Search results

The purpose of the study was to assess the current state and demand of the project management education. Project management has gained increasing importance as a critical discipline for achieving successful project outcomes in various industries and sectors. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the demand for skilled project management professionals has increased due to different developmental projects and ambitious initiatives like NEOM.

The study adopted a qualitative multi-method approach to comprehend the objective in depth. In the first round, a systematic literature review (SRL) was applied to explore the state of project management education (PME) in KSA. In the second, structured interviews with professionals were arranged to explore the phenomenon of interest in more detail. Moreover, three case studies were also included to support, comprehend and generalize the findings.

The study highlights the strengths and gaps in PME. The study also provides an insight to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the PME in KSA. Besides these, the research recommends exploring different avenues for the promotion of PME in the country.

The study offers a pioneering exploration of PME in KSA. It uses a multi-method approach to unveil unique insights into the country's educational landscape and its alignment with global industry standards.

The dynamic nature of the built environment and trending smart construction project complexities demand proactive needs tailored towards architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) education. It is a task for the built environment professionals (BEP) to prepare for the future, including the quantity surveying (QS) profession. Studies are scarce in preparing QS education from Nigeria’s stakeholders’ perspective regarding digital technology. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how to improve QS education by continually updating curriculum digitalisation to meet the construction industry requirements.

Data were sourced from elite virtual interviews across Nigeria. A total of 40 key stakeholders knowledgeable in QS education, advocating a future template for the advancement of QS education in higher institutions, were engaged, and saturation was achieved.

Findings show that improving QS education through continually updating curriculum digitalisation to meet industry requirements cannot be over-emphasised in the 21st-century-built environment industry. The outcomes of the results led to the conclusion that the current QS education curriculum was not meeting the expectations of other BEP stakeholders. Thus, for competitiveness in the future, the QS education curriculum needs to infuse more related-digital technology modules/courses to assist in the sustainability and relevance of the profession within the BEP.

This paper focussed on improving Nigeria’s QS education using digital technologies via a qualitative approach. Future study is needed via a quantitative approach for broader coverage and validation.

The research revealed the need for designing QS programmes to provide for industry demands with emphasis on digital technologies modules/courses. Nigeria’s QS education stakeholders have been stirred up to embrace the curriculum review and make the profession digitalised and relevant within the BEP. The built environment sector is trending towards digitalisation, and the QS programmes cannot afford to be behind.

This research identified the current gap regarding digitalisation of the curriculum. This study will stir QS educational providers and regulators to improve future programmes via digital technologies. It would encourage the use of digital technologies with the right enabling environment. The outcome would mitigate the gap and improve Nigeria’s QS education in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of contemporary perspectives, policies, and practices relating to reported vocational education and training (VET) teacher recruitment and retention challenges, with a particular focus on England and Australia.

This position piece discusses the topic from a transnational perspective by reviewing the relevant literature and examining the impact of policies and practices in England and Australia.

The paper finds that there is a paucity of empirical research relating to VET teacher shortages, but that globally, experience in the sector suggests there are challenges in recruiting and retaining the qualified VET teaching workforce required to address current and future training needs. It recommends that further research is undertaken with an international approach to better understand the problem from the perspective of VET teachers, leaders, and education institutions, and to identify potential solutions.

The paper does not report on empirical research but suggests that further studies are required to better understand the problem and identify potential solutions based on the respective socioeconomic, demographic, and policy contexts.

While there are studies examining VET and VET teaching from the perspectives of quality, reputation, and esteem, few examine the issue and impact of VET teacher shortages, or the challenges of VET teacher recruitment and retention in the contemporary and comparable contexts of Australia and England.

The pandemic brought by COVID-19 in March 2020 shook the entire world, compelling everyone to remain indoors. Most B-Schools were unprepared for such a situation and did not have the resources to carry out the teaching and learning activities. B-schools then adopted online and hybrid modes of learning to impart education to their students. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the quality of education along with lessons learnt and lessons to be left behind, using qualitative method.

The factors affecting the quality of education were drawn from the literature, and 18 faculty members were interviewed. The study uses a descriptive method, where interviews were conducted, and each interview was recorded, with an explicit permission of respective faculty member and coded and categorized to identify themes.

The significant contribution of this study is that it highlights? Through the learnings and experiences of the pandemic? What will work in the future for business schools. The use of online teaching-learning sessions and softwares, namely, Turnitin and Grammarly will not fade away. Faculty will use various engagement tools such as quizzes and simulations to improve the learning and quality of education in the post-pandemic era. Various interactive and online tools emerged during the pandemic which allowed faculty to use diagrams and infographics in their teaching, and this helped the faculty to cater to students with different learning styles.

This study will provide B-Schools, faculties and leaders an input for improving the quality of online education. The present study provides an empirical contribution to the factors affecting online education and its quality, by highlighting the perspective of faculty members with the help of qualitative study. These factors make a clear and strong indication that education in the future will be partly online, wherein a lot of e-learning resources will be used by faculty to impart quality education.

