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The purpose of this research was first to determine the competencies mandatory of risk managers, and second, to consider the implications of such competencies in determining modules appropriate for inclusion in any prospective undergraduate qualification with specialisation in risk management.

A qualitative research approach was followed, involving academics teaching risk management in a focus group and making use of interactive qualitative analysis (IQA).

The competencies identified were business management skills, financial knowledge, an understanding of the risk management process, governance and compliance, people management and technical skills. These will be explained in greater detail in the paper.

The implications for teaching are that an undergraduate curriculum in risk management will have to combine majors such as business management, financial management, risk management, industrial psychology and communication. These majors need to be complemented by modules in governance and compliance management, as well as information and communication technology.

The implication for practice is that risk management professionals and members of the Institute of Risk Management of South Africa need to avail themselves to serve on an advisory board of academic departments offering risk management qualifications. Risk management is a developing science and requires inputs about research and the curriculation of qualifications.

The implication for public policy is that the South African Qualifications Authority and the Council for Higher Education should reconsider their requirements for designators (specialised qualifications). The implications for research are that IQA provides clarity on the knowledge and skills required to develop a competency-based qualification in risk management. Further research should benchmark qualifications and propose a curriculum for a bachelor’s degree in risk management.

The use of IQA is a novel way of ensuring rigour and objectivity in arriving at a description of the required knowledge, skills, values and attributes of risk managers. This paper will assist in the compilation of a new curriculum for an undergraduate qualification in risk management; thus, ensuring such qualification will provide a competency-based qualification that will meet the needs of the profession.

Qualification is the competence that is required for tasks related to wage work. Competence is all the forms of knowledge possessed by the staff as well as their personal abilities. When qualification is related to competence, possible competence deficiencies become apparent. This can be done in our model for controlling the improvement of competence. The first step in the process of describing competence deficiency is to operationalize the concept of qualification. This is achieved by means of social tests, which can be considered as relevant data. Empirical data are used to develop social tests relating to qualification for two staff categories, Front staff and Departmental managers. Finally, we take a further step and suggest how the empirical content of the concept can be used in a model for controlling the improvement of competence.

This paper explores the link between skill and qualification mismatch and labor productivity using cross-country industry data for 19 OECD countries. Utilizing mismatch indicators aggregated from micro-data sourced from the recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the main results suggest that higher skill and qualification mismatch is associated with lower labor productivity, with over-skilling and under-qualification accounting for most of these impacts. A novel result is that higher skill mismatch is associated with lower labor productivity through a less efficient allocation of resources, presumably because when the share of over-skilled workers is higher, more productive firms find it more difficult to attract skilled labor and gain market shares at the expense of less productive firms. At the same time, a higher share of under-qualified workers is associated with both lower allocative efficiency and within-firm productivity – that is, a lower ratio of high productivity to low productivity firms. While differences in managerial quality can potentially account for the relationship between mismatch and within-firm productivity, the paper offers some preliminary insights into the policy factors that might explain the link between skill mismatch and resource allocation.

The chapter describes the refugee crisis, its various challenges, and followed by arguments on recognizing refugee qualifications. Key contexts related to refugees including human rights (especially to education and work), access and equity in education and the labor force, and refugee integration into host countries. The Norwegian Quality Assurance Agency’s initiatives on the recognition of refugee qualifications and the establishment of a European Passport for Refugees are presented to highlight the importance of increasing refugee access to further education and entry to the labor force through facilitating recognition of their qualifications.

We analyze the relationship between initial vocational education and training (VET) and training policies by looking at the ways and extent to which different approaches foster the acquisition of general and transferable skills. The factors that particularly affect the investment in training and the investment in transferable skills are analyzed both from the point of view of the individual and the employer. We argue that with the reform of their national training systems, Spain and the United Kingdom have followed different routes in order to foster precisely an increase in the investment on transferable skills. Those pathways differ in the extent to which policy strategies have aimed at reducing either individual worker or firms’ constraints to receive or invest in transferable training, and in the extent to which the emphasis for certification focused on “demonstrated learning outcomes” as opposed to “particular learning processes or places.” The paper concludes with the presentation of some policy implications.

In Turkish public procurement practice of construction works, only bidders whose capabilities on each qualification criteria meet prescribed thresholds are taken into evaluation; however, final evaluation disregards contribution of contractor’s abilities to the delivery of project. The purpose of this study is to assign reasonable weights to qualification criteria stated in Public Procurement Law applicable for work contracts by the method of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with crisp and fuzzy numbers and evaluate the results. Having optimum quality structures to obtain value for money and giving weight to environmental concern in tender evaluation stage can assist sustainable economy.

To introduce qualifications of tenderers to evaluation process, a survey was conducted among 20 public procurement specialists at Public Procurement Authority of Turkey. AHP and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) methods were used to obtain the weights for qualifications.

In any method used in the study, experience became the most important criterion after bid price. Facility, machine and equipment criterion became the second and annual turnover criterion became the third most important criterion.

The set of qualification criteria used in this study is confined by Turkish Public Procurement Law and secondary regulations. However, as Public Procurement Law is in accordance with European Union directives, the conclusions of the study should not be considered to be geographically limited by the borders of Turkey. Also, professional to take part in the survey were randomly selected from the Public Procurement Specialist working at Public Procurement Authority.

The outcomes of the study may improve sustainability through public procurement.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study offering weights for tenderer’s qualifications to be used in a multi-criteria decision-making process for contractor selection in public work procurement process in Turkey.

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.

Training is a form of investment in human capital. As with other forms of investments, employers, understandably, expect returns on their investment in human capital. Dealing with employees′ requests for qualifications training poses a major problem for many employers. This is because, in very many cases, qualifications training courses are general, and are not geared to the specific needs of a particular employer. Furthermore, qualifications training enhances an employee′s mobility within the labour market. While many employers are aware of these points, they also realize that employees are less likely to become frustrated and leave if opportunities for further training and development are available within the organization. Drawing on the practice in some organizations, offers a framework which will enable employers to devise a strategic qualifications training policy.