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Employee commitment has been extensively researched by academics. Theories about commitment towards the organisation have enjoyed much interest. The concept is a central part of HR models. Research to date, however, has not examined the extent to which such “academic” perspectives are compatible with the views of practitioners. Hence, this research establishes practitioner’s understanding of employee commitment in a variety of UK private sector organisations. The findings of a national survey, distributed to 300 HRM managers (response rate 32 per cent), indicate a wide recognition of the desirability and benefits of commitment, but clear disparity between the way academics and practitioners conceptualise and measure it. Despite the variety of formal measuring tools available, organisational monitoring of commitment can be described as ad hoc and subjective. We conclude that the subjective approach adopted by practitioners could inform the approaches of academics just as the structured “objective” approaches of academics should inform practitioners.

This paper aims to explore the expectations of relevant stakeholders in the engineering field to better understand the demands of the twenty-first century. As the number of unemployed continues to grow in Malaysia, it is evident that as industries continue to develop, demands and new requirements for skilled workers change over time.

Through face-to-face interviews, the study explored the expectations of accreditation bodies, industry operators and academics in the engineering field.

Three major findings were documented: mismatch of expectations in engineering field across the stakeholders; the expected “must-have-skills” from the perspectives of the stakeholders; and the need to reassess how information transmission is cascaded to all stakeholders and remains relevant to market demand.

It is recognized that the findings from this study may only be relevant to the engineering field and not to the other different disciplines, but the qualitative findings provide some key issues in understanding the gap between relevant stakeholders that may motivate future studies to further extend into the other disciplines.

With this mismatch drawn out clearly, all relevant stakeholders would be able to revisit and revaluate their existing strategy in addressing, cascading crucial information and equipping graduates with analytical skills to gain immediate employment in the market.

A clearer understanding on the expectations and the “must-have-skills” required in the engineering field in the twenty-first century.

The ability to working effectively with others (WEWO) is critical yet industry continues to lament deficiencies in new graduates. Progress in developing this highly valued skill in undergraduates is impeded by a lack of conceptual clarity and evidence of how best to measure it, and a tendency to adopt an outcomes-focused, rather than process-oriented, approach. This paper aims to investigate undergraduate perceptions of how well a stand-alone employability skill development programme, operating in an Australian Business Faculty, is fostering the WEWO skill set and which pedagogical practices are considered to add most value.

The study examines undergraduate perceptions using data gathered from a skills audit of 799 business undergraduates from all four sequential units within the skills programme. Undergraduates rated and described their development against an established framework of WEWO behaviours.

Findings indicate that, overall, skill development is rated highly among the undergraduates although the behaviours of conflict resolution, social intelligence and influencing others were rated less highly than others within the skill set. The importance of class activities and assessment items, including the use of virtual learning tools were identified by students as critical to the development of WEWO behaviours.

The study highlights the important role of constructive alignment, sequential skill development, consistency of delivery and ensuring student “buy-in” to education practitioners in their efforts to meet industry expectations of graduates who can WEWO.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a three‐year PMI2 project for the British Council in 2008, one of seven to develop and strengthen partnerships with Chinese institutions in employability and entrepreneurship. Involving a partnership between Leeds Metropolitan University England and the Zhejiang University of Technology Hangzhou, China, the aim has been to analyse the Hangzhou and Zhejiang economies and examine current Chinese company requirements for skills and talent and their implications for teaching and learning and graduate supply. This was intended to strengthen the existing partnerships at a civic level between Leeds and Hangzhou and the successful MA in Trade and Finance run by the two universities.

The paper draws on preliminary interview studies in China of Hangzhou companies in different industrial sectors to analyse the skill and talent needs of such companies, their demands for graduate talent in particular and their views about the adequacy of the supply of that talent from local and national universities.

The paper clarifies the relationship between talent demand and supply in China, especially with regard to graduate talent, and presents an original analysis of the skill needs of the Hangzhou economy.

