Use of social and economic modeling to plan vocational education and training

The Workforce Education and Development program at Penn State University applies input-output and social accounting models to provide information for planning vocational education and training. These models are specified, and several applications of these models to training investment research are described

Identifying and responding to skills shortages

Skills shortages limit economic growth. Tight labor markets in the United States have highlighted for policy–makers the problems that skills shortages create for the economy. Yet, it is difficult to document and respond to skills shortages. No single, direct measure identifies a skills shortage. Identification requires multiple economic indicators. When skills shortages are identified, prescription of responses to alleviate shortages is equally problematic. Selection of investment in training as one response requires that other factors affecting labor supply and price must be ruled out as contributing causes of shortages

Forgiveness and interpersonal skills in same-sexed friendships

Although forgiveness is a largely interpersonal process, little research has examined the relationship between forgiveness and the interpersonal skills that may be important in forgiving another for an offence. The current study addressed this issue by investigating the relationship between forgiveness and interpersonal skills in same-sexed friendships among a community sample of 210 people (mean age 38.32 years). Each participant completed the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (Thompson et al., 2005), which assesses forgiveness of self, others, and situations; and the same-sex friend version of the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, 1988) which assesses skills in initiation, negative assertion, self-disclosure, emotional support, and conflict management. Positive correlations were found between all five interpersonal skills and the three types of forgiveness, with only the relationship between forgiveness of others and negative assertion failing to reach significance. Separate hierarchical regressions were conducted to predict each type of forgiveness, with age and gender entered at Step 1 and the interpersonal skills variables entered at Step 2. Age, initiation skills, and conflict management skills each contributed uniquely to the prediction of all three types of forgiveness. Discussion centres around the relationship between forgiveness and interpersonal skills

Positive psychology techniques: active constructive responding

This short article focuses on the skill of active constructive responding, a technique used when working within a positive psychology coaching framework. The paper offers a table that describes the behaviours, cognitions and emotions at six levels of listening. It offers a way to combine active listening with positive feedback responses to help demonstrate empathy and foster positive self-regard

Positive psychology techniques: gratitude

This article builds on a descriptive paper on positive psychology coaching and several previous techniques papers. This paper explores the application of gratitude, and its associated benefits, as a part of positive psychology coaching practice

Positive psychology techniques: positive case conceptualisation

This short techniques article is part of a series of papers and builds on the initial outline paper which explored the potential of positive psychology approaches within coaching (Passmore, J. & Oades, 2014). This paper focuses on the skill of positive case conceptualisation, which allows coach and coachee to work collaboratively on building a shared understanding of the positive issues under discussion

Positive psychology coaching: a model for coaching practice

This is the first in a series of papers to look at positive psychology coaching (PPC) as an approach suitable for use with coaching clients. This paper presents a brief overview of PPC for readers who are less familiar with the approach and highlights other sources for a fuller account of PPC. The paper sets the scene for a subsequent series of papers in this and future issues within the Coaching Psychology Techniques Section. Each of these subsequent techniques papers presents a short description of a technique grounded in PPC and which are suitable for use with coachees

Positive psychology techniques: three good things

This short article is the last in a series of six papers exploring positive psychology coaching techniques. The previous papers have explored the concept of positive coaching psychology and how it may be applied. The focus of this paper is a technique that encourages the mind to pay more attention to good things and develop a mind more observant of the positive in life

Colour vision model-based approach for segmentation of traffic signs

This paper presents a new approach to segment traffic signs from the rest of a scene via CIECAM, a colour appearance model. This approach not only takes CIECAM into practical application for the first time since it was standardised in 1998, but also introduces a new way of segmenting traffic signs in order to improve the accuracy of colour-based approach. Comparison with the other CIE spaces, including CIELUV and CIELAB, and RGB colour space is also carried out. The results show that CIECAM performs better than the other three spaces with 94%, 90%, and 85% accurate rates for sunny, cloudy, and rainy days, respectively. The results also confirm that CIECAM does predict the colour appearance similar to average observers