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The appearance of a memorandum prepared by the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions, together with the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions, on relations between colleges and the representatives of Industry Training Boards, gives public recognition, at least by implication if not by direct statement, to difficulties which have for some time existed in the working of the 1964 Industrial Training Act. A year ago, W. M. MacQueen referred to evidence which suggested that … the Industrial Training Act is being misinterpreted to the detriment of our technical education service and consequently of our industry, and more recently, EDUCATION, the official journal of the Association of Education Committees, commented that Resentment against the training officers attached to industry training boards has been steadily hotting up in colleges of further education. Some of them, the technical teachers say privately, are butting in like self‐styled HMIs, and presuming too far to tell the teachers their business. And some local authorities, the teachers allege, instead of defending the teachers, have been turning a blind eye to the interference because of the undeniable financial benefits which accrue to the education service from investment by industry.

This paper aims to describe how the human resources development (HRD) policy has shifted from the national level to the sectoral levels; the paper also explains the changes that have been made in skills formation in the economy by presenting the emergence of Industry Skills Councils (ISC).

This paper presents perspectives of which include reviewing the change of governance and skills formation at the sectoral level.

Skills development strategy is needed both at the sectoral and national levels to cultivate the core competencies of Korean talents. The feedbacks based on the HRD practices implemented at the micro level are delivered to the state governments and business associations via the ISCs. The policymaking has thus become more decentralized from the state government, and it now reflects inputs from the practical field in the process of making new policies.

Korean skills regime is still difficult to classify because it does not follow the skills formation regime discussed in current scholarship. While the state government has played an active role in decision-making, financing and delivery of vocational training programs since the early phase of economic development, engagement by social partners has been limited in the Korean vocational education and training (VET) system. The participation of social partners in the Korean VET system has been limited, but various stakeholders such as the labor unions; trade unions; chambers of commerce; and small, medium and large enterprises have been engaged gradually in skills identification, formation, development and implementation within individual sectors.

The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.

A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.

Arrangements for regional economic integration, under the WTO system, have unexpectedly dominated globalization. In fact, countries that have realized economic arrangements, such as the EU 's monetary union, are further expanding their efforts to achieve political integration. Regional economic integration is now considered an exigency of national affairs. North East Asian countries are also affected by this global predicament, but the issue involves greater structural complexities in this region. The emergence of China has forced Japan and Korea to contemplate difficult structural adjustments. For example, while the Korean government recognizes the importance of stronger intra-regional economic cooperation, by pursuing these arrangements it simultaneously faces the dilemma of maintaining traditional partnerships, such as those with the USA and Japan. If Korea actively supports regional economic arrangements, this action would be perceived as a bias toward China, consequently damaging ties with the US. Thus, rather than depending on public initiatives to establish economic ties in North East Asia, China, Japan and Korea should rely on market friendly projects initiated by the private sector that endorse gradual integration through non-political activities and exchanges among the citizens of the respective countries. This paper first proposes the founding of a North East Asian United University Community composed of students, professors and campuses of the three countries in the initial stages. Secondly, it proposes the development of unique Asian commodities, a concept similar to that of 'Airbus. ' Finally, it proposes utilization of retired Japanese, Korean and Chinese engineers and technicians to speed up the overall level of technology, which is critical to overcoming backwardness in this region.

Previous studies have examined the impact of gender on training opportunities, but only within the context of Western societies. This study explores the effect of gender on access to company training in Taiwanese high‐tech firms. It finds that although males enjoy a slight advantage over females in obtaining training, there are no significant gender‐based differences. Females in Taiwan appeared to be more successful in accessing company training than their counterparts in the USA and the UK. Higher labour‐market status is offered as a potential reason for such relative success. Consistent with human capital theory, a direct relationship is found to exist between seniority and the probability of receiving training.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of alcohol policies in reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among youth. Previous research has shown that risky sexual practices (e.g., unprotected sex and multiple partners) that increase the risk of contracting an STD are highly correlated with alcohol use. If alcohol is a cause of risky sexual behaviour, then policies that reduce the consumption of alcohol may also reduce the incidence of STDs. In this chapter, we examine the relationship between alcohol policies (e.g., beer taxes and statutes pertaining to alcohol sales and drunk driving) and rates of gonorrhea and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) among teenagers and young adults. Results indicate that higher beer taxes are associated with lower rates of gonorrhea for males and are suggestive of lower AIDS rates. Strict drunk driving policies in the form of zero tolerance laws may also lower the gonorrhea rate among males under the legal drinking age.

Recent accounting literature and Agency theory have predicted that corporate governance assists the convergence of interests between shareholders and managers, and thus enhances the quality of financial reporting. This chapter discusses some of the empirical studies on corporate governance in Saudi Arabia; it also elaborates on the corporate governance regulations introduced by Capital Market Authority in Saudi Arabia. Studies cover various subjects that interact with corporate governance, such as earnings management, corporate social responsibility disclosure, ownership structure, environmental disclosure and voluntary disclosure in annual reports of Saudi's listed firms. It also discusses the effectiveness and determinants of corporate governance structures, such as the board of directors, audit committee and other sub-committees. Results were generally in line with previous research from the developed countries, but sometimes there are contradictions, and these results have been discussed and explained, and implications to regulators and investors are drawn where possible.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the determinants of hiring and exit rates by age at the firm level and firm-level age segregation in hirings and separations in Finland.

The use Finnish linked employer-employee data from 1990 to 2004. The authors present a decomposition of employment change by age group to disentangle the roles of hirings and exits from factors related to demographics effects. Firm-level analysis is conducted using regression models for the hiring rates and shares of different age groups and for the probability of hiring older employees. Similar models are estimated for the exits of older employees. Segregation is analysed using age segregation curves and Gini indices calculated from them.

The hirings of older (50+) employees have clearly been more segregated at the firm level than the exits or the stock of old employees. Larger firms are more likely to hire older employees, but their hiring rates are lower. However, the probability of having hires or exits of older workers are much higher in large firms. The results are relatively similar for men and women.

The determinants of the probability of hiring older workers and the rate of hiring them, given that the rate is positive, are different and these two processes should be modelled separately. The Gini index of segregation may be misleading when the number of employees per firm is small. Therefore it is useful to compare segregation to a random reshuffle of employees to firms.

Older worker who have become unemployed or who want to change their job need to have more employment opportunities. Labour and pension policies need to be monitored and designed so that there are more incentives for the individual to search for a new job and for the firms to hire older employees.

The authors provide new empirical evidence of age segregation and hiring prospects of older employees. Age segregation has previously been examined in occupations, but the authors extend the analysis to firm-level segregation. The authors suggest a new decomposition of the rate of employment change to the hiring and exit rates and to a cohort effect.