The paper suggests ways in which universities in Zhejiang and China generally could strengthen their engagement with businesses over talent demand and supply, and how they could develop courses and programmes that more effectively bridge the gap between universities and businesses.

In Saudi Arabia, quality management receives a significant amount of attention in higher education. In medical education, specifically, Saudi colleges have been fully engaged with quality assurance and accreditation since 1992, under the supervision of the Saudi Council for Health Specialties. Along with the quality standards determined by accreditation agencies, the perspective of employers on the quality of learning and teaching needs to be acknowledged. The needs of medical employers can be translated into quality standards for medical education to help overcome the perceived deficiencies which lead to poorly equipped graduates. This chapter explores how employers conceptualize quality in medical education with an emphasis on learning and teaching and employers’ perspectives on the quality attributes of medical graduates. This chapter is based on interviews with 14 medical employers in Saudi Arabia. From the employers’ perspective, a high-quality medical education is marked by high quality educational systems, curricula, faculty members, and medical training. Additionally, medical graduates must attain a balance of soft skills, practical and clinical skills, and theoretical medical knowledge. Understanding employers’ perspectives on quality in medical education will complement our existing understanding of quality in medical education.

During the 1990s the value to an intending professional accountant of undertaking a period of liberal (general) studies was promoted internationally by a number of individuals and organisations, including the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (the “Institute”). The Institute significantly changed its admissions policy for Chartered Accountants in 1996 and one change was to require four years of degree level study with a compulsory liberal studies component. This study surveys the perceptions of New Zealand accounting practitioners on the impact of this compulsory liberal component. The results of this study demonstrate that there is little support from accounting practitioners for IFAC’s claim that liberal education “can contribute significantly to the acquisition of professional skills”, including intellectual, personal and communication skills. In addition, the majority of respondents did not perceive any improvements in the professional skills of the staff that had qualified under the Institute’s current admissions policy. However, any perceived improvements were mainly attributed to the Institute’s admissions policy change. Notwithstanding the lack of support for the assertion that liberal education develops professional skills, there is a strong belief by respondents in the value of liberal education for intending professional accountants.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and gain recent insights into the extent to which skills expectation gap exists from the perspective of employers in a Pacific Island country, including the competencies perceived essential within the work context of accountants and the support provided by employers to accounting graduates to address the skills expectation gap.

Using the expectation–performance gap framework developed by Bui and Porter (2010), this study collects and analyses data via semi-structured interviews with employers at chartered accounting firms, large- and medium-sized commercial and industrial firms in Fiji.

Majority of the employers indicated that graduates from the Fijian universities are adequately prepared and have acquired the necessary attributes to perform at the workplace. However, employers expect universities to do a little more in terms of developing confidence and improving ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. The findings also outline that the institutional-, social- and student-related constraints directly affect the quality of graduates, which are not in control of academics.

It is noted that graduate capabilities are developed over two different learning environments. This study focused on how universities prepared graduates to perform at the workplace from the perspective of employers. This serves as a basis for future research to investigate effectiveness of trainings provided by employers to graduates to enable them into becoming successful accounting professionals.

This study adds clarifications to the debate on academic–practice gap by providing recent insights into the extent to which graduates demonstrate capabilities to perform in the accounting profession, the prevailing issues with graduate capabilities and the employers’ contribution towards strengthening graduate capabilities.

The purpose of this paper, from a work‐based learning practitioner perspective, is to present an insight into some of the challenges, benefits and impacts associated with workforce development and employer responsive provision (ERP). The focus is learning, which is designed to meet an organization's needs and intended for groups of learners to develop their skills, whilst bringing tangible benefits to their organization.

Focusing upon experiences of managing an employer engagement, action research project, which worked with over 40, small and medium‐sized enterprises and more recently working with three major corporate organisations, this paper provides a personal perspective of engaging with organizations. It draws upon primary data from personal experiences and action research of working with employers and learners, and secondary data, such as the Higher Education Impact Study (2008) and the Higher Education Regional Development Agency's Skills for Growth report (2009). After setting the context, this paper will consider ERP and its challenges, in terms of organizational needs meeting academic tradition. This is supported with case study anecdotes, before a consideration of the impacts and benefits of ERP from an organizational perspective.

