Search results

This study investigates how university libraries in Nigeria are staffed and presents staff development opportunities and learning activities that sustain staff.

A survey research design was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 46 universities and 400 respondents consisting of 46 heads of libraries and 354 professionals from federal, state, and private universities. Content of the instrument was based on literature comprising six questions. The 327 (92.4%) usable responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in simple frequency tables.

The study showed that library workforce in Nigerian universities included different categories of professionals and para-professionals having diversified job opportunities and duties. Most libraries had staff development budget and respondents received various forms of assistance to foster learning. Although all nontransferable skills recorded high mean, respondents accorded less importance to nonlibrary personal skills that can be used to leverage the expectations of recruitment, retention, and sustainability.

The study was limited to practicing professionals but has staffing implications for all libraries across Nigeria.

Many professionals may lack the appropriate multi-skills that would enhance exploring new approaches and breaking out of traditional ways of operation in the different library and outside library settings.

The study contributes to knowledge about sustaining library staff in relation to adopting the recommended skills on a broad scale, and assessing how their acquisition can change the perception of professionals to its immense contributions to sustaining them in the workforce.

The point of divergence for the authors’ analysis is the observation that research on the development of professional skills did not provide empirical support to a possible positive relationship between innovative culture and development of professional skills. The author believes that the injection of intervening variables has the potential to do just that. The purpose of this paper is to understand such contingencies through a developed moderated mediation model, which jointly examines supportive leadership as the mediating mechanism and individual power distance orientation as a moderator and to increase the theoretical validity and precision of investigating the development of professional skills.

The survey data were collected from 317 information technology (IT) professional technical engineers and their supervisors from high-tech sectors. The authors tested the hypotheses by hierarchical regression and followed Baron and Kenny (1986) instruction to examine our moderated mediation model. The authors used a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to verify the constructs’ distinctiveness before testing the hypotheses was performed. Meanwhile, in order to test the mediating effect, the three-equation approach to testing mediation, as recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986), was used.

The strong support for schema theory in this study suggests that the development of professional skills can be notably promoted through a moderated mediation model which integrates the link between innovative culture and professional skills through the mediating effect of supportive leadership and the direct effects are mitigated by the moderating effect of individual power distance orientation. It highlights the importance of appropriately matching innovative culture and supportive leadership with the power distance orientation of employees. This universalistic organizational behavior approach has worked effectively in an Asian sample.

This study provides a better understanding of work motivation by showing that an employee uses schemas to interpret the relationships among perceived innovative culture, individual power distance orientation, supportive leadership and development of professional skills. This paper also illustrates how perceived innovative culture can act as an positive motivator to inspire IT technical engineers’ development of professional skills, and how individually held power distance orientation may positively or negatively influence the relationship between perceived innovative culture and supportive leadership. Hence, this study has extended the schema theory in organizations and informed the literature on supportive leadership.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that influence vocational students' development of professional skills during workplace learning and to examine the effects and relationships of these factors.

The results were based on the responses of 285 graduating Finnish vocational students. The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations were conducted using Lisrel.

Motivational factors, including performance orientation and self-efficacy, and organizational factors, including guidance, psychological climate and knowledge acquisition, had a direct and positive impact on the students' development of professional skills. The attitudinal factor measured through work alienation had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between the organizational factors and the development of professional skills. The cognitive factor consisting of prior work experience in the studied field, however, had no effect on skill development

The study was based on students' self-appraisal of the studied factors. Future research should consider workplace instructors' and vocational teachers' viewpoints regarding students' development of professional skills.

Managers are encouraged to plan a structured orientation period for students and to help workplace instructors design their work in order to facilitate a successful workplace learning period.

This study highlights the importance of organizational factors and workplace instructors to students' development of professional skills through work. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence on the special characteristics of these factors.

Many postdoctoral scholars are seeking professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities to prepare for diverse careers, roles and responsibilities. This paper aims to develop an evidence-informed framework for PLD of postdoctoral scholars that speaks to these changing career paths.

This paper used an integrated knowledge translation approach to synthesize and extend previous work on postdoctoral scholars’ PLD. The authors engaged in consultations with key stakeholders and synthesized findings from literature reviews, surveys and semi-structured interviews to create a framework for PLD.

The PLD framework consists of four major domains, namely, professional socialization; professional skills; academic development; and personal effectiveness. The 4 major domains are subdivided into 16 subdomains that represent the various skills and competencies that postdoctoral scholars can build throughout their postdoctoral fellowships.

The framework can be used to support postdoctoral scholars, postdoctoral supervisors and higher education institutions in developing high quality, evidence-informed PLD plans to meet the diverse career needs of postdoctoral scholars.

The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in South African accounting students’ perceptions of professional skills developed in an undergraduate accounting program. South Africa has a history of socio-economic inequality and racial injustice, leading to factors outside the classroom impacting educational outcomes. In particular, South African classes are heterogeneous, reflecting a diversity of race and language groups and students from differing schooling backgrounds. These differences necessitate differentiated instruction.

To explore for differences in perceptions, data were collected via questionnaires and differences between demographic variables such as school, race and language were considered, while controlling for gender. A focus group was also hosted to further explore findings.

