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Morgan State University (Morgan) is a leading undergraduate institution for black science and engineering doctoral degree recipients. Morgan also is a leader in the production of black engineering degree recipients in the United States. This chapter provides a historic overview of the major programs with a tie to the impact on the institutional metrics, a discussion of the process for developing researchers in science and engineering, and alumni perspectives. The undergraduate research development models used in engineering at Morgan are compared and contrasted with the life sciences and physical sciences. The programs focus on developing communities of engineering practice and communities of science, thereby enhancing students’ self-efficacy and resilience, shaping disciplinary identity, and creating learning communities. These approaches are critical for the success of minority students and are supported by the social science literature. Best practices have been adopted at varying levels by the School of Engineering, the School of Computer Mathematics and Natural Science and the Behavioral Science departments that have netted these Ph.D. outcomes including multiyear mentored research, research training courses, and participation in professional meetings. Multiple approaches to student development, when matched with the disciplinary culture, are shown to result in national impact.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the perceptions of students of health sciences on research training programs offered at Saudi universities.

A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to capture the perceptions of health science students about research training programs offered at selected Saudi universities. A criterion-based sampling technique was adopted, and accordingly, 630 students were selected to participate in the study. A pre-tested questionnaire tool titled, “Students Attitude towards Research (SAR) questionnaire ”, was used to capture student responses on a five-point Likert scale with respect to three dimensions, namely, extent of research activities offered in their college, involvement of faculty in research and the infrastructural facilities offered by the college for research. The students’ attitudes with respect to various components of research training programs were analyzed using mean and cumulative percentage of students satisfied with the training. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to study whether there is any significant difference in attitudes among the students belonging to four health science programs of the seven selected universities.

The results of this study demonstrate that only less than 50 per cent of the students from the selected health science colleges are satisfied with the existing research training programs. There are significant differences in the students’ attitude toward research training programs offered in seven selected Saudi universities.

This is the first Saudi Arabia-based study that provides an alarming signal to educational-policy planners on students’ perceptions and attitudes toward research training programs offered in Saudi higher education institutions.

Apprenticeship programmes are designed to provide young trainees with essential broad-based skills. Through apprenticeships, different sectors that are underpopulated can fill up their skills gaps. Apprenticeships are particularly useful to the construction sector which has a high ageing workforce and associated lower labour productivity. However, the completion rates of apprenticeship training programmes in the construction sector remain low in several countries across the globe. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review the published research on apprenticeship training that is specifically focused on the construction sector, to determine the current status quo and suggest a direction for future research.

A systematic review approach was adopted. Based on a comprehensive search using SCOPUS databases, 33 relevant journal articles were identified and analysed.

It was found that monitoring and control is the most mentioned factor responsible for improvements in the completion rates of apprenticeship training. In contrast, the length of time required for going through the full training is the most common factor responsible for low completion rates. Three research gaps were identified, among which is the dearth of studies that has focused on apprentices training in developing countries.

The gaps identified in the current knowledge on apprenticeship training would serve as a justification for future investigations. However, the scope of the review is limited to papers published in academic journals and citable through SCOPUS.

The outcomes of the study provide researchers and other relevant stakeholders with a concise report on the findings of previous studies. It also provides insight into strategies for improving the completion rates of apprenticeship training in the construction sector.

A systematic evaluation of the extant literature draws on theoretical evidence and highlights the factors that are more likely to influence the outcomes of apprentice training for craftspeople in the construction sector.

Although increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of research training for doctoral students, much of the support currently available is generic in nature, rather than tailored to the student’s particular field(s) of study. In this paper, I briefly review UK graduate education for arts and humanities research students, and some of the ways in which the distinctive demands of their discipline(s) shape the research student experience and hence their development needs. I describe the design and delivery of a pilot programme of discipline‐specific research skills development, co‐ordinated by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, which aims to address such needs; and I evaluate its success. I conclude with some recommendations for future practice; in particular, I argue that doctoral training provision is more effective when it involves a subject‐specific approach in which practising academics from the discipline(s) play a significant role – both in terms of fostering an improved level of student engagement with the programme, and of delivering training and development opportunities which are tailored to the student’s particular context and needs.

Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis placed upon the development of transferable skills within PhD degree programmes. This paper reports on steps taken to evaluate a programme of transferable skills development at a research intensive university in the UK, focussing on the views of late stage PhD students in the science, engineering and medical disciplines. It shows that most students report a positive impact from having taken part in transferable skills initiatives and that they have a positive attitude towards them. Participants report an enduring positive impact on their behaviour and consider that the training meets their perceived needs as they progress as researchers. However, amongst the population as a whole, there were differences in views. For example, it was found that females, overseas students and those mainly motivated to do the PhD by career‐related reasons attach the greatest importance to such opportunities to develop transferable skills.

This paper sets out to apply practically the constructs of the entrepreneurial performance training model to three different training interventions, known as the business start‐up, basic entrepreneurship, and advanced entrepreneurship programmes. Furthermore, the paper aims to measure the business performance indicators and skills transfer that took place after the training interventions.

Quantitative research was conducted, using three validated research questionnaires. The research design consists of a pre‐test, post‐test and post‐post test (ten weeks after the training interventions took place). Factor analysis was done, descriptive statistics arising from opinions and expressions are presented and statistical tests such as the Chi‐square test and ANOVA provide inferential statistics.

