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There is a lack of distinction and definition around how the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia might effectively recruit and retain suitably qualified teachers, trainers and assessors. The logic is clear: in order to enable and develop an immediate pool of competent and qualified workers for new and developing industries, as well as develop the skills and knowledge of workers in the stalwarts of Australian industry, such as the mining, building, finance and service industries, particular talented individuals are required. This is a requirement for a dynamic training environment that is also impacted by, for example, the internet of things, the diversity of learners and the consequences of an aging population. In order to make sense of the VET landscape and the demand for VET practitioners, the following literature review firstly provides a snapshot of the current state of the VET workforce and the changing industry climate in Australia. It then considers some of the factors that appear to be barriers or 'stumbling blocks' to recruiting teachers and trainers into vocational education and training. This is followed by examination of some of the incentives that have been adopted in other countries in an effort to boost their VET workforces, and exploration of other strategies that might help to increase the number of educators and to retain their services. [For the research report "Attracting Industry Experts to Become VET Practitioners: A Journey, Not a Destination. Research Report," see ED615947.]

This paper explores the forces that support the proliferation of the flexible work arrangement called job sharing. Moreover, the paper will illuminate the need for integrating learning and practice as a way to develop and support job sharing partners, or "Partners in Practice" (PiPs). The author puts forth a model derived from learning in Communities of Practice (CoPs), which is argued to be similar to learning and practice that occurs in PiPs. (Contains 1 figure.)

In October of 2002, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) announced that it would participate in a $246.5 million Government of Canada initiative to support workers and communities in regions of high unemployment. The $71 million HRSDC portion was composed of three primary components: (1) Work Sharing While Learning (WSWL)--This new program adds a training component to the traditional Work Sharing program and targets firms facing a structural downturn; (2) Increased Referrals to Training (IRT)--This new initiative is intended to test and evaluate the effects of referring more individuals to training when they are facing job loss; and (3) Older Workers Pilot Projects Initiative (OWPPI)--A series of pilot projects, designed to encourage labour force attachment on the part of older workers, was extended until March 31, 2004. WSWL and IRT are evaluated separately from OWPPI, since OWPPI was already underway at the time of the announcement and already had an evaluation strategy in place. However, participation in WSWL and IRT was very limited at the time of the project planning (October 2003). Therefore, it was proposed that the evaluation be conducted in two phases. Phase I explores the reasons for the low take-up of the two programs. If participation in the programs increases sufficiently to warrant a more complete evaluation, Phase II is to examine traditional evaluation issues such as program outcomes and impacts. To date (March 2004), participation remains very low, and it seems unlikely that the Phase II portion of the evaluation will be warranted. This report presents the findings of Phase I of the evaluation of WSWL and IRT. It focuses on explaining the reasons for the lack of program take-up in order to provide lessons for future policy development. In the following section, the two programs are described. The third section presents the evaluation questions and the lines of evidence used to answer them. The fourth section presents the findings. The fifth and final section presents a summary and conclusions. List of Documents is appended. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table and 5 footnotes.)

This document contains three papers on challenges facing human resource development today. "In Difficult Times: Influences of Attitudes and Expectations Towards Training and Redeployment Opportunities in a Hospital Retraction Programme" (Sandra Watson, Jeff Hyman) presents reasons behind the low uptake of training and redeployment opportunities in a mental health hospital downsizing. It examines social-psychological effects on barriers and motivation to training and re-employment and reports on a number of extrinsic and intrinsic factors that inhibit staff from leaving the hospital. "A Qualitative Study of Nonexempt Employees: Careers or Jobs?" (Kimberly S. McDonald) discusses the results of an exploratory study of career development activities, concerns and needs of nonexempt employees, which included a continuum of needs and interests regarding career development. "Is Work Sharing a Better Option for Organizational Development?" (Steve L. Whatley, Chan Lee, Lisa Moten) reports on interviews conducted with and observations of German organizational development employees. The implications of the paper indicate that work sharing is successful in Germany and that human resource development professionals should conduct further research into work sharing as a viable alternative to employee layoffs. All three papers include bibliographies. (AJ)

A representative survey of over 30,000 people aged 16-64 years across the 15 member states of the European Union and Norway sought Europeans' preferences for increasing or reducing the number of hours worked per week. Key finding included the following: (1) 51% preferred to work fewer hours in exchange for lower earnings while 12% preferred to work longer hours; (2) substantial part-time hours (20-34) or moderate full-time hours (35-59) were the most widely preferred arrangements; (3) men preferred a 37-hour work week while women preferred a 30-hour week; (4) those most likely to prefer part-time hours were women with young children; (5) fatherhood had less influence on men's preferences for work hours; (6) more than half of the respondents prefer taking time off, in such forms as "time banking" or flextime, in compensation for overtime work; and (7) 23% said they would take unpaid leaves if available, and this figure rose to 30% of those employees in higher income brackets. Issues raised by these results included the following: (1) collective reduction of full-time hours; (2) improvement in the quality and amount of part-time work; and (3) help for parents to combine employment and family responsibilities. (Partial solutions in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were described. Included are 6 tables and 5 figures.) (AJ)

