ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the proposition of accountability in the context of manpower planning. It explains the credentials creep problem, which together with graduate unemployment usually gives rise to calls for accountability and greater manpower planning. The chapter elaborates a treatment of the various approaches to manpower planning. It presents manpower planning with an evaluation of the two main approaches — Manpower Requirements and Manpower Absorption. The chapter also examines the role of the academic in manpower matters. The Manpower Requirements Approach favours the idea of an "appropriate" level of training and qualification to perform certain tasks. The Manpower Absorption Approach, on the other hand, is much less concerned with the changing patterns of education and occupation. Labour market intelligence thus requires the marketing of relevant education/occupation information to a mass audience of non-specialists. For the individual it is important to provide a more informed framework from which to make educational and occupational decisions.
