In recent years job training programs have suffered severe funding cuts and the focus of training programs has shifted to meet the directives of funders rather than the needs of the community. How do these changes to job training affect disadvantaged workers and the unemployed? In an insightful and comprehensive discussion of job education in Canada, Cohen and her contributors pool findings from a five-year collaborative study of training programs. Good training programs, they argue, are essential in providing people who are chronically disadvantaged in the workplace with tools to acquire more secure, better-paying jobs. In the ongoing shift toward a neo-liberal economic model, government policies have engendered a growing reliance on private and market-based training schemes. These new training policies have undermined equity. In an attempt to redress social inequities in the workplace, the authors examine various kinds of training programs and recommend specific policy initiatives to improve access to these programs. This book will be of interest to policymakers, academics, and students interested in policy, work, equity, gender and education.

This book examines the relationships between exclusion and adult learning focusing on 19 innovative learning initiatives that are making the difference in six countries: Belgium (Flemish Community), Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom (England).

This insightful book is ideal for students, researchers and policy makers wanting a sound overview of the critical issues of gender in lifelong learning. Asking pertinent questions relating to discourses on policy, the authors offer the reader a rare view of lifelong learning from a gender-focused perspective, filling a gap in the literature and moving current debate on into new areas. Questions addressed include: To what extent can the policy discourses and institutional contexts of lifelong learning be seen as masculinised and/or feminised? What are the gender implications of lifelong learning policy? In what ways are learners’ identities constructed through lifelong learning? Does lifelong learning provide opportunities to challenge or transgress gender binaries? What are the implications for practice?

The concept of social exclusion is a central focus of goverment policy and is rapidly moving to the core of practitioner activity. This textbook shows how social workers can combat the social exclusion experienced by service users and at the same time promote social inclusion. Tackling Social Exclusion covers: the meanings of social exclusion and the common elements of practice needed to reverse it the skills needed when working with specific groups of people including children and families, young people and vulnerable adults the neighbourhood dimension in social exclusion the link between 'race' and ethnic minorities and social exclusion and the implications of the Macpherson Report for practice how service agencies can change their organisation to promotie inclusion how to work with communities to effect change Each chapter is grounded in real practice examples and explores through activities, case studies and exercises how the perspective of social exclusion is changing social work today.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2014, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in October 2014. The 93 revised full papers presented together with two keynotes and one invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 283 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on theoretical framework; related concepts; research; rights and ethics; children; higher education; education and instruction; assessment and evaluation; libraries; different aspects.