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Book part
Publication date: 17 August 2016

Stephen R. Barley, Beth A. Bechky and Bonalyn J. Nelsen

Sociologists have paid little attention to what people mean when they call themselves “professionals” in their everyday talk. Typically, when occupations lack the characteristics…

Abstract

Sociologists have paid little attention to what people mean when they call themselves “professionals” in their everyday talk. Typically, when occupations lack the characteristics of self-control associated with the established professions, such talk is dismissed as desire for greater status. An ethnography of speaking conducted among several technicians’ occupations suggests that dismissing talk of professionalism may have been premature. The results of this study indicate that among technicians, professional talk highlights dynamics of respect, collaboration, and expertise crucial to the horizontal divisions of labor that are common in postindustrial workplaces, but have very little to do with the desire for occupational power.

Details

The Structuring of Work in Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-436-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 December 2022

Shu-Hua Wu, Tung-Pao Wu, Edward C.S. Ku and Joyce Hsiu Yu Chen

This study examines how professional technicians' teaching styles and students' learning readiness affect cooking skills performance in culinary inheritance.

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines how professional technicians' teaching styles and students' learning readiness affect cooking skills performance in culinary inheritance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study constructed a learning performance model from the situated cognition perspective using a sample of students at universities and vocational colleges on a professional technician course. A total of 4,000 questionnaires were mailed to students, of which 2,018 were returned.

Findings

Students regard technical professors as teaching experts and expect them to care for their learning, while professional technicians' knowledge sharing significantly increases students' learning performance. The findings provide insight into professional technicians' teaching styles for academics.

Originality/value

This study focuses on the situated cognition perspective and its correlation with students' learning performance and discusses professional technicians' knowledge sharing as an important influencing factor.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1970

H.L. Haslegrave

REASONS FOR REVIEWING THE EDUCATION OF TECHNICIANS The word Technician has been used for very many years without being given a precise meaning, but the recognition that there are…

Abstract

REASONS FOR REVIEWING THE EDUCATION OF TECHNICIANS The word Technician has been used for very many years without being given a precise meaning, but the recognition that there are groups of people carrying out types of work that can be given a general connotation — Technician work — has evolved gradually. The earliest recognition came in the electrical engineering industry, but recognition has now spread to other branches of industry, and to other activities in the life of the nation. The White Paper issued by the Ministry of Education in 1961, Better Opportunities in Technical Education, gave a lead to the technical colleges in designing courses of technical education specially for technicians. During the years following the issue of this White Paper, a great deal of attention was paid by teachers, training officers, industrialists and ministry staff to ways of implementing the recommendations contained in the White Paper, and particularly to shaping national certificate, national diploma, and City and Guilds courses better to meet the requirements of technicians. Although most of this attention was given to science‐based occupations, appreciation gradually developed that in commerce, business and service industries there exist also types of work that have responsibilities and requirements, of a similar nature, though differing in kind, to technician work in science based industry.

Details

Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0019-7858

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2014

Nina Neubecker

The purpose of this paper is to break down south-north migration along both the skill and the occupational dimension and thus to distinguish and compare several types of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to break down south-north migration along both the skill and the occupational dimension and thus to distinguish and compare several types of south-north migration and brain drain.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents south-north migration rates by occupational category at two distinct levels of disaggregation according to International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO-88). The data sets combine information about the labor market outcomes of immigrants in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries around the year 2000 provided by the Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries by the OECD with employment data for the developing migrant-sending countries from the International Labour Organization.

Findings

The incidence of south-north migration was highest among Professionals, one of the two occupational categories generally requiring tertiary education, and among clerks and legislators, senior officials and managers. At the more disaggregated level, physical, mathematical and engineering science (associate) professionals, life science and health (associate) professionals, as well as other (associate) professionals exhibited significantly larger brain drain rates than teaching (associate) professionals. The data also suggest non-negligible occupation-education mismatches due to the imperfect transferability of skills acquired through formal education because south-north migrants with a university degree worked more often in occupational categories requiring less than tertiary education compared to OECD natives. The employment shares of most types of professionals and technicians and associate professionals, as well as of clerks and corporate managers were significantly smaller in the migrant-sending countries compared to the receiving countries.

Originality/value

The constructed data sets constitute the first comprehensive data sets on south-north migration by ISCO-88 major and sub-major occupational category for cross-sections of, respectively, 91 and 17 developing countries of emigration.

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2012

Anastasia Klimova

The purpose of this paper is to analyse determinants of occupational allocation by gender, in Russia, between 1994 and 2001, using the only available nationally representative…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse determinants of occupational allocation by gender, in Russia, between 1994 and 2001, using the only available nationally representative longitudinal survey (RLMS).

Design/methodology/approach

Multinomial logit was chosen as the estimation technique for this analysis.

