Youth workforce development: apprenticeships issues and options

Report in which LLUK considers "... options to increase the take up of existing apprenticeships. Future work might also include action to determine whether there is a need to take work forward on a new youth workforce apprenticeship. The funding is to explore work in England only but LLUK will need to be mindful of ensuring a UKwide approach where appropriate." - Introduction

Improving Immigrant Access to Workforce Services: Partnerships, Practices & Policies

This report presents the challenges and shares actionable ideas on how the immigrant-serving and workforce development fields could partner to improve policies and practices connecting immigrants to skill-building and career-advancement opportunities. Immigrants and their families make up 13% of the overall population in the United States and 16% of the labor force. However, immigrants are much more likely than the native population to live in poverty and be underserved by our public workforce system.The research, conducted by the Aspen Institute's Workforce Strategies Initiative, helps us understand how workforce- and immigrant-focused organizations intersect and could work together. While forming robust partnerships is still in the preliminary stages, a few strong examples of such partnerships exist, and more are emerging with various modest investments. The report aims to contribute to the emerging national conversation about these issues

Realizing Health Reform's Potential: How the Affordable Care Act Will Strengthen Primary Care and Benefit Patients, Providers, and Payers

Examines issues in primary care and outlines the 2010 healthcare reform law's provisions to strengthen it, including temporary hikes in Medicare and Medicaid payments and support for innovations in care delivery and primary care workforce development

New Jersey's Nursing Faculty Shortage

Examines the state of the nursing faculty workforce in New Jersey, factors behind the shortage, issues that affect recruitment and retention, and promising practices. Recommends strategies to fill the gap, including re-examining the nursing curriculum

Health and Safety Issues of an Aging Workforce

[Excerpt] What do we mean by an “aging workforce”? As we live longer and healthier, older people continue to grow as a proportion of the working population. The number of workers of age 45 and older has doubled since 1950. Workers \u3e55 years of age are the workforce’s fastest growing group. While many enjoy their jobs, satisfied to be useful and productive, for others, there is no choice -- expenses, especially health care costs, necessitate postponing retirement. As baby boomers retire, they are followed by a substantially-smaller younger generation. Many employers want to attract and retain more experienced workers. Older workers are safer workers,but aging can sometimes make an injury more severe. An example would be a fall for a young person producing bruises, whereas a fall from the same height for an older person produces broken bones. Or an older person might see more strains and sprains from a job than a younger person. Certainly, as we age, our rate of healing is slower and we might need more time for recuperation than a younger person

PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Education

Presents survey findings on how Californians view issues in the K-12 education system, including the impact of state funding cuts, high school dropout rates, college and workforce preparation, merit pay for teachers, and higher taxes to help fund schools

State of the Artist: Challenges to the New York State Arts & Entertainment Industry and its Workforce

[Excerpt] In 2009, with support from Empire State Development (ESD), the Cornell University ILR School published its first report on the state of the New York arts and entertainment (A&E) workforce, Empire State’s Cultural Capital at Risk? Assessing Challenges to the Workforce and the Educational Infrastructure for New York State’s Arts and Entertainment Industry. The report analyzed a number of key characteristics of the A&E workforce across electronic media, live performing, and visual arts, identifying the most pressing issues for New York A&E workers and the support structures in place to protect their interests. The report concluded by proposing a number of questions to policymakers to be considered in future legislation. State of the Artist both updates this analysis of the State A&E workforce and analyzes trends in recent years based on comparable data presented in the 2009 report. The current report draws from government surveys, industry reports, and interviews with key stakeholders to assess the condition of the NYS A&E industry and its workforce, identifying key issues faced by workers in each sector of the industry. In addition to an extensive review of current literature, data from primary and secondary sources was analyzed to assess the state of the industry and major trends by sector. Survey data from the US Census Bureau and Department of Labor, notably from the American Community Survey (ACS), were retrieved to isolate trends in A&E workforce employment patterns, demographics, and income by occupational group. This analysis, including a conference attended by industry leaders and representatives to assess reactions to preliminary findings, served to identify current challenges facing this vital workforce to the state economy. Often left out of discussions about precarious workers, many working within the A&E industry continue to face high rates of contingent and project-based employment, low average income, and inadequate employment protections—all of which are explored here. State of the Artist concludes with a summary of public policies currently in place as well as those under consideration, providing an updated set of questions for New York policymakers

Europe: is it ready for free movement of its workforce?

Purpose – To examine what could be achieved through workforce mobility in Europe. Design/methodology/approach – Literature and case review Findings – Findings indicate that full mobility of a European workforce is largely permitted and tolerated though a complex web of legal policy and constraints which need to be reviewed if full mobility is to be achieved within the EU. Practical implications – The paper draws on integration and trade theory to highlight the issues of mobility within the EU. The paper may prove useful to policy makers and researchers. Originality / value – This paper allows researchers to gain an understanding of the issues in workforce mobility within the EU and build a conceptual portrait of the challenges faced by policy makers