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Participation in creative activities have been linked with increased personal agency. The purpose of this paper is to address critical considerations in the development of community-based creative workshops for people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness and explores participant experiences of these workshops.

The workshops aimed to build the skills and capacities of participants and provide alternative ways to communicate identity and recovery stories. They were designed to provide a range of creative opportunities for participants (visual arts, writing, dance and music) and were facilitated by practising artists. In total, 11 participants attended ten creative workshops over three months. On completion, a focus group was conducted to gather participant views, experiences and outcomes of the workshops.

The creative workshops supported the recovery of participants. The inclusion of peer mentors in the workshops was an important in facilitating connectedness.

This study advances the evidence that creative arts can support the psychological and social aspects of participants’ recovery journeys. Creative activities can promote positive self-identity and reduce self-stigma for people experiencing mental illness. It highlights the importance of using evidence in the design of creative workshops and supports the use of peer mentoring in group creative processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of students and teachers who had participated in a postgraduate work-based praxis course within a Master of mental health practice qualification.

This qualitative study used an interpretative phenomenological approach to understand the lived experience of students and course convenors participating in a work-based praxis course. Seven students and two convenors were recruited. Interview and reflective portfolio data were analysed thematically.

The main themes identified were the importance of planning, the value of partnerships, the significance of learning in the workplace and how the facilitation of work-based learning differs from coursework.

Work-based learning within postgraduate coursework qualifications can support higher-level learning, knowledge and skills has received limited attention in the literature. This study supported the value of providing postgraduate students with work-based learning opportunities, resulting in the application of new or advanced skills, within their existing work roles. This study is important, because it provides insights into the student experience of postgraduate work-based learning and the impact of this learning on professional practice.

As market trends evolve and core business activities shift into new territories, there is a need for companies to facilitate a corresponding change in the skills base of the workforce. This paper reports the findings of a European Social Fund (ESF) Objective 4 project, which was carried out throughout 1998/1999. Fourteen innovative, technology‐based small and medium‐sized enterprises were interviewed with the aim of investigating the processes currently in place to aid in the establishment of a skilled workforce, and the extent to which future skill requirements were identified. The research methodology involved a series of semi‐structured interviews with owner‐managers, managing directors and other staff within the sample companies. The first interview, involving 20 companies, allowed general company information to be collected and interviewees were questioned about business planning and those factors considered to be of strategic importance. The second interview, involving 14 of the original 20 companies, investigated human resource issues in depth. Respondents provided information about staff recruitment, retention and training and the extent to which these issues were integrated into strategic plans. The study used Investors in People (IiP) guidelines to identify potential models of best practice and therefore to aid in the production of the research questionnaire. It was found that the majority of respondent companies did not use a sophisticated approach to identify current and future staffing needs. Recruitment and staff development were addressed as and when required, thereby catering for immediate operational needs. Only three of the 14 companies had formal training plans in place, which integrated human resource plans with long‐term strategic business plans. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 23rd Institute for Small Business Affairs Policy and Research Conference, November 1999, Leeds, UK.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the proposal that curriculum designed for and about enterprise education can be sustained via a cyclical model of evaluation. Such an approach takes into consideration an important aspect of enterprise education which is “context”, a significant aspect overtly linked to the differing subject disciplines offering such curriculum.

The design of this research project was driven by the authors’ suggestion that to evaluate the impact of enterprise education pedagogy different factors to those that are currently prescribed need to be taken into consideration. Current evaluation practice is to take a global, generic approach, often utilising quantitative techniques, but the authors argue that evaluation of enterprise education should consider local, contextual factors only – key contextual factors being subject discipline, along with the lecturer's own context, teaching and learning materials and implicit and explicit notions of enterprise education. The research utilised two different modules and approaches to evaluation: first, a questionnaire designed using module materials such as learning descriptor and module outcomes which produced quantitative data that could be linked directly to the module learning and teaching inputs as well as lecturer's approach; and second, a focus group‐type approach undertaken with students on a completely separate and distinct module returning qualitative data, The former module was explicitly enterprise education and the latter module had a very implicit nature in relation to enterprise education. The students for the latter module were not aware of the enterprise connotation of the module.

The authors’ notion that contextual evaluation has real value was upheld in each case. Both lecturers used the data collected to improve and make productive changes to their module content and teaching and learning materials for the following cohorts of students.

