The Identification of National Trends and Issues for Workplace Preparation and their Implications for Vocational Teacher Education

The development of a well-prepared workforce is an issue of critical concern in America and education is a key ingredient for preparing a well-qualified workforce. However, policymakers have tended to overlook teacher preparation and its place in preparing a competitive workforce. The University Council for Vocational Education (UCVE) funded this study to identify significant trends and issues of national importance for workforce preparation and determine their implications for vocational teacher preparation. The research was initiated with development of an extensive annotated bibliography of over 300 relevant publications that focused on the preparation of the nation's skilled workforce. Of those documents 19 were judged by institutional representatives of UCVE to be of importance in the identification of trends and issues for the preparation of a well-qualified workforce. The selected documents were submitted to institutional representatives with a request that they identify implications for vocational teacher education. Using a nominal group methodology, the implications were then identified and prioritized with respect to the improvement of policy and practice for vocational teacher education. The results of the study were used to prepare a statement for those concerned with the preparation or teachers' needed to educate a well qualified workforce for the nation.