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The purpose of this paper is to examine student learner perceptions of benefits, barriers and enablers in learning whilst working, specifically focussing, on learning transfer from a university MSc in human resource management to students’ professional roles as human resource practitioners.

The study used in-depth semi-structured interviews with alumni of the programme who had graduated between one to three years previously.

The study found benefits (increased self-confidence, credibility and networking skills) as well as unanticipated challenges relating to individual learner characteristics, organisational culture and work-related support that hindered learning transfer.

The study contributes to understanding the mechanisms required to support part-time learners on continuing vocational education programmes from a variety of stakeholders including students, their managers, their university and work colleagues, and academic staff. It highlights the benefits of activities designed to help students relate theory to practice and facilitate the transfer of knowledge between academic and practitioner environments.

The study highlights learner perspectives that are focussed on how organisational culture and line managers might play a more central role in influencing how people learn at work and facilitate the transfer of learning from formal educational interventions.

The study is valuable to academics and practitioners interested in improving learning transfer from formal educational to professional settings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of part‐time working amongst a cohort of full time hospitality and tourism students studying at a university in Scotland.

Students studying hospitality and tourism management were chosen due to the vocational nature of their program and the part‐time opportunities available in the hospitality industry. A questionnaire was developed to investigate the extent of part‐time employment amongst hospitality and tourism students. The questionnaire solicited demographic information, level, type and extent of part‐time employment. The questionnaire also explored students' impressions of the benefits of part‐time working, their likes and dislikes in their part‐time employment and what they felt might be done to develop the relationship between the parties involved in part‐time work.

Evaluating responses from 150 students, the study found that almost two thirds of this cohort were engaged in part‐time employment and had been with their current employer for an average of 14 months. Focussing on aspects of gender and nationality the study identified that females were more likely to have a part‐time job and students from Eastern European countries worked significantly longer hours than their peers.

It is suggested that educators more fully recognise the constraints of contemporary student life and consider the provision of flexible teaching methods, part‐time contacts and formal credit for students' part‐time work.

The paper concurs with previous research into the extent of part‐time working amongst students and it found that students from Eastern Europe were more likely to work part‐time and that all students would like more recognition of their employment commitments.

The aim of this paper is to explore one of the biggest issues and challenges now faced by hospitality education and the hospitality industry: that of how to attract and retain a critical group of talented people.

A review of the literature highlights the key studies that have investigated the nature of hospitality employment amongst new recruits in the hospitality industry and reports on thoughts of soon to graduate hospitality students. The paper reviews the current state of employment issues in the hospitality industry. It discusses contemporary attitudes toward the generation undertaking hospitality education and making career decisions. This paper also considers the current generation's specific attitudes toward education and careers and the potential consequences this will have for the hospitality industry in the future.

The paper argues that educators require to be more fully aware of the consequences of reducing the practical and vocational nature of programmes and that adjustments to the management and administration of programmes are essential to allow students to complete programmes.

The paper creates the basis for a discussion on how best to handle these issues so that organizations within the hospitality industry can successfully recruit, select, train, retain and motivate future talent.

Using the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivational factors prevalent in a group of young event and festival volunteers.

This paper will first review the extent of volunteering and, thereafter, will discuss volunteering in the festival and events industry. Focussing on motivations to volunteer, this paper will also identify key research that has examined volunteer motivation in the festival and event sector. Within the context of the festivals and events sector, the paper highlights the benefits of volunteering to the volunteer, the organisation and the community as a whole. The paper discusses volunteering as a means of developing specific skills and knowledge that improve volunteers' CVs and potentially has a positive impact on career opportunities and careers in the festival and event industries. Using the inaugural EIMF as a case study, the authors conducted semi‐structured interviews with volunteers as a means of more fully understanding motivations to volunteer.

The paper argues that volunteers in contemporary society approach a volunteering activity from a utilitarian perspective. The aim of such an episode is to improve industry‐specific skills and knowledge and positively impact on future career opportunities.