Students from better quality schools agreed less strongly than those from poorer quality schools that the education program developed their professional skills. Students from better quality schools may have developed some of the professional skills during their schooling, requiring less to be developed at university. African students, though, agreed less strongly than white students from similar quality schools that they had developed professional skills. A focus group suggested that African students place less emphasis on professional skills development than on technical skills, given their lack of exposure to professional skills through mentors (parents, teachers, etc.) who never developed professional skills during their own compromised education under Apartheid.

Understanding the differences in the perceptions of professional skill development in a heterogeneous classroom can assist instructors in adopting differentiated instruction approaches to enable all students to develop professional skills. It could also assist future employers of these graduates to differentiate their development strategies during workplace training.

This paper reports on research in progress that reviews the skills used by library and information science (LIS) professionals and how to record them in a manner that encourages continuing professional and personal development. A portfolio was developed by the learning and teaching support network for information and computer sciences (LTSN‐ICS) in conjunction with the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and academic departments in the United Kingdom (UK). The portfolio was evaluated at pilot sites in UK LIS schools by surveying the progress of those students who took part. Evaluation of the participants indicates that the portfolio is a useful tool in the personal and professional development of LIS students. The general consensus among students themselves is that the portfolio provides a tool to help them plan their future professional development. Further evaluation is planned in 2003/2004 with LIS professionals to enable both the professional body and the LTSN‐ICS to determine the appropriateness of the portfolio as a tool for continuing personal and professional development.

Training, particularly in the form of comprehensive professional development, continues to be a need for paraeducators (also known as teacher assistants). Training needs begin with an initial set of knowledge and skills and is built based upon the paraeducator’s role with individual students and the educational settings. Standards or guidance documents are available from a few individual states within the United States, higher education systems, and professional organizations that serve individuals with exceptional needs and agencies. An international professional organization, Council for Exceptional Children [CEC] (2011), identified a common skill set that reinforces standards for defining curricula when providing training to paraeducators. Key to their ongoing professional development is the on-the-job coaching by the education professional (teacher), to support the application of skills into the inclusive setting. Various forms of professional development are available including online trainings in addition to face-to-face.

To meet the information processing needs of the new global organisation, IS/IT managers and their IS/IT staff need to develop new skills, so that they may be more focused on the business rather than on technical processes. In exploring the theme of the changing role and contribution of the IS/IT professional, this monograph provides a literature analysis of the changing skills of IS/IT professionals and identifies the new skills and competencies required for successful IS/IT development and utilisation. The monograph also presents capability‐related models that have been tested in two global corporations. The results of the two case studies suggest that there is a need for improvement in the area of IS/IT leadership for effective IS/IT development and utilisation. Strategies for developing IS/IT leadership capabilities are discussed at the end of the monograph.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and document the skills and knowledge needs of future library professionals in Qatar and to use the outcomes of this research to help develop or refine focused library and information studies course curricula that meet the needs of the local workforce and also guide or improve national or local professional development programmes.

A skills and knowledge needs assessment survey was sent to library professionals, LIS students and library managers in Qatar. A total of 109 respondents completed the survey, a representation of around 25 per cent of the current LIS workforce in Qatar.

Findings indicated that respondents felt that the most needed future job roles included more client focused positions such as research librarians, information services librarians and subject librarians, as well as technical roles such as Arabic cataloguers, electronic resources librarians and system librarians. The largest amount of needed positions was also felt to be in school libraries. Respondents to the survey also felt that there was a lack of opportunities for professional development in Qatar and that the most needed area of skills training was information literacy, followed by copyright training and technical skills including RDA and Arabic cataloguing. One further finding identified from the survey was the concern felt by respondents about the lack of a professional body in Qatar that represented LIS professionals.

This paper provides data on future roles, skills and knowledge needed by library professionals working in international and culturally diverse workforces. It also provides findings that can be used to develop LIS curriculum and professional development programmes in international LIS environments.

A detailed needs assessment of this kind has not previously been undertaken in Qatar. The library and information sector in Qatar is an emerging field with a largely international workforce. This situation provides a distinct perspective on the needs of an emerging library sector that is a blend of different cultures, workplace practices and differing expectations and understandings of the role and skills needed to be a LIS professional.

During the 1990s the value to an intending professional accountant of undertaking a period of liberal (general) studies was promoted internationally by a number of individuals and organisations, including the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (the “Institute”). The Institute significantly changed its admissions policy for Chartered Accountants in 1996 and one change was to require four years of degree level study with a compulsory liberal studies component. This study surveys the perceptions of New Zealand accounting practitioners on the impact of this compulsory liberal component. The results of this study demonstrate that there is little support from accounting practitioners for IFAC’s claim that liberal education “can contribute significantly to the acquisition of professional skills”, including intellectual, personal and communication skills. In addition, the majority of respondents did not perceive any improvements in the professional skills of the staff that had qualified under the Institute’s current admissions policy. However, any perceived improvements were mainly attributed to the Institute’s admissions policy change. Notwithstanding the lack of support for the assertion that liberal education develops professional skills, there is a strong belief by respondents in the value of liberal education for intending professional accountants.