As universities find new ways to implement professional development programmes (PDPs), very few scholarly studies have focused on how lifelong learning could serve as a tool to enhance the professional development of staff. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to examine how the integration of lifelong learning modes into PDPs in a university setting in South Africa could enable professional staff to advance their knowledge and skills. Additionally, the study explores how the different PDPs could be conceptualised by way of lifelong learning to enhance the professional knowledge and competences of staff.

Data were gathered from 41 professional staff in three campuses of the university. The narrative data gathered were evaluated using thematic analysis that consisted of a detailed process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that were generated from the data.

Findings suggest that when the university integrates lifelong learning approaches into its professional development programmes, it allows staff to develop their knowledge and skills through diverse learning approaches. When institutions adopt these diverse learning approaches, it enable staff to situate their learning needs along the different lifelong learning modes, negotiate suitable learning modes and flexible schedules with their heads of department, and learn the accepted norms and values of the university. These findings among others lead to further questions about how PDPs could be designed using the three lifelong learning modes to enable staff to prepare adequately for the future of work in higher education.

This study contributes to the scholarly discourse on lifelong learning by showing how higher education institutions could design PDPs along formal, informal and non-formal learning approaches to enhance the knowledge and skills of staff.

This chapter examines how Latvia manages Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within a policymaking process in Latvia – how SGDs are interpreted into policy actions in Latvia. This chapter is based on the two cases to reveal a link between SDGs and wicked problems. The case of education is about policy and strategic planning considering the high priority of the education sector in society. At the same time, climate change reflects the opposite perspective – limited public attention and fewer policy actions. Thus, both cases reveal actual policy implementation with several uncertainties. In the meantime, both topics are essential to identify strategies for solving wicked agendas related to policy coherence and interconnection among goals. As a result, the implementation of SDGs needs more institutional mechanisms for future-oriented policymaking where the present development needs are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

This study aims to explore the conditions of successful implementation of Quality 4.0 in higher education institutions (HEIs) and the key factors affecting it, as well as the role of the Triple Helix collaborative (THC) framework in enhancing the integration of Quality 4.0 principles and Industry 4.0 technologies.

A survey-based strategy was adopted, adopting questionnaires distributed amongst researchers chosen based on their publications related to the aforementioned fields.

The successful integration of disruptive technologies, Quality 4.0 and THC in HEIs heavily relies on educators' continuous learning and professional development. Faculty members must acquire digital skills and competencies to effectively adopt disruptive technologies and implement Quality 4.0 principles in their teaching practices. HEIs should provide opportunities for faculty members to engage in ongoing training programmes, workshops and communities of practice that focus on enhancing their technological proficiencies, pedagogical strategies and collaborative skills.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported study linking the concepts of Quality 4.0 and the Triple Helix of Innovation in HEIs.

The purpose of the current article is to examine the effect of the inefficient allocation of academic individuals in the Israeli labor market in terms of mismatch between their fields of education and occupation – a phenomenon referred in the literature as “horizontal mismatch” and “job-field underemployment” – on their duration of unemployment, in the local labor market.

A sample size of 8,554 participants have taken part in the survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics: Undergraduate students at academic institutions in Israel in the academic year of 2010–2011, who were sampled again in the academic year of 2017–2018, to determine the nature of their integration into the labor market, and the quality of their career progress. The study’s methodology is statistical-correlational, and its data mainly based on the answers of the participants in the research tool (questionnaire). A T-test for independent samples (via SPSS) has proven the key results.

The average cumulative annual duration of unemployment, as of graduation with a bachelor’s degree, among the mismatched graduates, was found to be higher than the average cumulative annual duration of unemployment among the matched graduates.

The current study’s originality lays both in its large sample size (8,554), and in the repeatability element of its sampling (test-retest reliability). Also, its findings regarding the consequences of the nature of the match between the educational field and occupational field – on the quality of integration of academics in the Israeli labor market, are pioneers in this field.

Vocational education in Hong Kong suffers from an image problem. Stakeholders often perceive it as a second-best option for those who fail to advance in academic education. In 2016, to promote vocational education, the Hong Kong government launched a publicity campaign and rebranded vocational education and training (VET) as vocational and professional education and training (VPET). This study critically analyzes the new discourse crafted by this campaign and assesses its potential to change VPET’s status.

This study applies critical discourse analysis to the set of television public service advertisements produced as part of the government publicity campaign.

The messaging of the publicity campaign consists of two major discursive strategies. One stresses the ability to find self-fulfillment through VPET. The other stresses the academic ability and middle-class status of VPET students as well as the non-manual and high-end career opportunities for graduates. While the first strategy offers a new basis on which to value VPET, the second recreates assumptions about the value of academic achievement and what constitutes respectable employment, even as it attempts to challenge stereotypes. It reinforces that the ultimate goal of education is financial gain and social status. It overlooks other values of education and the potential value of VPET in enhancing individual choice and agency.

Discourse analysis does not provide information about audience perceptions and interpretations.

The government could consider reframing their messaging in terms of the diverse values and experiences of VPET students. Highlighting the values that VPET students themselves see in their education provides alternative discourses that can better challenge hegemonic ideas.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first discourse analysis of the government’s publicity campaign to promote VPET.