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A recent survey of studies on the school to work transition was particularly critical of English and Swedish compulsory work experience programs. This article reports on an Australian case study that reaches the opposite conclusion. The majority of participants in the Work for the Dole program are young people (under 25) who are struggling to find secure employment. Even though they are forced to undertake the program, over three‐quarters of participants rate the experience as “very satisfactory” or “satisfactory”. Participants value the work experience they receive if they feel they are learning and value the connection to the labour market from being included in their supervisor's informal network of contacts. The program appears successful in delivering “soft outcomes”, such as increased self‐esteem, improved communication and interpersonal skills, which ameliorate some of the negative impacts of unemployment on personal well‐being.

WE wish for our readers a Good New Year. Whether it would be appropriate to wish readers a Happy New Year at this stage will depend upon many factors. Even before these words appear in type we may be involved in the more intense struggle for the very existence of our country which everyone seems to think must come sooner or later. The ultimate outcome of that we do not doubt, but while it continues we shall need all the strength, spiritual, mental and physical, that we possess. Nevertheless, it will be a good new year if we remain sensitive to all the needs and opportunities that surround us.

Particles bed binding by selective cement activation (SCA) method is a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technique used to produce cementitious elements. A computer-aided design file is sliced to generate G-codes before printing. This paper aims to study the effect of key input parameters for slicer software on the final properties of printed products.

The one factor at a time (OFAT) methodology is used to investigate the impact of selected parameters on the final properties of printed specimens, and the causes for the variations in outcomes of each variable are discussed.

Finer aggregates can generate a more compact layer, resulting in a denser product with higher strength. Fluid pressure is directly determined by voxel rate (r_V); however, high pressures enable better fluid penetration control for fortified products; for extreme r_Vs, residual voids in the interfaces between successive layers and single-line primitives impair mechanical strength. It was understood that printhead movement along the orientation of the parts in the powder bed improved the mechanical properties.

The design of experiment (DOE) method assesses the influence of process parameters on various input printing variables at the same time. As the resources are limited, a fractional factorial plan is carried out on a subset of a full factorial design; hence, providing physical interpretation behind changes in each factor is difficult. OFAT aids in analyzing the effect of a change in one factor on output while all other parameters are kept constant. The results assist engineers in properly considering the influence of variable variations for future DOE designs.

It is widely accepted that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the healthcare sector offers great potential for improving the quality of services provided, the efficiency and effectiveness of personnel, and also reducing organizational expenses. This paper seeks to examine various hospital information system (HIS) evaluation methods.

In this paper a comprehensive search of the literature concerning the evaluation of complex health information systems is conducted and used to generate a synthesis of the literature around evaluation efforts in this field. Three approaches for evaluating hospital information systems are presented – user satisfaction, usage, and economic evaluation.

The main results are that during the past decade, computers and information systems, as well as their resultant products, have pervaded hospitals worldwide. Unfortunately, methodologies to measure the various impacts of these systems have not evolved at the same pace. To summarize, measurement of users' satisfaction with information systems may be the most effective evaluation method in comparison with the rest of the methods presented.

The methodologies, taxonomies and concepts presented in this paper could benefit researchers and practitioners in the evaluation of HISs.

This review points out the need for more thorough evaluations of HISs that look at a wide range of factors that can affect the relative success or failure of these systems.