CVA's PICKS OF THE MONTH

Vocational education: why the Finns do it best
If the Finnish approach is anything to go by, technical and vocational education and training, or TVET, could provide a means of tackling youth unemployment. While a negative social bias has often prevented young people, in both developing and developed countries, from enrolling on vocational track programmes, Finland's reforms over the past decade have made TVET popular, contributing to lower youth unemployment rates.
Tags : Article; Finland; Source: The Guardian; Unemployment - youth; VET - competence-based vocational education; Youth - unemployment;

Australia. Is the skills shortage real or is industry trying to push down wages?
Australia still needs chefs and panel beaters but employment in mining has barely grown since 2012.
Tags : Analysis; Article; Australia; Field: Mining industry; Mining industry; Skills - shortage; Source: The Guardian;

Canada. What’s Up on the Canadian Career Certification Front?
Certification raises the bar for our field, demonstrating to our employers, funders, policy makers, and the public that our work is grounded in professional excellence.
Tags : Canada; Certification; News; Source: CPC- Career Professionals of Canada;

Canada. ‘Entry-level’ jobs are getting harder to find
New grads face demands for up to five years experience to enter the labour market. How a lack of on-the-job training is hurting young workers.
Tags : Article; Canada; Gap - skills; Mismatch training/workforce - skills; School-to-work transition; Skills - mismatch training/workplace; Source: Macleans; Youth;

Turkey. The Impact of Vocational Training for the Unemployed: Experimental Evidence from Turkey
We use a randomized experiment to evaluate a large-scale active labor market policy: Turkey's vocational training programs for the unemployed. A detailed follow-up survey of a large sample with low attrition enables precise estimation of treatment impacts and their heterogeneity. The average impact of training on employment is positive, but close to zero and statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either program officials or applicants expected. Over the first year after training we do find training to have had statistically significant effects on the quality of employment, and that the positive impacts are stronger when training is offered by private providers. However, longer-term administrative data shows that after three years these effects have also dissipated.
Tags : Analysis; Evidence; Paper; Source: IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor; Turkey; Unemployment; VET - vocational education and training;

USA. The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage
American students need to improve in math and science—but not because there's a surplus of jobs in those fields.
Tags : Article; Employment trend; Higher education; Source: The Atlantic; STEM - Science_technology_engineering_and mathematics; Trend - employment; United States of America;

The Surprising Science Of Workplace Training
The problem with workplace training is that it seems so simple: Show employees what to do, have them practice it a few times, and you’re done. But “training is not as intuitive as it may seem. There is a science of training that shows that there is a right way and a wrong way to design, deliver, and implement a training program.
Tags : Analysis; Article; Source: Annie Murphy Paul; Training - workplace; Workplace - training;

5 Ways To Make Corporate Learning More Effective
There is often an unnecessary gap between learning and retention when it comes time to implement. School might be partly at fault for this since it accustoms people to beingflooded with information without knowing what or why they needed to know it.
Tags : Article; Learning - environment; Source: Social Learning Blog;

Communicating the Value of Training
How do you communicate the value of training to your co-workers and managers so they understand it?
Tags : Article; Source: Kirkpatrick Partners; Training - value of; Value - of training;

Dear undergrads: Your degree was never intended to land you a job
University is not a ticket to a specific job, but more of an introduction into how to learn.
Tags : Article; Education - higher; Higher education; Source: The Globe and Mail;

Afghanistan. Higher education in Afghanistan : an emerging mountainscape
The report provides a menu of policy options for consideration among policy makers in the Government of Afghanistan, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Higher Education, as well as stakeholders and beneficiaries of the higher education sector such as public and private higher education institutions, members of the academic community, development partners, and employers and business leaders. The information and analysis presented in the report can contribute to the preparation and implementation the next phase of the higher education development strategy for Afghanistan.
Tags : Afghanistan; Document; Education - higher; Educational policy; Higher education; Lower-income countries; Policy - educational; Source: World Bank;

Canada. Long-term labour market premiums associated with a terminal high school diploma, 1991 to 2010
A study that followed a group of men and women for two decades reports that men who had finished high school by 1991 earned $206,000 more over those 20 years than men with no high school diploma. For women, the difference between the two groups was $161,000. The dollar figures are expressed in 2010 constant dollars to account for inflation.
En français. Canada. Les avantages à long terme sur le marché du travail associés au diplôme terminal d'études secondaires
Tags : Canada; Gender - equity; Secondary education; Source: Government of Canada/Statistics Canada; Statistics; Study; Wages;

