Lesson 04 Assignment

HRER 816 Lesson 04 Assignment

Student Name: _______________________________________
Last 4 digits of your PSU ID Number: _____________________________________
Complete the following assignment directly on this document. If you attempt to complete the assignment directly in ANGEL, you may lose your work if ANGEL experiences an outage. Use the attachments button to upload your file to the Lesson 04 Drop Box, then click submit.
Before completing your assignment, review the grading rubric provided below. There is no set volume or word count expected for your answers. If you've adequately covered the topic by addressing all of the points requested in the rubric, then your responses should meet instructor expectations regarding length.

Part 1 - APPLICATION

Answer the following question (20 points):

After reading this lesson and the readings, explain how insights from the discussion about investment in human capital (either at the individual level or by the employer in terms of general or firm specific training) may be applied by you, as the HR manager, to a situation at your place of employment.

Part 2 - ANALYSIS

Answer ONE of the following three questions (15 points). Be sure to address all parts of the question.

1. Looking at training by firms:
   1. Compare and contrast general and firm specific training.
   2. What are the direct and indirect costs of employer-provided training?
   3. Explain the connection between firm specific training investments and the tendency of both employers and workers to wish to establish a long-term relationship with each other.
2. Suppose you were invited, as a representative of students, to the U.S. Congress to testify regarding the “social returns” to taxpayer investments in higher education.
   1. What is meant by “social returns?”
   2. What are examples of social returns to education?
   3. Explain how the public benefits from subsidizing the private costs of human capital expenditures on higher education.
3. Age-earning profiles:
   1. What is an age-earnings profile? Explain how the general shape of age-earnings profile captures earnings behavior over the life cycle.
   2. Compare and contrast the shape of typical age-earnings profiles for the following three cases:
      1. high school education,
      2. 4-year college education, and
      3. advanced/professional/post-baccalaureate degree.
   3. Choose ONE of the three above age-earnings profiles and compare males and females. How can the differences be explained?
      (Be sure to cite the sources of any data.)

Part 3 - DATA
Answer the following question. (15 points)

The U.S. Department of Labor has posted predicted occupational projections that include the level of education and training necessary for each occupation. (http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_data_occupational_data.htm)

1. Do you find any surprises in the predictions?
2. How do these predictions square with increasing income inequality based on educational level? How do these predictions square with increased pressures for postsecondary education and funding for postsecondary education?
3. Discuss the projections using views expressed as part of the Hilton (2008) article or any other of the readings for this topic.

 

When you've completed it, submit your assignment to the Lesson 04 Drop Box.

This is the end of Lesson 04. Check your syllabus for the time frame for the next lesson.