The controversial discussion of "atypical" forms of employment overlooks the fact that all parties involved can benefit from greater flexibility in the employment relationship. It all depends on what is made more flexible and how this greater flexibility is achieved. Employment relationships are built on a variety of factors (remuneration, operating hours, working time, and employment security). In principle, stability in one area of employer/worker relations (e.g., dismissal protection) demands flexibility in other areas (e.g., working hours or wages). Increased flexibility of working hours can create the potential for flexible models of annual working time by reducing or avoiding overtime or for creation of new part-time jobs. More scope for wage flexibility would enable a subtly differentiated adjustment of wage costs, oriented toward employment objectives. A possible starting point for this would be in profit-related remuneration components. Wage-dependent social security contributions could be limited to relieve the costs of the work factor by financing social security more from taxes. Laws regulating atypical employment relationships should help promote the creation of desired, voluntary atypical employment agreements but preclude any agreements being entered into on a nonvoluntary basis or limit the number of reasonable exceptions. (YLB)

More than 58 percent of all women working in the U.S. labor force, many of them sole supports of their families, and 67 percent of women with children under age 18 are working. Therefore, more flexible work options are being made to allow a balance of work and family. Increasingly available options include work at home, compressed workweeks, resources for elder and child care, job sharing, part-time employment, telecommuting, and flextime. Making use of flexible work arrangements, however, may have negative effects on one's career, such as limited work responsibilities, ineligibility for promotions, no salary increases, lack of prorated benefits, and lack of visibility. Benefits include the chance to keep current in one's occupation, continued identification with the work force, and the opportunity to meet personal and family commitments. Flexible staffing, which may temporarily reduce hours or workers, is more beneficial to employers than to employees. Flexible work schedules take the following forms: flexitours, variable days, variable weeks, maxiflex, flex year, summer hours flextime, compressed workweeks, and a gliding schedule of starting times. Benefits of flexible work arrangements to employers include retention and attraction of quality employees, higher productivity, improved morale, and the capacity to respond to operating requirements with staffing flux. (This report includes a list of 13 references and an annotated list of 9 additional resources.) (KC)

This report identifies the range and extent of innovative workplace practices in place among 16 international organizations participating in the International Workplace Studies Program (IWSP). Information comes from interviews with organization representatives, written reports, summaries prepared by the organizations, and an extensive literature search. The report is organized by three primary sections: flexible work scheduling, flexible staffing, and flexible work locations. Each section defines the new working practice and describes a range of different alternatives available under it. Where available, demographics for the flexible work practices are provided for the United States, European Community countries, and Japan. They include incidence of the flexible practice among corporations and the work force, incidence according to business type, and incidence by job types. An example is provided of a sponsor initiative for each flexible practice that describes a program implemented at one or more IWSP sponsor organization(s). A sponsor comparison and cultural implications section is included for each flexible work practice. Finally, each section discusses the implications to facility/facility management to address issues that arise as a result of implementation of the flexible work practices. A conclusion is followed by appendixes, including IWSP sponsor descriptions, literature search methodology, flexible scheduling and staffing participation rates, directives, and regulations and a 66-item bibliography. (YLB)

A study examined three human resource arrangements that varied from the standard form of the employment relationship. One arrangement included risk-involved teams (RITs) in which greater reliance was placed on risk sharing and employee involvement. The second represented the "contracting-in" of retired employees (CIR) to act as independent consultants. The third arrangement represented altering the dimension of time spent in the workplace, or altered-time arrangements (ATAs). Explanations for the use of the three arrangements were hypothesized, and usable data were collected from 496 organizations throughout the United States. Parallel regression models were estimated to examine the pattern of coefficients across the three dependent variables: RITs, ATAs, and CIR. Findings indicated that manufacturing was behind services and other sectors in the use of ATAs but led the way in use of RITs. Regionally, the West led in use of ATAs and RITs. When the largest percentage of a firm's work force consisted of new entrants, it made more use of ATAs. Organization size was positively associated with RITs, ATAs, and CIR. When organizations had more female employees, they made more use of ATAs. When organizations had a greater number of older workers, they relied more frequently on CIR. RITs were used significantly less in organizations with a greater percentage of minorities in the work force. RITs appeared to be part of the implementation of a firm's business strategy. (Contains 60 references.) (YLB)

