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This paper aims to describe a research project that is addressing the employability of individuals in the higher‐cost Irish economy.

The Programme for University‐Industry Interface (PUII) uses a community‐of‐practice methodology combined with academic research.

A number of emerging enterprise models have been identified, competencies for next generation employability have been articulated and potential responses to these new opportunities for the further and higher education sectors have been discussed.

The implications of this work and the follow‐on may influence the way the education sector responds to the needs of learners in industry.

The paper contributes insights into the nature of enterprise models and competencies that may be required to sustain future employability of individuals in industry.

The motivation for this investigation is to apply social networking features to a semantic network portal, which supports the efforts in enterprise training units to up‐skill the employee in the company, and facilitates the creation and reuse of knowledge in online communities.

The paper provides an overview of an emerging area for work‐related research in the field of knowledge management and collaborative online communities.

The growing number of social network online communities requires a systematic assessment of the application and design of social network technologies, which makes this study relevant and timely.

This paper gives guidance in an emerging research area with major implications for online communities and human resources management.

Fulfils a need, since a lack of literature in the field is apparent.

This paper aims to explore the quality profession's fascination with various models to depict complex interactive systems. Building on these and the outcome of a four‐year action research programme, it provides a model which has potential for use by other professions. It has been tailored here to suit training and learning systems.

The action research was carried out over a four‐year period. It used ethnographic principles and involved immersion in the community and engagement and participation at various levels and sectors. The objective was to discover the applicability of quality principles at community level.

The outcomes of the research are twofold. First, the Grange excellence model (GEM) provides a framework for all human activity systems. Second, a definition of excellence provides a generic code of practice for all human engagement. Both are applicable to all human activity in pursuit of any goal or objective.

Research outcomes are fractal and generic in nature, allowing them to be applied without limitation to all human activity at individual, interest group, industry or institution level. This paper describes how it might be used in training and learning systems.

The introduction of the term “cystem” provides a new unique concept for profiling human activity. The GEM provides a realistic model of real world human engagement not found in either the European Foundation's Quality Management (EFQM) or Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) models.

The focus of this paper is to highlight the issues impacting technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) in an industrial setting in Ireland. The paper uses the output from a community of practice (CoP) set up to identify and discuss these issues. Seven companies participated in the CoP. Their experiences represented the full spectrum of industrial experience of TEL in Ireland. The aim of the paper was to highlight the key areas where Irish companies experience issues with regard to the implementation of TEL programmes. The results of the study show that many of the issues highlighted by past literature still remain.

The research presented in this paper is output from a CoP set up to discuss TEL within industry. Within the CoP discussion groups were created to highlight the relevant issues.

The main issues highlighted by the CoP members ranged from strategic, content, learner and technology‐related issues. One key finding of the CoP is that holistic approaches to implementing technology‐enhanced initiatives are more successful in terms of learner acceptance, relevance to the job and effectiveness of the training. The holistic approach takes into account the business need for the training, benefits to the learner and all aspects impacted by TEL.

This paper highlights the issues experienced by industry in Ireland in relation to implementation programmes. It was felt by community members that if the many issues outlined are not addressed the true benefits of TEL to the organisation would fail to materialise. It is hoped that in highlighting and sharing these issues other companies implementing TEL will benefit from the shared experiences of others.

Identifies that best practices for TEL are slow to be implemented in Ireland and that the issues arising are often those previously experienced in the past.

The limited success of electronic health records (EHRs) implementation in the healthcare services in general, and a national EHR in particular, requires better understand and documentation of the current drivers and inhibitors of EHR adoption, together with a definition of a national EHR. This paper aims to address these issues.

Factors affecting EHR adoptions are elicited from extant literature and the stakeholder/actor framework is used as the theoretical framework. The multiple case study approach is used as the research method, and data are collected in Ireland and Israel by interviews and analysed using text coding methods.

Factors elicited in the literature are generally corroborated, yet the salient factor on the localized perspective appears to be the degree of centralization of the healthcare services; while different factors affect the national perspective. In summary, it seems that Israel is more ready for national EHR implementation than Ireland due to the high level of computerization and high levels of integration of primary and secondary care patient data.

Contribution to research is in the definition of a national EHR, the illustration of various levels of analysis and their relative impacts on EHR adoption, the analysis framework, and by showing that EHR adoption is a top‐down, change management process.

EHR adoption should be driven by a powerful actor in the healthcare sector addressing the need for a high level of integration within and between care levels, while focusing on clinicians' requirements. Technological and legislative infrastructures are mandatory for establishing a national EHR.

Data for this study are collected in two countries that represent different healthcare structures, one being highly centralized while the other is just the opposite. These differences provide an additional interesting lens through which factors affecting EHR adoption can be assessed. As far as we know, not many previous studies have compared EHR adoption across two diverse healthcare systems.

This article sets out to look at how employees who have survived an organisational downsizing and restructuring process adjust to meet the dynamics of the organisation, develop new skills and competencies, and the extent to which they take on new roles in the organisation.

Collects accounts from managers, focusing on exploring the skills and competencies that survivors had to develop, and the attitudes they had to embrace in respect of learning and employment. Explores issues relating to the employability of professional employees and their motivation to learning and willingness to participate in learning that was more tacit and non‐formal in nature.

Provides information in respect of learning processes and responsibilities. Highlights the onus on individuals to take responsibility for their own learning needs and initiate training and development needs. Suggests that self‐development skills were of particular importance in making the transition.

Generalisabilty of the findings is rendered difficult due to the small sample size and lack of access to archival organisational material.

Addresses a gap in the extant literature on the skill and competency issues that arise from strategic and structural transformation and change, in particular from the perspective of managerial and professional employees. Identifies the risks involved in making individuals responsible for their own learning.