This paper provides insights into effective ERP and the elements needed to support its success. With probable continued growth in ERP, it is imperative that HEIs with ERP strategies understand the associated challenges and benefits. It suggests that in order to promote sustainable ERP activity, HEIs will need to consider a more strategic approach concerning the staff engaging in ERP activities.

From a work‐based learning practitioner perspective, this paper presents an insight into some of the challenges, benefits and impacts associated with workforce development and employer responsive provision (ERP).

This paper draws together current thinking on ERP with practice‐based application and understanding in order to inform and develop practice. It offers practical insights and experiences which build upon various bodies of literature to present identified elements necessary for successful engagement with employers. As the literature around ERP at present is fairly small, this paper offers a valuable insight into successful practice, building usable models for people working in this field.

Introduction: Work-based learning (WBL) bridges the gap between academic theory and exposure to real-life situations where students’ knowledge is filtered and applied to relevant workplace environments.

Purpose: This study aims to examine students’ and employers’ voices on their perspectives of WBL. It focuses on students reading for an undergraduate degree in Bachelor’s in Commerce in two majors, with a specialisation in Public Policy at the University of Malta.

Methodology: Questionnaires were sent to students to obtain their views on the experience and benefits of WBL. This was followed by structured interviews conducted with employers and undergraduate students to provide an overview of their respective work-based experiences. WBL providers were asked to draw up reports on the students’ performance. The feedback which emerged from the structured interviews on the nature of these experiences was analysed. These tools helped to calibrate and refine the nature of these practices.

Findings: The study’s findings show that WBL experiences help students increase technical knowledge, improve their soft skills, and learn new tools, sought after by employers. Feedback emanating from employers’ perspectives serves to temper the University course curriculum to ensure that it is relevant to the requirements of modern-day society.

The information technology (IT) sector is a powerful factor in present-day society, and its role in pro-sustainability policies is crucial. This study aims to gain insight into IT students' perspectives on the role of education for sustainable development (ESD) in their academic curriculum as well as to project their attitudes and actions to prospective employers.

This study used a cross-sectional survey design, involving 260 students majoring in IT at a public university in Bulgaria.

The majority of the students (67.30%) believed that their university education should promote students’ social and environmental skills. However, 55–65% thought that the current academic curriculum failed to connect subject matter with relevant environmental issues. The students held high expectations of prospective employers. There was a significant concordance between the participants' views on sustainability and their perceived workplace actions. The participants who believed that employers should reduce carbon emissions were significantly more likely to refuse to do any work that supports the fossil fuel industry [odds ratio (OR) = 4.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.04–11.37] or leave a job if the company provides products or services for the fossil fuel industry (OR = 3.10, 95% CI: 1.26–7.26). Such participants were more likely to opt for a lower salary in favor of environmental principles (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.32–4.28).

The IT sector is a powerful factor in present-day society, and its role in pro-sustainability policies is crucial. IT students’ perspectives on the gaps in current sustainability practices convey a message to the IT academic and employment communities that environmental issues matter and are important to this new generation of technologically savvy people.

There have been a few other studies in Bulgaria on the issue of ESD, but no other study has focused on the projection of students' attitudes toward the environment onto future employers. The study's results showed that the Bulgarian young people who were getting ready for jobs in the IT field had the same environmental values and concerns as their peers from different higher education areas in different parts of the world. They were interested in acquiring knowledge and competencies that would help propel pro-environmental actions in their academic institution and future workplace. Notwithstanding the overall low economic standards in their country, they tended to put carbon-free and environmentally friendly policies ahead of financial interests. Their critical perspectives on the gaps in current sustainability practices convey a message to the academic and job communities in IT that environmental issues matter to this new generation of technologically savvy people.