Canada. Degrees of Uncertainty: Navigating the Changing Terrain of University Finance
TThis study looks at trends in tuition and compulsory fees in Canada since 1990, projects fees for each province for the next four years, and ranks the provinces on affordability for median- and low-income families using a Cost of Learning Index.
Tags : Canada; Education - higher; Education - spending; Higher education; Report; Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives;

Canada. Building Skills Together
This report details the critical importance of skills and training; the success of the current programming under Labour Market Agreements; and concerns about the federal Canada Job Grant proposal.
Or Canada. Building Skills Together
Tags : Analysis; Colleges and Universities; Development - skills; Report; Skills - development; Source: Council of the Federation; Source: Government of Ontario/Ministry of Training;

Germany’s dual vocational training system: a model for other countries?
This paper explores whether Germany’s dual vocational training system might serve as a model for other countries, and under what conditions.
Tags : Analysis - functional and occupational; Dual vocational training system; Germany; Report; Source: Bertelsmann Stiftung; VET - dual VET system; VET - vocational education and training;

UK. Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills
The report sets out how the government will accelerate its reforms to the skills system, to ensure that its vocational training offer allows its citizens to compete with any in the world.
Tags : Educational reform; Reform - educational; Report; Source: Government of UK/Department for Business Innovation and Skills; United Kingdom;

Asia. Labor Migration, Skills, and Student Mobility in Asia
The report highlights the trends and outlook for labor migration in Asia and assesses the labor market requirements for foreign workers. It also focuses on building a mobility area for skills to help create a "free flow of skilled labor" among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, gaining from skills portability and links between education and migration, as well as managing low-skilled migration and promoting decent work opportunities for labor migrants.
Tags : Asia; Foreign students; Foreign workers; Migration; Report; Skills - policies; Source: Asian Development Bank;

Skills beyond schools
This OECD page reviews the policies of postsecondary vocational education and training, looks at the preparation of younger people and adults for technical and professional jobs. Key policy challenges include responsiveness to labour market needs, alongside inclusion, access, career guidance, finance, governance, teaching quality, integration with workplace learning, articulation with other sectors of education, and qualifications and assessment (17 country reviews and a comparative report). Reports for Spain, Iceland, United States of America, England, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Korea, Israel, Germany, Danemark and Austria are already available.
Tags : Analysis - comparative; Austria; Comparative analysis; Danemark; England; Germany; Iceland; Israel; Korea; School-to-work transition; Source: OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Spain; Switzerland; United Kingdom; United States of America;

Ireland. National Framework of Qualifications
Ireland National Framework of Qualifications.
Tags : Framework - qualifications; Ireland; National Framework of Qualifications; NFQ - National Framework of Qualifications; Resources; Source: Quality and Qualifications Ireland;

Webinar. Skilled Immigrant Integration Around the Globe
Webinar recording discussing initiatives undertaken in Canada and other places around the world to help skilled immigrants reach their full economic potential.
Tags : Analysis - comparative; Comparative analysis; Foreign workers; Intercultural skills; Skills - intercultural; Source: Imprint; Target group: Foreign workers; Webinar;

Video. Somalia. The short road to self-employment in Somalia: ICRC vocational training
In Somalia, decades of conflict and natural calamities have frustrated the normal coping strategies of its otherwise resilient population. To mitigate the impact of recurrent shocks to Somali livelihoods, the ICRC helps vulnerable groups start small businesses by offering vocational training to improve their skills, and then providing them with the capital investment or tools they need to start the business. This video shows examples of such programmes – training of young men as mechanics, carpenters and electricians and women as tailors.
Tags : Conflict settings; Lower-income countries; Somalia; source: ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross; VET - competence-based vocational education; Video;

USA. Building the Middle Class with Better Skills and Wages: Who Would be Helped by Stronger Pathways?
Profiles of adult workers in every state who are in need of better skills and wages.
Tags : Database; Employability; Source: CLASP - Center for Law and Social Policy; Target group: Adults; United States of America;

Video. Training Young Engineers to Transform Africa
Burkina Faso's Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering is turning out graduates who are in high demand in the private sector. These young people, who have come to study in Ouagadougou from 27 African countries, are keen to transform Africa through science and technology. They need no longer leave the continent to earn a top-notch engineering degree.
Tags : Africa; Burkina Faso; Engineers; Field: Engineering; Initiative; Lower-income countries; Source: World Bank; Video;