The business performance indicators improved for all three training groups after they attended the training interventions. Furthermore, it was proved that skills transfer took place after the respondents attended the training interventions.

The training groups can be measured again after 18 months of three years to really determine the impact of the training interventions. The results of the three training programmes can be compared to see whether the basic entrepreneurship groups gained more skills and their business performance indicators increased more than the business start‐up or advanced entrepreneurship programmes.

The outcomes and implications of this research paper emphasise that it is imperative to design training programmes based on training models that have been tested. This paper highlights some aspects of how constructs used within the training models can be tested.

The entrepreneurial performance‐training model was practically applied and provides a set of expectations for other entrepreneurship models as well as presenting a benchmark against which programme performance can be measured. A unique teaching methodology is portrayed that contributes to the overall effectiveness of the training model.

In this chapter, we present our ongoing efforts in developing and sustaining interdisciplinary STEM undergraduate programs at North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T) – a state-supported HBCU and National Science Foundation (NSF) Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Institutional Implementation Project grantee. Through three rounds of NSF HBCU-UP implementation grants, a concerted effort has been made in developing interdisciplinary STEM undergraduate research programs in geophysical and environmental science (in round 1), geospatial, computational, and information science (in round 2), and mathematical and computational biology (in round 3) on NCA&T campus. We first present a brief history and background information about the interdisciplinary STEM undergraduate research programs developed and sustained at NCA&T, giving rationales on how these programs had been conceived, and summarizing what have been achieved. Next we give a detailed description on the development of undergraduate research infrastructure including building research facilities through multiple and leveraged funding sources, and engaging a core of committed faculty mentors and research collaborators. We then present, as case studies, some sample interdisciplinary research projects in which STEM undergraduate students were engaged and project outcomes. Successes associated to our endeavor in developing undergraduate research programs as well as challenges and opportunities on implementing and sustaining these efforts are discussed. Finally, we discuss the impact of well-structured undergraduate research training on student success in terms of academic performance, graduation rate and continuing graduate study, and summarize many of the learnings we have gained from implementation and delivery of undergraduate research experiences at HBCUs.

This study explored attrition from a novice health researcher training program. The aim of this paper was to identify factors contributing to attrition from the RRCBP that if understood could decrease attrition from this standalone researcher training program.

Using a capacity building framework, this case-control study compared demographic characteristics and features of 30 withdrawn research trainees to 68 graduated trainees from the Rural Research Capacity Building Program, run by the Health Education and Training Institute of New South Wales, Australia between 2006 and 2010. Data were analysed using Exact Logistic Regression, Chi-square and Fisher's Exact tests.

An attrition rate of 29 per cent was associated with a range of individual, organisational and supra-organisational factors. Withdrawals occurred prior to ethics submission (n=13, 43 per cent), after unsuccessful ethics submission (n=8, 27 per cent), or after receiving ethics approval (n=9, 30 per cent). Clinicians were less likely to withdraw than non-clinical staff (p=0.03). Profession, project ownership, funding sources and type of research were not significant factors in attrition, while the effect of location was mixed indicating a potential impact of peer support networks in areas with high numbers of trainees.

This research demonstrates attrition from a research training program is associated with trainees receiving appropriate and timely support. In the formative stages researchers require support, particularly those working in professional or geographical isolation.

This study is the first of its kind in examining in detail reasons for withdrawal from a standalone research training program and will allow coordinators of similar programs to target support to vulnerable research trainees at critical time points.

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study evaluated a Master of Science program in Clinical and Translational Research (MSCTR) geared toward training physicians in research methodology. The purpose of this study is to allow trainees to articulate their expectations, needs and experiences in the MSCTR and to develop novel training methods and/or curriculum modifications to improve physician-scholar training.

The mixed-method study design with qualitative emphasis included interviews, participant journal entries and a survey. Interview and journal entry data were analyzed using a modified seven-stage hermeneutic analysis and survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Findings suggest three major areas for improvement, namely, curriculum, mentorship/relationships and instructional methods. Concluding recommendations to address these three areas include: make ongoing curriculum updates to provide a sequential pathway but also allow for flexibility, improve statistical training, invest in online courses and create a more structured mentorship program.

Extant research, though minimal, has evaluated clinical research training programs in terms of alumni productivity. However, this is the first study of its kind to examine a clinical research training program primarily qualitatively and from the perspective of its students and alumni.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze training programs for transnational corporations, educational services market, and society.

The paper consists of three components: determination of the role and meaning of training programs of transnational corporations in the system of formation of private educational resources, conduct of analysis of effectiveness of training programs of transnational corporations, and compilation of recommendations for increase of effectiveness of training programs of transnational corporations. The main method of the research is correlation analysis.

As a result of the research, the authors have come to the conclusion that training programs of transnational corporations are the foundation for the formation of private educational resources and provide significant advantages for transnational corporations, educational services market, and society on the whole.

The practical value of the work consists in the development of practical recommendations for increase of effectiveness of training programs of transnational corporations which could be used by them in practical activities.

The performed research contributes to the development of the concept of human resources, the concept of post-industrial economy, and the concept of transnational business, which causes its high theoretical significance.