Festival and event organisers need to fully understand the motivations of their volunteers, in order to not only fully utilise existing skills, but also assist in the development of individually required skills and knowledge.

This paper argues for the development of specific training and development programmes for festival and event volunteers as a means of developing skills and enhancing career opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to present strategies that hospitality and tourism organisations might adopt as a means of encouraging employee engagement, thus enabling the more effective management of an increasingly multi-generational workforce. This paper evaluates current strategies being adopted that might encourage employee engagement by a selection of hospitality and tourism organisations and develop recommendations for organisations wishing to more effectively engage the multi-generational workforce.

This study adopts a mixed methods approach and presents findings based on a series of semi-structured interviews with management and self-completion questionnaires aimed at employees.

The relationship between the supervisor and the employee remains a key enhancer regarding engagement and employees are increasingly demanding more contemporary methods of communication. Employers should take note of generational characteristics and adopt flexible policies attractive to all employees.

This paper contributes no t only to the debate regarding generational differences in the workplace but it also identifies that the various generations evident in tourism organisations are desirous of similar working conditions and benefits. Organisations should consider the development of a range of packages that focus on linking employees with their purpose, their colleagues and their resources as a means of encouraging employee engagement.

This study contributes to the debate regarding employee engagement and compares and contrasts initiatives that various tourism and hospitality organisations are adopting as a means of encouraging employee engagement. The study also elicits the views of the organisations employees to understand the extent of the effectiveness of such initiatives and makes recommendations regarding the most effective initiatives from both a management and employee perspective.

Some months ago a national organisation established to keep a watchful eye on the Nation's diet expressed concern over the eating trends of people in what to them appeared to be developing inbalances of necessary nutrient factors and the inadeuacy not so much of calories and energy values but in the nature and quality of main food factors. It was recommended that the national diet should be improved, but the authorities pointed to the National Food Survey results to show that the diet was not deficient; that the average daily intake of protein, vitamins, minerals and overall energy requirements were satisfied; all of which is true for the not‐too‐generous levels set. Even the pensioner households included in the Survey sample appear well‐fed. What causes concern is the year‐by‐year decrease in staple foods consumed—milk, red meat, bread, fresh vegetables—and the heavy reliance on refined, processed foods. In its annual reports on NFS reviews, the BFJ has almost monotonously referred to this downward trend. Individual NFS Reports do not reveal any serious deficiencies, as yet, but in the trend over the years—and herein lies the real value of the Survey and its data—few if any of the changes have been for the better; movements in food groups have tended to be downwards. If these trends continue, the time must surely come when there will be real deficiencies; that substitution within a food group cannot make good essential foods severely rationed by high prices.

This chapter evaluates research from the past 10 years suggesting that surfing can help develop ecological sensibilities and, in turn, lead to more environmentally sustainable lifestyles and practices.

The first part of the chapter reviews some of the key themes in the movement toward more sustainable surfing, including surfers' lifestyle practices. The second part of the chapter offers more in-depth case studies of (1) the production and consumption of surfboards and (2) the emergence of wave pools. Through these two case studies the chapter explores more promising practices that are driving more desirable human–surfing–environment relationships.

The chapter highlights the key tensions in debates over the so-called sustainable surfing movement. While surfers continue to see themselves as environmentally connected and having special relationships to the environment and sustainability, there are many contradictions and inconsistencies in this relationship. The negative environmental impact of the surfing industry remains notable, including in tourism, board manufacturing, and surfing events. The chapter highlights the limitations of relying on market-based, technologically dependent approaches to sustainable development.

The chapter shows the potential and promise of technological innovation for more environmentally sustainable practices, while recognizing the ongoing challenges in changing attitudes in the surf industry, and among many participants/consumers. It echoes broader literatures showing that attitudes and behaviors around environmental issues are complex and paradoxical.