Higher Education and Employment: The Changing Relationship. Recent Developments in Continuing Professional Education. Country Study: United States.

Overview & Synopsis

This report, one of a series of country studies on higher education and employment particularly in continuing professional education, looks at recent developments in the United States. A foreword briefly sketches the state of higher education in general that provides the context for professional continuing education in the United States. The report goes on to focus on what is known concerning the further education and training of qualified postsecondary graduates outside of regular graduate level degree programs noting that data available on continuing education of any kind are not extensive. A short section formally defines the subject by specifying the meaning of adult and continuing education generally, postsecondary adult and continuing education, and finally continuing professional education. A central section then presents a general idea of the scope of continuing professional education with available data indicating that continuing professional education tends to be oriented more toward perfecting specific skills or competencies and that trend data comparing 1969 with 1984 indicate that there was an increase in employer-provided and employer-sponsored continuing professional education during this period. A final section discusses issues of current importance such as regulation, organization, delivery, and evaluation. (Contains 21 notes.) (JB)