This report examines actions of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in providing leadership to several of the government's human resource management programs in the work and family benefits area. It reviews employee benefit programs that help civilian federal workers balance their work responsibilities and personal needs. Programs reviewed are those in the areas of: (1) child care; (2) elder care; (3) alterative work schedules; (4) part-time employment and job sharing; (5) flexible workplaces, or "flexiplaces"; (6) leave sharing programs; and (7) flexible or "cafeteria" benefits plans. The role and responsibilities of federal agencies in implementing programs in each area are addressed. Also examined are ways in which the federal government can improve its status as a model employer in the work and family benefits area. The report concludes with several recommendations for improving the government's attractiveness as an employer in a reasonable, fiscally responsible manner. Appended are 99 endnotes, which include references, and a letter from the Director of the Office of Personnel Management with comments on the report. (GLR)

A national survey in 1988 probed the use of flexible staffing and scheduling alternatives in 521 of the largest U.S. corporations. Company executives indicated they expected their companies to decrease their rate of growth of contingent staffing and increase their use of flextime, job sharing, and home-based work. Several specifics stood out within this general shift of emphasis from flexible staffing to flexible scheduling. Human resources executives expressed lower levels of satisfaction with temporary agency hires, compared to independent contractors and in-house temporaries, on three counts: job performance, administrative costs, and ease of supervision. Results revealed an uneven, but growing, interest on the part of employers to consider work schedules that differed from the full-time, Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 arrangements. As of now, part-time job opportunities and flextime programs existed in a significant proportion of surveyed companies. In companies that had adopted flextime, job sharing, and home-based work, human resources executives gave employees on these schedules high marks with regard to job performance. Surveyed companies were most apt to provide these types of time-off policies: paid absences for vacation, jury duty, sick leave, and bereavement. In addition, leaves for family-related matters, typically unpaid, existed in a significant proportion of the surveyed companies. (YLB)

Alternative work schedules can help parents of young children. They are also attractive to students, older workers, handicapped persons, couples desiring to share work and home responsibilities, persons wishing to upgrade skills or switch careers through a return to school, and employers needing to serve the public outside the traditional workday, wanting to use their capital more intensively, or hoping to benefit by reducing absenteeism. Flexitime is an alternative work-time pattern that allows employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times. Experimental approaches allow employees to vary work schedules over the year. A compressed work schedule is one that enables a full-time employee to work the equivalent of a full week in less than five full days. Job sharing refers to the accomplishment of one full-time job by two or more persons, each working part-time. The predominant alternative work schedule for women is part-time work. Temporary work allows flexibility in scheduling while at the same time providing a variety of both work and training experiences. (YLB)

Though the traditional 9:00-to-5:00 work week remains the predominant scheduling choice of most employers, companies in all industries increasingly are using alternative scheduling methods that allow employees to balance their work and family responsibilities. Alternative work schedules for permanent employees frequently are advocated as a solution to the problems faced by women in the work force. Job sharing, permanent part-time employment, work-at-home options, and flexible full-time work schedules offer employees an opportunity to modify work hours while maintaining the benefits of regular employment. Among other reasons for implementing flexible scheduling plans, employers cite cost effectiveness, flexibility, employee morale, and productivity. In 1987, 19.5 million people, or 17 percent of the work force, were employed on a part-time basis, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Five scheduling alternatives with case studies are examined in this report: permanent part-time, flextime, peak-time, job sharing, and worksharing.) (KC)

Described are principal options through which employers may address the child care concerns of their employees. Options fall into four general categories: financial assistance, time availability, direct care services, and provision of information. The principal options in the category of financial assistance are dependent care assistance plans and flexible benefits plans offering dependent care options. Employers may make additional time available or flexible for employees through parental leave policies, part-time work options, and alternative work schedules. The most familiar and visible of the child care options is the on-site or near-site child care center, but an increasingly popular option is corporate support of family day care homes or systems, in which four or five children are cared for by a provider in the provider's home. Employers choosing to provide information on work- and family-related issues for employees can effectively raise morale and help to reduce the stress of holding two full-time jobs (as parent and employee) simultaneously. These information options include child care information services and work and family seminars. (RH)

A special survey on employer child-care practices conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the summer of 1987 sampled 10,345 establishments with 10 or more employees selected from the BLS establishment universe file and classified by industry and size. The survey showed that over the last decade, the number of mothers in the labor force has grown by nearly 40 percent; for these women, obtaining reliable, high quality care for their children at reasonable cost is often a major problem. Approximately 11 percent of establishments with 10 or more employees offered some benefits to help them with their child-care arrangements. In addition, about 61 percent of establishments had the kinds of policies on flexible work schedules or leave that could help employees handle child-care arrangements even though these policies may not have been designed with that purpose in mind. About 2 percent of establishments provided day-care facilities, one-third of which were day-care facilities. Large firms and government agencies were more likely to provide these types of benefits than small businesses. Some establishments made other types of arrangements such as flexible time, flexible leave, part-time work, and job sharing. (KC)

