TRENDS: THE COMMODITIZATION OF EMPLOYMENT DRIVES EMPLOYEE INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION - Educational attainment may be replacing employment as the goal of many workers, according to a new report in American Demographics. In today's tight job market, epitomized by online "talent auctions" and job "churning," new research suggests that workers increasingly depend on education to build personal employment value, while seeing jobs as interchangeable commodities subject to comparison shopping and short-term commitment. "Knowledge rules," Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, told American Demographics. "Because of the pace of change in this global economy, the people who have it are more in demand and are in a better place to negotiate the conditions of their employment. That is not going to change with any changes in the economy." Gary Burtless, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, agrees, noting that when the unemployment rate soared in the late seventies and early eighties, skilled workers kept their jobs and their benefits. Some employers are already adapting to the new job market, both by offering employees the kind of benefits they value, such as employer-sponsored education, flextime and telecommuting and by outsourcing. "More and more companies are going to be looking to hire people on a contract, or project-by-project basis," Jeff Schmidt, managing director of the Towers Perrin HR firm told American Demographics. "That's a trend that will definitely pick up steam in the years ahead." Read more on the American Demographics website at CLICK: http://www.americandemographics.com/publications/ad/00_ad/0009_ad/ ad00090.htm (E-NEWS FROM UCEA No. 34 15 Nov 00)

GO TO: SCHOOL - PC Magazine rates Embark.com the best full-service portal site in its review of learning portals that allow people to pursue their full-time or part-time educational goals. Classified as an edu-commerce site, Embark received the PC Magazine Editors' Choice award. The portal is organized into sections for first-time collegians, grad students, online distance learners and international students and its Matchmaker wizard delivers the Web sites of desirable colleges. Users can apply online, and a recruiting tool allows them to add personal information. PC Magazine rated MindEdge and CyberU very good, while CollegeLearning.com and EduPoint.com rated in the good category. Hungry Minds was rated fair. The learning portal category consists of indexes and search engines that bring together the higher-education industry's buyers and sellers. Ipeds College Opportunities Online rated excellent. Other notable sites in this category include CampusProgram.com, Peterson's, and College Tip. About Education Channel, a collection of vertical niche sites and Fathom are also worth visiting. (PC Magazine, 7 Nov 00 - Edupage 6 Nov 00)

eLEARNING AND UNIVERSITIES - According to Gerald Heeger, University of Maryland's president (University College in College Park), traditional colleges will not be replaced by online universities. Rather, many traditional institutions will feature classes with online components while others will gravitate to teaching entirely online. In the future, students may simultaneously receive one degree from a traditional institution and another from one online. Heeger is not worried by the profit motive trend that is driving many new online universities or more traditional institutions in online ventures. Capital enables many universities to afford necessary technology - and, he argues, US higher education has never been totally removed from the for-profit sector. (Christian Science Monitor, 31 Oct 00)