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The paper seeks to disclose the features and implications of the neoliberal VET and employment policy agendas for the social and institutional VET ecosystems and the integration of at-risk youth in the labour market in the Baltic countries.

The research is based on the comparative policy analysis approach with reference to the theories of social and skill formation ecosystems and the historical institutionalism perspective.

The research has revealed three interconnected and alternately/simultaneously applied development pathways in the skill formation and vocational education of at-risk youth in the Baltic countries: (1) the market-oriented approach based on fostering immediate employability based on the momentary skills needs in the economy; (2) the state-assistance approach based on ensuring equal access to the VET and employment services by the state and (3) the approach of systemic support to socially disadvantaged or at-risk young people in developing their capabilities.

The originality of the paper lies in a new, holistic and comparative perspective in analysing the implications of the “Baltic neoliberalism” for the development of skill formation systems, VET and employment of at-risk youth in this region.

The study examines the impact of social media distraction on the relationship between student engagement and student evaluations of teachers (SET) in management education, part of the STEM disciplines. While it is widely accepted that student engagement and evaluation of teachers are two important constructs of active learning systems, their links, especially in the context of management education, have not been explored. This study seeks to fill this research gap as teachers' appraisal and career growth greatly depend on SET across higher education institutes worldwide.

Data were collected from 247 student participants from higher education institutes/universities using a questionnaire-based survey. Further, 15 students were interviewed to glean insights from their feelings regarding social media distractions and how it impacts their engagement and evaluation of teachers. For the quantitative and qualitative analyses, multiple regression and thematic analysis were applied, respectively. A word tree was developed to determine the association between experiences and contexts.

The results indicate that social media distraction moderates the relationship between students' cognitive engagement and their evaluation of teaching faculty. Social media distractions disrupt student engagement inside the classroom, leading to wrong/biased assessments of teachers' performance. Additionally, cognitive and emotional engagement significantly impacted student evaluations of the management college faculty.

The authors’ findings enable educators in higher education systems, specifically management education, to rethink the faculty feedback system and social media distractions impeding student engagement other than SET drawbacks.