Flexible work schedules offer the promise of a low-cost option for helping people manage work and family responsibilities. Alternative work schedules include part-time work, job sharing, work sharing, shiftwork, compressed work week, flexitime, and flexiplace. Flexitime is the most prevalent full-time flexible schedule and is second in prevalence only to part-time work among all flexible work schedules. Its prevalence in the workplace continues to increase steadily. Research studies on the effects of flexitime schedules have not proven very definitive because of design problems. They do suggest that in many work situations both the organization and the individual worker can gain from this arrangement. Unresolved issues involving flexitime include occupational constraints, the reluctance of supervisors, legal constraints, and union resistance. (The paper concludes with recommendations for researchers, public and private employers, labor unions, and government. A 21-item reference list is included.) (CML)

By offering benefits that assist workers in attaining a better balance between work and family, employers can improve the quality of work produced for their companies and the quality of life for employees. This report discusses the benefits of dependent care programs, describes the process involved in selecting appropriate programs, and discusses common concerns and issues. Also discussed are demographic trends influencing the growing conflict as employees try to juggle work and family concerns. The report concludes with the findings of an independent survey study on the state of employer-assisted dependent care in Texas and a comparison of Texas with the rest of the country. Out of 6,500 employers surveyed, 1,331 employers returned a mailed survey (22.6 percent response rate). The findings indicated that firms were more likely to provide informational dependent care benefits than they were to offer direct service or direct financial subsidies for care. Flexible work arrangements such as flextime and job sharing were growing in popularity. All benefits were offered to a much greater extent in the largest firms (with over 500 employees) than in smaller. Texas is providing benefits at a lower rate than the nation as a whole. Nationwide, firms whose core employees are professional and technical workers were more likely to provide family-friendly benefits than firms with other types of employees. In Texas, benefits, when offered, were provided at all employee levels. Two appendices describe the survey methodology and the initiatives of the Texas Work and Family Clearinghouse. Contains 51 references. (KB)

Data from a survey of personnel directors in United Kingdom universities were used to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of job sharing from the institutions' perspective. Results show a 5% rise in productivity would raise the ratio of benefits to cost to 14.3 to 1. Retention of staff, reduction of stress, and reduced unemployment are also benefits. (Author/MSE)

Many employers have enacted "family-friendly benefits" in response to demands placed on their employees by the stress of caring for children or aging parents. The Employer Dependent Care Survey measured the prevalence of flexible work arrangements and child care and elder care benefits in Texas. Participating were 1,331 out of 6,500 private sector companies answering a mail survey (22.6 percent return). Findings indicated that flextime schedules were offered by 54 percent of the largest companies (500 or more employees). Nine percent of the largest companies and less than 5 percent of others offered job sharing. Compressed work weeks were offered by 30 percent of the largest companies and by 18 percent of companies with 100 to 499 employees. Telecommuting was offered by 22 percent of the largest companies; availability of this option generally decreased as company size decreased. Flexible work arrangements were most often utilized by non-managers. Child care center benefits were offered by 7 percent of the largest companies and by less than 2 percent of others, while resource and referral services were offered by 17 percent of the largest companies and by less than 5 percent of others. Tax-sheltered spending accounts were the most common child care benefit offered and child care subsidies or vouchers, the least common. Ninety-seven percent of companies indicated that all employees were eligible for child care benefits. The biggest impact of providing child care benefits was the positive employee morale. Very few companies offered elder care benefits, with the most common benefit a tax-sheltered spending account. (KB)

Job sharing is a form of employment often overlooked by the average worker. Eight women were interviewed for this qualitative research study on the benefits and drawbacks of job sharing. Rather than simply allowing more time for them to spend with their children or on domestic chores, job sharing provided unanticipated opportunities to enjoy a richer quality of life. (KW)

Explores factors that influence how women cope with multiple roles. Discusses implications of a study that investigated job sharing as a part-time employment alternative for women (n=4 job-sharing nurses and n=4 part-time nurses) wanting a healthier balance between home and work life. (SNR)

Study of the employment effects of reducing working hours, controlling overtime, job sharing, leave, and early retirement in 10 countries found no significant link between job sharing and employment levels. Work time policies need to be considered in a wider context as a way to address high unemployment. (SK)

Examines the primary school deputy headteacher's changing role following implementation of Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act. Using qualitative data from 50 schools in England and Wales, documents an ever-expanding role, accompanied by tensions between classroom teaching and wider curriculum and managerial responsibilities. Recommends limited job sharing between heads and deputies. (16 references) (MLH)