Search results

The aim of this study is to evaluate five job qualification programs for young apprentices, in Goiás, a Brazilian State. We expect to contribute to the improvement and strengthening of the job training programs in developing countries.

We applied propensity score matching and extensions such as the generalized propensity score method (dose–response effect).

We found evidence of the heterogenous effects of the five job qualification programs on employability. We found that the duration of the programs influences employability in up to two years after the program.

This research is based on secondary data provided by the responsible institutions. The evidence is obtained through a nonexperimental method.

The research has implications for public or private institutions dedicated to the professional qualification of young apprentices.

The findings of the study provide some ways of comparing training programs, for young workers, that can be applied in different types of institutions.

This study provides new insight about the professional qualification of young apprentices, by comparing fives programs in Midwest Brazil.

Places the reform of the Spanish vocational education and training (VET) system in context, identifying the salient events and deficiencies in this modernization process. The most significant reaction to the need for improving, rationalizing and modernizing the former vocational training system was the development of the National Programme for Vocational Training in 1993. After several years’ negotiations, in 1992 the employers’ associations and trade unions signed the National Agreement on Continuing Training, which has given a notable impulse to this type of training in the last four years. It has been the first opportunity to set up a regulatory framework for the allocation of public funds to promote open access to continuing training for the employed populations. In 1996 the second plan was agreed, shoring up a sectoral model organized through collective agreements which aims to enrich the Spanish industrial relations model. Finally, analyses the new problems and deficiencies which could neutralize the reform’s innovative effects, as happened in the last reform under different historical conditions (1970). The success of a new Spanish VET system depends on actors’ capability to shore up a professionalized model for management and provision.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of inter‐firm learning and the ways in which “learning networks” can be established and facilitated. Underlying this is the argument that significant traction on the problem of organizational learning – in this case around process innovations – can be gained through deploying structured and purposeful inter‐organizational learning networks.

The paper builds on three case studies drawn from the experience of firms in South Africa, covering both vertical (supply chain) and horizontal (cross‐sector) groupings in automotive components and timber products.

The paper reports on the ways in which the learning networks were set‐up and operated, mapping this experience against a model framework which emphasizes a number of core operational processes. It suggests that the success of both the automotive component groupings and the failure of the timber products network can be explained through reference to this model and the different approaches taken to managing these core processes.

The research reported here draws on a small number of detailed cases and further work is needed to verify the model and the guidelines for action.

The paper highlights guidelines for policy agents – for example, in business support agencies or regional development authorities – in setting up and running effective learning networks.

The paper contributes to theory around inter‐organizational networking and organizational learning and provides micro‐level detail of how learning networks can be established and sustained.

Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.

I approach this work in the knowledge that the recruitment and selection of staff is one of the most neglected areas of library management. I have been unable to trace any monograph devoted to the subject published during the past 10 years and few general books on library management spare more than a cursory glance in its direction.

The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

Client‐based management qualifications have been a big growth area in the 1990s. However, doubts have been raised about their academic and pedagogic validity. This paper explores the issues, and reports on a survey of large employers in the UK. Evidence of further growth potential is reported. A consideration of the design and delivery issues leads to guidelines for quality assurance for these programmes. These guidelines help overcome the objections raised about client‐based management qualifications. A typology of course‐based management education and development programmes is also created.

The lack of clarity in defining data science is problematic in both academia and industry because the former has a need for clarity to establish curriculum guidelines in their work to prepare future professionals, and the latter has a need for information to establish clear job description guidelines to recruit professionals. This lack of clarity has resulted in job descriptions with significant overlap among different related professional groups. This study examines the industry view of five professions: statistical analysts (SAs), big data analytics professionals (BDAs), data scientists (DSs), data analysts (DAs) and business analytics professionals (BAs). The study compares the five fields with the unified backdrop of their common semantic dimensions and examines their recent dynamics.

1,200 job descriptions for the five Big Data professions (SA, DS, BDA, DA and BA) were pulled from the Monster website at four points in time, and a document library was created. The collected job qualification records were analyzed using the text analytic method of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSAs), which extract topics based on observed text usage patterns.

The findings indicated a good alignment between the industry view and the academic view of data science as a blend of statistical and programming skills. This industry view remained relatively stable during the 4 years of our study period.

This research paper builds upon a long tradition of related studies and commentaries. Rather than relying on subjective expertise, this study examined the job market and used text analytics to discern a space of skill and qualification dimensions from job announcements related to five big data professions.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the availability of qualifications through work‐based traineeships in Australia assists social inclusion.

Industry case studies, of the finance and cleaning industries, were undertaken as part of a national research project on quality in traineeships. The two industry case studies were analysed to provide data on social inclusion aspects. A general discussion on the “pros” and “cons” of gaining qualifications through work, from a social inclusion point of view, is included.

The industry case studies show many advantages of work‐based qualifications for people who have had disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds. The study presents a model showing how work‐based qualifications help to meet the twin social inclusion goals of employment and education. However in economic hard times, the need to have a job may rule out some people. Also, some doubts about quality in work‐based delivery may mean that qualifications gained through work may be of lower value than those gained at least partly through formal study.

The models put forward are tentative, based on the findings in the research study that has been described and the authors’ earlier research. Further research is necessary to establish the social inclusion benefits of this means of gaining qualifications. In particular longitudinal research with disadvantaged people who have gained qualifications through this route is needed to evaluate whether their completion of qualifications through employment has assisted their broader economic and social engagement, and in what ways. In addition, research is needed to compare the quality and utility of qualifications gained through work and those through education providers as a poor‐quality qualification may be of limited long‐term use to an individual.

Work‐based qualifications are shown to be a useful investment of public resources. The research also analyses some shortcomings of this method of gaining qualifications so that they can be addressed by employers and training providers.

The research establishes the social inclusion utility of work‐based qualifications, providing insights useful for education systems and social welfare organisations.

This is one of very few scholarly studies of the large‐scale use of work‐based qualifications.

Changing market demands in the metal‐working industry have led to the implementation and development of flexible computer controlled communication and production technologies. The presented method of job analysis, ATAA, is based on the theory of action regulation. ATAA aims to provide a planning instrument for future job structures and job requirements, and their consequences for qualification and human resource management, dependent on the choices in organization and job design. The instrument should provide decision makers in industry, both managers and works councils, with the knowledge and a procedure to perform the analysis without the help of an expert. The method is developed to analyse and design tasks in production and associated areas in mechanical engineering. It has been tested and the method was used by practitioners, for when it proved to be reliable, valid and useful for practitioners.