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The purpose of this paper is to look at how employability is currently embedded within courses to prepare students for their transition into the world of work, identifying the teaching and learning strategies employed.

A review of the relevant literature was conducted. The study analysed experiential data and the logged reports of student work placements over a period of five years, to determine the relationship of such placements to both academic results and long term employability. The study considered placements from the viewpoints of the university, students and employers. It proceeded to look at the current embedding of employability within the teaching curriculum, specifically teaching and learning strategies for personal professional development courses and the employability passport. It also looked at the role of the work placement tutor.

The main revelation was that the employability skills sought by employers were mostly “soft” and therefore behaviours, rather than “hard” teachable skills, which has significant implications for the introduction of the teaching excellence framework (TEF) and the provision of suitable metrics.

The study and findings are limited to a single university in the UK.

The results of the study and conclusions drawn from the analysis of findings, led to the identification of the student, institution, tutor, employer) quartet of actors for employability. The paper also postulates the ramifications of the introduction of the TEF on employability.

Although it was predicted that bank branches would quickly become obsolete in a computerized society, the reality is that many full‐service branches are not closing but rather evolving to meet changing needs. The role of the branch manager is crucial, and is also changing. In particular, managers are expected to take a lead in marketing activities. A questionnaire study was carried out to examine managers’ changing roles, using two samples of branch managers, one from Canada and one from Spain. Managers were asked to rate 21 function variables on their importance in bank management and in facing new market trends. Differences were found between the two samples, as were similarities: both identified managerial ability, strategic autonomy of the branch and business development through increased marketing ability, as important building blocks for the future role of branches and their managers.

This chapter reports on a longitudinal quasi-experimental field study within an organizational design of a global consumer products manufacturer moving toward high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in North America by integrating business centers and self-directed work teams (SDWTs) coupled with 13 other action-levers within an integrated and bundled high-performance organizations (HPOs) re-design. The results of this organizational design effort are assessed using different types and levels of organizational outcomes (hard record data, behavioral, and attitudinal measures) along a 5-year temporal dimension punctuated by multiple time periods (baseline, during, and after). The organization, which was “built to change” (Lawler & Worley, 2006), in this research had already highly superior or “exemplar” (Collins, 2001) levels of organizational performance. Consequently, the real research question becomes: “What effect does state of the art organizational design and development have on an exemplar organization?” The study also calls into question the field's ability to truly assess exemplar organizations with existing measures of organizational change and development.

This paper discusses current developments in the Internet industry in Botswana focusing on Internet connectivity and diffusion within the country. The national telecommunication network upon which Internet implementation is predicated is assessed in terms of teledensity, penetration, modernization, policy and regulatory framework. Internet infrastructure is discussed in the context of Internet hosts, number of users, Internet service providers and stakeholders. The current issues in the Internet industry within Botswana are analyzed. The constraints hampering Internet diffusion and prospects for Internet growth are outlined.

Poor performance remains a challenge for the construction industry worldwide. One of the key performance indicators of the construction industry is the timely delivery of projects. Despite the recent methodological and technological advances in the field, project-overrun remains a significant challenge for the industry. This paper seeks to propose practical solutions that allow overcoming the challenges and promote the opportunities for improving the performance of the construction projects in Dubai.

This study focussed on the construction projects in Dubai; therefore, this research adopted a sequential mixed approach in two stages. The first stage involved face-to-face interviews with seven carefully selected construction professionals. Their answers were analysed to provide with the literature study “the informed-basis for the development of the online questionnaire”. The second stage involved an online survey administrated to 425 carefully selected construction organisations working in Dubai. Accordingly, a meticulous analysis for the prime causes of project overruns has also been undertaken. This analysis assisted proposing the most suitable solutions-based technologies that enabled alleviating overruns in the construction projects.

The findings revealed that, there was a consensus agreement on the formidable opportunities for improving the performance of the construction industry in general and in particular in Dubai. These opportunities are intrinsically linked with the adoption of the latest technologies such as building information modelling, augmented reality, virtual reality and the artificial intelligence (AI). Whereas, adopting AI has already assisted two public authorities to release No Objection Certificates and work permits effectively within one day instead of 14 working days, which has saved 90% of the time and cost. Likewise, adoption of the AI has assisted delivering the construction project with a 9% of time saving and a 6% of cost saving due to embracing an automated system that enabled them to instantly detect and report the delays, once occurred.

The main limitation of this study is that the study was limited to the construction industry in the Emirate of Dubai. Therefore, future research could target the whole United Arab Emirates construction industry to propose the practical solution on the country level.

The literature study is replete with solutions, which tend to be theoretical more than practical. Therefore, the proposed practical recommendations will significantly assist the construction industry to improve its suboptimal performance to rescind the sovereignty of the irrelevant involvements. The research recommended establishing independent entity to lead the change in the construction industry; this entity will have the power of enacting rules and legislations. Furthermore, this independent entity will have the power and authority of dictations and impose sanctions on the non-committed organisations that are reluctant to adopt the recommended technologies and approaches.

Based on the findings of the study, this paper draws a road map for the construction industry by determining practical solutions for improvements starting with an establishment of an independent authority that selects and tests the most appropriate technologies and approaches to contribute to performance improvements.

Although building information modelling (BIM) adoption in developed countries has largely been incentivised by government, in developing countries, adoption is often driven by desires of industry professionals, which is dependent on awareness of BIM and availability of skills among the professionals. Thus, BIM awareness and competence among professionals have become useful baseline measures of BIM readiness. To ascertain BIM readiness within the Seychelles construction industry, this study aims to investigate the level of BIM awareness and level of BIM competence among construction professionals.

The study involved a questionnaire survey of construction professionals (n = 96) and data analysis using both descriptive statistics and association analysis.

The results indicate a moderate level of BIM awareness, but a low level of engagement in BIM education/training. Also, the professionals have very low BIM technical skills, notably the ability to use BIM-related tools and to perform BIM-related task. Furthermore, this study suggests that the experience of working on collaborative projects could be a useful premise for BIM implementation among construction professionals.

The implication is that construction professionals in the Seychelles need to start readying themselves for greater BIM adoption by taking steps to address the BIM technical skills deficiencies and the low engagement in BIM education/training.