One promising practice for improving workplace preparation, apprenticeship, has been effective in preparing skilled workers for the changing needs of the workplace. Apprenticeship is a training strategy with eight components: it combines hands-on training on the job with related instruction; employer needs dictate programs; it is regulated by law;…

In many respects, career education has never been needed more than it is today. The need to keep abreast of technological change and to participate effectively in today's high-performance workplace requires each worker to possess a set of basic competencies and a foundation of skills and personal qualities. The competencies, foundation skills, and…

With its definitions of individuals' and employers' rights and obligations, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a mandate and a statement of our moral and ethical values as a culture. Persons with disabilities and employers must apply ADA's "triple standard" of reasonable accommodations for performing essential job functions…

Reauthorization of welfare reform legislation has focused attention on the effectiveness of short-term training as a means for welfare recipients to attain self-sufficiency. Its effects on employment and earnings have been one focus of recent evaluations of federal programs. Although some Job Opportunities and Basic Skills programs produced…

The gold-collar worker has problem-solving abilities, creativity, talent, and intelligence; performs non-repetitive and complex work difficult to evaluate; and prefers self management. Gold-collar information technology workers learn continually from experience; recognize the synergy of teams; can demonstrate leadership; and are strategic thinkers…

Secondary educators are using ways other than the traditional high school diploma and transcript to communicate students' new and different sets of knowledge and skills to employers. A career passport may be characterized as a formal product or document in which students present the many marketable skills they have developed through their life…

Leadership development is an important, longstanding concern in career and technical education (CTE). CTE's focus on leadership development has traditionally started in secondary programs, continued in postsecondary programs, and included formal credit and noncredit activities for preservice or inservice CTE teachers or administrators. Because of…

Distance education (DE) is increasingly seen as a powerful vehicle for delivering various types of education, including career and technical education (CTE). Fast-paced, pervasive changes in the economic, social, and technological foundations of education and educational delivery, including the increasing use of information and communications…

Recent educational approaches that have career and technical education (CTE) components have integrated work-based learning (WBL) with traditional academics. Among positive effects of the association between WBL and secondary students' educational outcomes are: (1) increased attendance, (2) decreased dropout rates, (3) increased number of academic…

This digest describes cultural considerations and effective approaches for limited English proficient (LEP) individuals' workforce development, including the impact of recent training legislation. LEP persons often come from both a different language background and a very different cultural background; so English-language instruction must provide…

Career and technical education (CTE) can provide significant benefits to students with disabilities. Research shows that students with disabilities in secondary CTE programs were less likely to drop out and more likely to be employed, to have paid competitive jobs, and to work full time after high school, especially if they were mainstreamed and…

Technological literacy includes the following elements: (1) the ability to use technology; (2) knowledge about the details of individual technologies and the processes of technology development; (3) a holistic understanding of the historical and cultural context of technology and adaptability based on initiative and resourceful thinking; and (4) a…