year period since the course finished, and the long and often complicated journey into HE. The paper uses Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus to theorise the experiences of the refugees. It is suggested that an understanding of HE and the UK employment market as cultural fields enables a shift of focus away from refugees as ‘deficient’ and instead encourages reflection upon what these fields fail to give value to or recognise.

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This book provides an analytical review of Israel's educational system. An outline of the history, geography, demography, economy and government introduces the context within which the country's educational system functions. The chapters are: History, geography, demography, economy, and government; Preprimary and primary education; Postprimary education; Vocationalism; Higher education; Informal education; Arab education: development versus control / Majid Al-Haj; Educational reforms and changes; Multicultural education; Major trends and future developments. Show less

Web 2.0 and social networking are strongly increasing the potential of informal learning across all levels of education and training. However, the formal education system has not been able to find suitable strategies to incorporate informal learning and the advantages of Web 2.0 solutions and social networking. This article focuses on the key messages and recommendations provided by the Learnovation initiative to enhance the role of informal learning and the meaningful use of networking technologies for the support of adult education in a lifelong learning perspective.

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You may be enjoying learning, but how do you convince others that learning can be both useful and fun? How can the UK attract more people into education and training? What can we learn from the experience of other countries? An international research seminar held in the UK in June 2001, ‘Attracting new learners’, brought together researchers and policy-makers to address these questions. This publication presents the key messages. Introductory chapters look at what triggers participation in post-16 learning in the UK, and compare the UK’s performance with that of other countries. Three important sources of new demand, or ‘triggers’ for learning are then considered: society and community, learning programs and qualifications, and the workplace. Seven case studies follow, based on research and practice in several countries. They are: The role of learning in the economic development of Latin American women / Celita Eccher; Overcoming employees’ reluctance to take part in vocational education and training / Wolfgang Hendrich; Collaboration in Australian vocational education and training / Sue Kilpatrick; The campaign for learning in the UK / Bill Lucas; Informal learning in the UK / Veronica McGivney; German cultural institutions as gateways to learning / Achim Puhl; The experience of a UK trade union in reaching non-traditional learners / Tony Chandler. The publication ends by proposing strategies to promote increased demand in the UK and directions for new research. Includes appendices and bibliography and reference list.

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The purpose of this paper is to measure the commitment of 15 African countries to developing the required skills for economic transformation. These 15 countries were chosen by the African Center for Economic Transformation [ACET] as focus countries (ACET-15) where both thematic studies and countrywide transformation are being conducted. The choice of the countries is based upon a balance in geographical spread, data availability, and the importance of [gross domestic product] GDP and population as a share of Sub-Saharan Africa GDP and population. The questions at the core of this study are: How can we measure progress and commitment for countries that are in the early stages of reforming their education system to provide competitive skills? How can we measure the extent to which a country is developing and using skills as a driver of economic transformation? To answer these questions, the author proposes a three-pronged approach that assesses (1) the education system, (2) its linkages to the economy, and (3) the nature of training available outside the education system. Further questions probed are: How many students enroll in the education system? How many graduate? What subjects are they studying, in particular, how many are studying scientific and technical fields? Do graduates leave with the requisite knowledge? The paper ends with concluding remarks and recommendation for further research.

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It is generally acknowledged that initial education can never provide all the skills needed on the job as some skills can only be learned in the context of a specific job in a specific firm. There is little information on the actual gap between skills required and acquired in the first job and how this skill gap is remedied. The study reported in this paper focuses on two questions: (1) How large is the skill gap in the first job for different field of studies? (2) What strategies are used to reduce this skill gap? The skill gap is measured by asking graduates what percentage of tasks they could adequately perform at the start of their job. It is to be expected that this skill gap will depend on both educational and job characteristics. The paper attempts to explain the skill gap by educational and job characteristics, while controlling for individual characteristics like gender and age. Graduates were asked what percentages of their newly learned skills were acquired by formal and informal training versus learning-by-doing, and to analyse how these strategies are related to the skill gap. The study found some evidence that more able graduates are selected into more demanding jobs and therefore face a bigger skill gap at the start of the job. The most important form of skill acquisition is learning-by-doing. However, the importance of learning-by-doing for the skill acquisition decreases with the size of the skill gap.

Selected papers from this workshop are indexed from TD/TNC 88.267 to TD/TNC 88.273. Show less

Informal jobs offer skill acquisition opportunities that may facilitate a future switch to formal employment for young workers. In this sense, informal training on the job may be a viable alternative to formal schooling in an economy with a large and diverse informal sector. In this paper, [the author investigates] if these considerations are relevant for the schooling decisions of young individuals using panel data on 17 Latin American countries as well as micro-level data for Turkey. Specifically, [the author asks] if the prevalence of informal jobs distort schooling attainment. [The author concentrates] on three measures of schooling outcomes: (1) secondary education enrollment rate, (2) out-of-school rate for lower secondary school, and (3) tertiary education graduation rate. [The author finds] that the secondary education enrollment rate is negatively correlated with the size of the informal economy, while the out-of-school rate is positively correlated. This means that informal training on the job may be crowding out school education in developing countries. The tertiary education graduation rate, however, is positively correlated with the size of the informal sector, which implies that a large informal economy induces college attendance for those who are more likely to succeed. Policies that can potentially affect the size of the informal sector should take into consideration these second-round effects on aggregate schooling outcomes.

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This publication highlights the key role of national qualifications systems in promoting learner access, transfer and progression, mobility and quality, and in supporting responsiveness and flexibility in adapting to changing needs. The chapters are as follows: Using qualifications systems to advantage: scope and structure of the international synthesis report; Common language, common meaning: assumptions, definitions and concepts; Making national qualifications systems deliver more: economic, social and personal benefits and policy responses in terms of national qualifications systems; Do the numbers tell a story? Quantitive evidence about the impact of national qualifications systems on lifelong learning; Identifying mechanisms to promote lifelong learning? Analysis of the interaction between stakeholders and qualifications systems; Putting mechanisms to work: how mechanisms support policy responses; Linking qualifications systems and lifelong learning policy: using mechanisms to review policy responses. Five appendices are included: Summary reports of the three thematic groups; List of the fifteen countries that prepared a background report and national coordinators; Countries participating in thematic groups and coordination; Tree used to code all the country background reports; List of acronyms. Show less