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This is the first in a series of articles covering the various aspects of aviation safety. FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS have now reached the stage where predictions can indicate that they reach the level of safety required by certificating authorities. This stage has been achieved by a combination of experience and techniques which regocnise that the majority of the components of which systems are composed may fail.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate short-term, unpaid placements offered to students reading for a degree in public policy. They provide added value to their tertiary education experience. Elective placements were offered in 2012 and became a mandatory requirement for students reading for a three-year bachelor of commerce degree in public policy in 2018. To date, no research has been carried out on these placements and this may serve as a model for a post-evaluation assessment.

Data were collected from students who undertook placements, embedded in the public policy undergraduate programme. A document analysis of selected student and placement provider's reports was carried out to complement the students' responses to an online questionnaire.

Placements are of value to students as they served as an introduction to the working world. They enable students to establish connections with the course content and carry out research. They were exposed to real-life situations, developing their knowledge, acquiring soft skills and learning new tools, sought after by employers. These placements were valued as a route to graduate employment tailor-made to the degree's requirements. Students were able to embark on a soul-searching, introspective discovery and journey which made them mature and shed light in the direction of future work prospects.

Placements give students the opportunity to gain insights into real-work environments and are able to link theories learnt in the class-room with real-life situations. Placements have positive implications on students adjusting to their work life easily after graduation. The limitations are that the sample size was small and that the reflective reports which were randomly selected may not have necessarily been representative of the full complement.

The practical implications are that the placements system and process can easily be implemented and replicated in other academic disciplines and universities as a compulsory component of their studies.

Placements gave students the opportunity to reflect on their learning, develop non-technical skills and enhance their confidence levels. They were also able to network and communicate with different employees.

Placements provided exposure to relevant organisations and personal enrichment in terms of acquiring skills, autonomy and independence. Students with placement experience are also more likely to secure future employment, relevant to their undergraduate degree.

EVEN though, as all technical journals should be, we are completely apolitical, we cannot but notice that a General Election will be over by the time these words reach our readers. Who will win is, at this stage, anybody's guess—and many persons' hopes and fears.

Looks at the process of conducting qualitative management research. Concentrates on data collection used in fieldwork, the way in which data is analysed and the various output from the work. Uses a PhD based upon the management of group moves as a case study. Defends the overall research strategy in terms of confirmability, dependability, credibility and transferability of findings.

This paper uses Alistair Mant's colourful systems metaphor of the frog and the bicycle to explore the current changes in the NHS. Considering the implications of these system changes from this organisational health perspective, a possible leadership strategy is considered to navigate through the challenging transitional period.

THE LATEST CENTRAL TRAINING COUNCIL REPORT ON THE Training of Managers and the BIM's Mant Report have now said what many of us have been saying for years. The most effective training for a manager is that given by an imaginative boss who, with careful regard for his subordinate's needs in knowledge, skill and attitude for the job delegated to him, designs and tutors through a properly controlled spell of training and follows this up with continuous and structured counselling and challenging assignments once the manager is performing his job. From this concept some of us have developed methods of identifying, programming and evaluating schemes of Do‐it‐Yourself management development with the aim of getting the best results from what can otherwise be a hit‐and‐miss affair. In other words, we have worked to help those bosses to whom personal tutoring does not come naturally, to act on their training responsibilities effectively.

Discusses the difficulties women experience in speaking and writing as women. Outlines feminine problems of using the word “I”. Looks at the writing of Marguerite Duras and charts her attempts at producing a feminine “I”. Profiles excerpts from her books in some details, looking at specific examples of her work and advocating further use of her style.

This research investigates wine drinkers' engagement with sparkling wine, including why they drink it, how they evaluate it, and certain country‐based preferences they have for it. It used qualitative processes with both professional and non‐professional informants, and was designed to explore in depth what drinkers feel about the product and their appraisal of its quality. The study confirms some existing assumptions about sparkling wine (for instance, its role as a symbol of celebration and country of origin issues) but also offers new suggestions about its function. Specifically, the study suggests that consumption of sparkling wine has more symbolic than experiential significance — and specifically that the role of memory and recollection may be important for some consumers. It also highlights the problems many drinkers have evaluating sparkling wine due to factors inherent in the style of wine (such as delicacy and mousse), as well as extraneous issues such as a paucity of benchmarks. The findings are useful to the marketer of sparkling wine as they offer insights into the motivation of those who drink it.

A classification scheme by its notation does not do more than locate the subject; therefore, after the books are classified according to the scheme adopted, a secondary arrangement must be provided for the shelves, whereby books in a given class may be arranged in some order to accelerate finding and to differentiate one book from another. There are several methods in vogue of so arranging books in a given class, but one's choice will be, to some extent, determined by the System of issue in use. The usual methods are by:—

ATTENTION has been repeatedly drawn to certain drawbacks in the library profession which tend to hinder progress in many ways, and recently some discussion has taken place concerning the long hours and short pay of library assistants. Some years ago there appeared, we believe, in one of Mr. Greenwood's valuable Library Year Books, an analysis of the hours of work in a large number of British Municipal Libraries, and it was made plain from this that a majority of assistants had to work considerably more than forty‐eight hours weekly. Conditions may have changed since then, although it is open to doubt, but the fact remains that too many assistants, and a considerable number of librarians in small places, are now working so long, and in such broken spells, as to preclude any possibility of attaining self‐culture or reasonable recreation. The case of the small town librarian is particularly distressing. In some instances he is a man who has been well‐trained in a large town library, and inspired by a mistaken ambition, elects to attain a position of independence by accepting the chief librarianship in a library of which he afterwards finds himself the sole officer. He is responsible for the cleaning, as well as the ordinary work of a librarian, and his efforts to convert a miserable library rate of a few pounds into an engine of immense efficiency (as expected by the local authority) are enough to make the financial operations of even an American millionaire seem petty in comparison. We have had several cases like this brought to notice within a few weeks, and they give added point to any plea for reform which may be advanced. One young man, well‐educated and well‐trained, undertook the charge of a small municipal library, chiefly because it happened to be near London, and he wished to be in touch with that great and attractive centre. He very soon discovered that the hours of the library were so arranged as to occupy his whole time and keep him employed all day, from 9 a.m. or earlier, till 10 p.m., with two short breaks which did not suffice for a visit to London. On Sunday he was too tired to think of London, apart from which, the institutions which interested him were closed, so that it is possible this librarian has not yet seen the longed‐for London of his cherished anticipations ! There are cases like this in the smaller libraries all over the country, where one official has to perform all the work in an unlimited number of hours. If, as is done in some places, the hours of opening are greatly curtailed in order to give the librarian his deserved and well‐earned rest, then the public suffer. On the other hand, a library administered by a single officer and kept open from nine to ten hours daily, is rather of the nature of a slave‐compound, in which an official is kept prisoner in the interests of the omnipotent ratepayer. Wherever small staffs are kept, there exists this tendency towards long hours, and a consequent eterioration in the efficiency and educational qualifications of assistants. A standing complaint among those who are engaged in the educational work of the Library Association is that so many candidates are deficient in the most elementary subjects, such as composition, spelling and arithmetic. This is undoubtedly caused by the employment of imperfectly educated assistants, who are afterwards tied so fast to their library duties that they are unable to find any time for study and reading. In libraries where small staffs and long hours of opening are found together, it is almost certain that the work‐hours of the assistants will be excessive, and the efficiency of the service impaired.