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Discusses the second phase of a project on graduate employment in small hospitality firms. It explores the data from the first phase of the project using the concept of graduate identity. The views of both graduates and their managers are examined. The reflections on the data suggest that a complex relationship exists between graduates, their managers and graduate identity. Suggests that hospitality graduates in small firms fail to develop a sense of graduate identity and that their managers lack understanding on how the employment of graduates “makes some difference”. Nevertheless, it is affirmed that graduate identity offers a useful perspective for much‐needed further research on the transition of graduates into SME employment.

Organisational learning practice within the public sector is relatively under researched. This paper draws on case study data from a local authority committed to the creation of a “learning organisation” culture; data generated through the evaluation of two programmes implemented as part of this strategic objective. The article contends that tensions between the need to deliver specific improvements in the organisation and the desire to encourage creative innovation led to an uncertainty surrounding the most appropriate model of learning to pursue the broader goal. Both programmes exposed tensions between opportunities for individual growth and traditional values which constrained that growth beyond the individual. The article concludes that for organisational learning in the public sector to be effective it must be collective, processual and above all cognisant of organisational power patterns.

Explores the impact of the establishment of a learning centre, within an industrial estate, on the development of lifelong learning in the workplace. It draws on data generated as part of an evaluation of a European social fund project to establish information and communication technology (ICT) based learning centres on each of three industrial estates in the East Midlands. The project sought to develop amongst participating companies and their employees a commitment to continuous development and lifelong learning. The purpose of the paper is to focus analysis upon one company (the organisation which housed the learning centre on one of the industrial estates) and to explore the impact of the intervention, first in terms of the organisation itself and second in terms of its wider impact on the industrial estate.

The paper's purpose is to present an introduction to the special issue is that positions and explores some of issues and challenges in the field of graduate entrepreneurship.

The paper examines a range of issues and themes and introduces papers of six authors/author teams. The introductory paper is divided into three sections: what is graduate entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial intentions; and education and training.

The paper finds that, despite increasing attention on graduate entrepreneurship, there remains a lack of research on entrepreneurial intentions and enterprise/entrepreneurship education and training in varied and multiple contexts. This special issue includes research from a number of countries, including England, Ireland, Australia and the USA.

The paper provides the basis for a more nuanced understanding of entrepreneurial intentions and related education and training – of interest to both researchers and policy makers in terms of the journey from student to start‐up.

The purpose of this paper is to present an introduction to the special issue on the subject of innovative practice in the teaching and learning of HRD.

The paper positions the special issue within a context of issues and dilemmas facing those who teach and train HRD. Ten papers are introduced which reflect a wide ranging and changing landscape of professional practice.

The paper introduces innovative practice within a context of a particular challenge facing teachers and trainers of HRD. There is a unique relationship between subject matter and the very teaching learning and assessment strategies used to deliver such content.

There is limited published research into the teaching and learning of HRD. The paper provides a basis for the special issue's contribution to an initial understanding of innovative practice in teaching and learning of HRD and, importantly, in encouraging a higher profile for the discussion of research and practice implications.

This series of papers aims to explore the transition from higher education into work. It reports on research undertaken over a period of two years and which sought to track a number of young graduates as they completed their studies and embarked upon career of choice.

The approach adopted is defined and discussed as one of “common sense”. Alongside the notion of “common sense” the paper deploys two further concepts, “convention” and “faith” necessary to complete a rudimentary methodological framework. The narratives which are at the heart of the papers are built in such a way as to contain not only the most significant substantive issues raised by the graduates themselves but also the tone of voice specific to each.

Five cases are presented; the stories of five of the graduates over the course of one year. Story lines that speak of learning about the job, learning about the organisation and learning about self are identified. An uneven journey into a workplace community is evident. “Fragmentation” and “cohesion” are the constructs developed to reflect the conflicting dynamics that formed the lived experience of the transitional journeys experienced by each graduate.

Whilst the longitudinal perspective adopted overcomes some of the major difficulties inherent in studies which simply use “snap shot” data, the natural limits of the “common sense” approach restrict theoretical development. Practically speaking, however, the papers identify issues for reflection for those within higher education and the workplace concerned with developing practical interventions in the areas of graduate employability, reflective practice and initial/continuous professional development.

The series of papers offers an alternative to orthodox studies within the broader context of graduate skills and graduate employment. The papers set this debate in a more illuminating context.