It is the authors’ belief that contextual evaluation offers enterprise education pedagogy the opportunity to be evaluated in a more useful and practical forum, with results not only illustrating the impact on students but also on the module content and how this has been instrumental in the students’ progress.

Those wishing to embed and sustain enterprise education by keeping the topic up to date on an annual basis will find this case study useful and, upon request, may have access to the evaluation methods used by the authors.

Mental health workforce development is crucial to successful mental health care reform. A postgraduate programme was developed in 2008 at Griffith University, Australia, to address this need. The programme was developed with an interprofessional focus and in an online format to ensure access for people with work or other commitments or living in rural and remote areas. This paper aims to describe the programme and outcomes of the evaluation.

The research involved mixed methods using semi‐structured interviews, brief sturctured interviews and a survey to allow triangulation of data. Ten people (two graduates and eight external key informants) were interviewed, 21 students who had withdrawn participated in a brief telephone interview and 20 current students completed the survey.

Overall the programme was viewed as providing a relevant contemporary qualification for the mental health sector. The online delivery offered flexibility, the interdisciplinary approach to learning was appreciated and the work‐based placements were highly valued. Mixed teaching‐learning modes employing a combination of online and supervised work‐based experience most effectively facilitated consolidation of knowledge in graduates. Enrolling students from a range of disciplines facilitates interdisciplinary learning, enhancing students' ability to understand other health professional's perspectives and work more effectively as a team.

Mental health tertiary programmes need to have a clear focus and understanding of the workforce needs, include work based learning experiences and address discipline specific as well as interdisciplinary learning needs to ensure students are work‐ready on graduation.

This paper presents the findings from an Objective 4 research project funded through the European Social Fund. A total of 60 innovative technology based SMEs in the Aberdeen area agreed to take part in structured interviews which addressed a broad range of strategic issues. Information was gathered on the knowledge exchange practices utilised by these companies for example seminars, co‐operative working arrangements and in‐house training. Many other sources of learning such as project reviews, practical experience and brainstorming meetings were also discussed. Although the 60 companies taking part in this research have many processes in place which can aid organisational learning, it is unclear how conscious they are of the value of these processes. The sample companies are moving through a learning cycle, akin to that developed by Kolb, by reviewing and acting on learning experiences. However there are considerable differences in the time invested in this process. Few firms are translating their learning experiences into documented format to ensure that knowledge is available to all.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on diversity training and examine the effect of power, privilege and politics on diversity in organisations.

This is a conceptual paper examining the arguments in favour and against diversity training in organisations. It identifies the presence of dominant groups in society leading to the marginalisation and oppression of minority diverse groups. It introduces the papers to the special issue under the three themes of: organisational impacts and outcomes; identify and self‐presentation and resistance to diversity.

The value of diversity training to promoting inclusivity, equality and fairness in organisations is underlined as is the importance of the human resource development community adopting a more proactive role in addressing the issue of diversity through research and course cirricula.

The paper introduces this special issue in “Diversity training in organisations” by examining the background concepts and providing an overview of the contributions to the issue.

The “tourism living systems” (Tourism Living System – TLS) concept is underdeveloped, with limited relevant theoretical analysis to understand how it can support the transformations of tourism systems towards healthy communities and places. This paper aims to conceptualise TLSs and key stakeholder roles for enacting regenerative tourism using a living systems perspective.

Knowledge synthesis and co-production were used to identify the conceptual framework and its applications. Knowledge synthesis was undertaken through a scoping review of the regenerative tourism literature and supplemented by a consultation exercise with leading regenerative tourism practitioners. Co-production of knowledge involved case study research to assess the conceptual framework's practical applications and revise it with regenerative tourism practitioners.

The study revealed that regenerative tourism is informed by living systems' thinking. The authors identify five diverse, interdependent and interconnected stakeholder roles from the case studies and scoping review. All stakeholder roles are vital for constituting tourism systems that contribute to the healthy evolution of social-ecological systems.

Real-world case study applications of the TLS framework will guide tourism stakeholders who seek to adopt regenerative tourism approaches.

The study contributes to developing new frontiers in tourism stakeholder roles and paradigms with implications for regenerative tourism futures. The TLS framework challenges industrial conceptions of tourism by proposing a shift in stakeholder roles from extraction to generating new life to survive, thrive and evolve.