Findings

It was found that gender significantly affects occupational distribution after controlling for human capital and other characteristics during all years. Educational attainment was significant for professionals and technicians/associate professionals, while work experience was significant for craft and plant workers. Marital status did not affect females' occupational allocation while married males were less likely to be unskilled and craft workers. It appears that women performed primarily non‐geographically dependent jobs and the significance of regional variation for females' employment diminished over time. A comparison of the actual and predicted females' occupation distribution revealed a large over‐representation of females in unskilled occupations.

Originality/value

The paper makes an original contribution to our understanding of occupational distribution by demonstrating that occupational segregation by gender is a large and economically significant factor in the Russian labour market, even after controlling for individuals' human capital and personal characteristics and for regional variations. The paper illustrates the extent of this segregation by comparing the actual occupational distribution of females to that which would occur if they faced the same structure of occupational determination as males, i.e. in the absence of discrimination and differences in tastes.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 39 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2009

Peter Rushbrook and Lesley Preston

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses…

Abstract

In the late 1960s the Victorian vocational education sector was in crisis. The federal Martin Report into tertiary education excised many of the sector’s university‐level courses and relocated them into new Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), leaving many ‘middle‐level’ and technician vocational courses in limbo. Junior technical schools also offered apprenticeship and middle‐level courses, further confusing where courses were, or should be situated, suggesting an overall ‘gap’ in program provision. This challenge came when the Technical Schools Division (TSD), the smallest of Victoria’s three division structure (primary, secondary and technical) continued its struggle to maintain sectoral identity through courting acceptance from private industry and the public sector for its credentialed programmes. With significant others, TSD Director Jack Kepert, followed by Director Ted Jackson, responded by designing policy to reshape the TSD’s structure and functions and its reporting relationships within a new technical college and junior technical school system. Jackson’s policy statement, The future role of technical schools and colleges (1970) facilitated these changes. The paper narrates the events constituting this period of policy innovation and evaluates their contribution to the creation of a more seamless

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 38 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1981

Kenneth Corfield

Mr. Michael Marshall MP, Parliamentary Under‐Secretary of State for Industry, has told Parliament that Sir Keith Joseph has recommended that the Privy Council advise that a Royal…

Abstract

Mr. Michael Marshall MP, Parliamentary Under‐Secretary of State for Industry, has told Parliament that Sir Keith Joseph has recommended that the Privy Council advise that a Royal Charter should be granted to establish The Engineering Council and that Sir Kenneth Corfield has agreed to become its Chairman designate.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 53 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Book part
Publication date: 30 December 2004

Alfredo Hualde

During the last 15 years of the 20th century cities in the mexican northern border experienced an impressive increase of foreign investment specially in electronics and autoparts…

Abstract

During the last 15 years of the 20th century cities in the mexican northern border experienced an impressive increase of foreign investment specially in electronics and autoparts. Word class techniques, certifications like ISO 9000, more sophisticated manufacturing processes spread trough a handful of very big plants. Although these changes changed the skills requirements in technical levels, no significative evidence has been found in labor lowest levels, were routine operations and scarce opportunities to build a career are the most common situation.

Details

Globalism/Localism at Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-229-0

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1987

Adrian R. Haas

This article seeks to review the provision of vocational education available to para‐professional‐level engineering personnel in Australia. This stratum of personnel corresponds…

Abstract

This article seeks to review the provision of vocational education available to para‐professional‐level engineering personnel in Australia. This stratum of personnel corresponds to those described as technician‐engineers in the UK.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 11 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0590

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2007

Andrew Cox

The purpose of this research is to explore the character of an emergent occupational role, that of university web manager.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to explore the character of an emergent occupational role, that of university web manager.

Design/methodology/approach

The primary data used were 15 semi‐structured interviews conducted in 2004. These were analysed partly for factual and attitudinal data, but also for the discursive interpretative repertoires in use.

Findings

The paper examines the diverse backgrounds, occupational trajectories, organisational positions, job roles and status of practitioners working in “web management” in UK higher education. The discursive divide between the marketing and IT approaches to the web is investigated. Two case studies explore further the complexity and creativity involved in individuals' construction of coherent and successful occupational identities.

Research limitations/implications

The paper examines the position of web managers within the framework of the notions of the marginal but powerful “new professional” or “broker” technician. It gives a vivid insight into how the web as a dynamic and open technology opens up opportunities for new forms of expertise; but also explores the potential vulnerabilities of such new roles. In order to examine personal experiences in depth, data were gathered for only a relatively small number of individuals. The research was also limited to the UK university sector and to those with a broad responsibility for the web site of the whole institution, i.e. not library web managers and other web authors who work primarily to produce a departmental web presence. These limits imply obvious ways in which the research could be extended.

Practical implications

There are implications for how institutions support people in such roles, and for how they can support one another.

Originality/value

There is a vast literature about the web, little about the new work roles that have grown up around it.

Details

Program, vol. 41 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0033-0337

Keywords

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