The Right Skills for the Job?


Book Description

This book revisits skills development policies and points to new directions for making training programs more effective and responsive in increasingly competitive labor market.




Workers’ Education in the Global South


Book Description

Workers’ Education in the Global South explores the historical development of radical workers’ education in South Africa as one particular strand within the broader tradition of radical adult education. Drawing on the theoretical resources of Activity Theory, Gramsci, Freire and others, it investigates the key features of workers’ education as a form of pedagogy with a unique history and logic of practice, and explores how it has been shaped by its location within labour and other social movements as well as its ‘southern’ location within the global political economy. Successive chapters explore its counter-hegemonic but contested purposes, its knowledge practices that seek to overcome the historical divide between intellectual and manual labour, and a pedagogy which often assumes didactic forms but which retains a democratic character through its embeddedness in working class experience. It illustrates the rich processes of experiential learning that happen through day-to-day organising, in workers’ cultural activity as well as through mass action. It argues that this tradition of workers’ education currently stands at a crossroads, as global neoliberal market policies and post-apartheid education and training policies threaten to undermine its radical social vision, and concludes by offering ideas on how this tradition of radical workers’ education might be renewed.




How the University Works


Book Description

Uncovers the labor exploitation occurring in universities across the country As much as we think we know about the modern university, very little has been said about what it's like to work there. Instead of the high-wage, high-profit world of knowledge work, most campus employees—including the vast majority of faculty—really work in the low-wage, low-profit sphere of the service economy. Tenure-track positions are at an all-time low, with adjuncts and graduate students teaching the majority of courses. This super-exploited corps of disposable workers commonly earn fewer than $16,000 annually, without benefits, teaching as many as eight classes per year. Even undergraduates are being exploited as a low-cost, disposable workforce. Marc Bousquet, a major figure in the academic labor movement, exposes the seamy underbelly of higher education—a world where faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates work long hours for fast-food wages. Assessing the costs of higher education's corporatization on faculty and students at every level, How the University Works is urgent reading for anyone interested in the fate of the university.




Renewing Workers' Education


Book Description

"Renewing workers' education focuses on educational methods created by workers for workers. It extends beyond trade unions to include a range of educational initiatives aimed at the working class including working class women, casual and informal sector workers, migrant workers, and workers' political parties. This book fills a gap in the South African literature on workers' education and documents the recent history as well as current practices and perspectives, including some international experiences. It explores conceptual tools that may assist in reflecting on and theorising the practice of workers' education and analyses current challenges. This captivating book also seeks to inform future policy and practices on workers' education and is key for those who wish to reinvigorate and contribute to building an alternative future for workers' education." --Back cover.




Learning to Labor


Book Description

Claims the rebellion of poor and working class children against school authority prepares them for working class jobs.




Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce


Book Description

Skilled technical occupationsâ€"defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor's degree for entryâ€"are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives. In response to the broader need for policy information and advice, Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce examines the coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs. This report provides action-oriented recommendations for improving the American system of technical education, training, and certification.




Applications of Work Integrated Learning Among Gen Z and Y Students


Book Description

It has become evident within higher education and within (or in partnership with) the workplace that there is a growing demand for an integration of learning within the workplace. Formal and intentional models and processes utilizing experiential learning methods and pedagogy are often referred to as work integrated learning. However, there is a vast cross-conceptualization evident within the field between concepts such as work-related learning (WRL), workplace learning (WPL), work-based learning (WBL), work integrated learning (WIL), and experiential learning (EL). Furthermore, there are vast differences between different applications such as apprenticeships, higher degree apprenticeships (HDA), co-operative education (Coop), internships, placements, projects, sandwich courses, practicums, and more. There is a new focus on the impact of WIL on the future labor force, specifically of generations Z and Y. Applications of Work Integrated Learning Among Gen Z and Y Students presents educational and theoretical concepts related to WIL and Gen Z and Y students as a workforce. The chapters include coverage not only on these concepts, but in-depth research on the implications of WIL on these generations, educational themes in WIL, and WIL innovation. The topic of WIL and all its applications are covered in a global context and for all fields of work, focusing on the skills and expertise gained from the students of work-based learning along with insights on how work-based learning is implemented by teachers and educational administrations. This book is a valuable reference tool for in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, human resources and career development management, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in insight, theory, and practical examples of WIL from around the world and the impact these have within the workplace as related to generations Y and Z.




The Economics of Education


Book Description

The Economics of Education: A Comprehensive Overview, Second Edition, offers a comprehensive and current overview of the field of that is broadly accessible economists, researchers and students. This new edition revises the original 50 authoritative articles and adds Developed (US and European) and Developing Country perspectives, reflecting the differences in institutional structures that help to shape teacher labor markets and the effect of competition on student outcomes. - Provides international perspectives that describe the origins of key subjects, their major issues and proponents, their landmark studies, and opportunities for future research - Increases developing county perspectives and comparisons of cross-country institutions - Requires no prior knowledge of the economics of education




Globalization of an Educational Idea


Book Description

In this book, authors showcase the worldwide spread of Workers’ Faculties as an example of both cooperation between socialist countries in education, and globalization processes in the field of education. Based on extensive research carried out in Cuban, German, Mozambican, and Vietnamese archives as well as expert interviews, it combines detailed case studies of educational transfers and policy implementation with a discussion of theoretical approaches to the study of globalization in and of education. Research on Workers’ Faculties provides an especially interesting example for the study of educational transfer between socialist countries as well as for the interplay of such transfers with processes of globalisation for two reasons. On one hand, the first Workers’ Faculties were established already shortly after the October Revolution in Russia, and Workers’ Faculties continue to exist in Cuba until today. A study of these institutions therefore provides a dynamic perspective covering the whole period of the existence of the socialist camp. On the other hand, the spread of the Workers’ Faculty idea to four continents allows for an analysis that takes into account widely differing local contexts. This book offers an analysis of general trends and particularities in the history of the global spread of the Workers’ Faculty idea and its implementation in local contexts. Finally, it discusses the results with a view towards theories of globalization in the field of education as well as of specificities of processes of “socialist globalization”.




The Race between Education and Technology


Book Description

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system had always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, not just in the primary schools that had remarkable success in the nineteenth century. The book argues that technological change, education, and inequality have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This had the effect of boosting income for most people and lowering inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. This educational slowdown was accompanied by rising inequality. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this, and what might be done to ameliorate it.