Competencies,occupational status,and earnings among European university graduates

While the effect of education and experience on labour market outcomes has been widely studied, the literature that analyses the influence of human capital competencies (talents, skills, and capabilities) is still relatively scarce. Using cross-sectional data from the REFLEX Project, we investigate the effect of personal competencies (both cognitive and non-cognitive) on two labour market outcomes among European university graduates: occupational status and earnings. Our estimates suggest that individuals endowed with a higher level of competencies are more likely to occupy managerial and professional positions and, to a lesser extent, technician jobs. Additionally, they also receive higher wages, but the relation is only significant for men. When we distinguish competencies according to their cognitive or non-cognitive nature, we find that only the latter are significant in explaining occupational status. In contrast, cognitive competencies are more related with wages. As regards the role of specific competencies, our findings suggest that leadership is the most relevant competence for the occupational status of males, especially in managerial positions. In contrast, initiative and enterprise abilities seem to be the most relevant skills for women in such positions. Intelligence produces the highest rewards in terms of earnings among the male subsample, while none of the competencies exerts a significant impact on females’ wages.     

Employers’ skill preferences across Europe: between cognitive and non-cognitive skills

This article analyses online job advertisements to identify skills that are demanded in selected low- and medium-skilled occupations. We explore data from the publicly administered cross-European EURES job search portal and quantify the different cognitive and non-cognitive skills requested by employers in small European economies. While we find that the service sector demands non-cognitive skills more than other types of occupation, the skill-mix demanded is very diverse across countries, implying that other domestic factors shape how demand is formulated. Our work shows that online portals can become a useful source for studying employers’ demand at the micro-level to inform employment, education and training policies.     

The Labor Market Imperative for CTE: Changes and Challenges for the 21st Century

The labor market in the United States is evolving in unexpected ways following the 2007 recession. Career and technical education (CTE) has historically linked young people to the workplace. In this article we examine the U.S. labor market and provide multiple perspectives on its growth and direction and implications for future directions for CTE. We examine the often conflicting data-based arguments and suggest that in a future increasingly dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence, new entrants to the workforce will require very strong social, employability, and work-readiness skills that reflect the behavioral, attitudinal, and character traits highly valued in the workplace and in society. These noncognitive, nontechnical skills can be developed in the CTE classroom, but require both new technical content in these classrooms and changes in how CTE teachers deliver their curriculum.     

Reading to young children: A head-start in life?

This paper investigates the importance of parents reading to their young children. Using Australian data we find that parental reading to children at age 4–5 has positive and significant effects on reading skills and cognitive skills (including numeracy skills) of these children at least up to age 10 or 11. The effects on skills more closely related to reading and language are larger than those on skills such as numeracy skills. However, all findings in relation to reading and other cognitive skills are persistent and robust to a wide range of sensitivity analyses. Although reading to children is also correlated with children's non-cognitive skills, after accounting for the endogeneity of reading to children, no causal effect remains.     

非认知因素与科技人员接受继续教育问题的探讨

非认知因素是认知行为中不可缺少的成分，又是学习过程中的重要心理条件，在一定条件下对学习的成败起决定性作用。本文挑出非认知因素中几个对继续教育有较大影响的因子展开讨论，论述了动机、兴趣、情绪、意志对科技人员接受继续教育的间接影响。     

Cognitive task analysis for instructional design: Applications in distance education

The increasing complexity of the subjectmatters taught through distance education calls for a cognitive approach to instructional design. Cognitive task analysis‐based instructional design (CTA‐BID) is especially appropriate for distance education, which requires high‐fidelity instructional materials that teach cognitive content with little or no classroom instruction. CTA‐BID organises instructional materials around the results of a cognitive task analysis that identifies the optimal knowledge structures, mental models, strategies, and skills underlying expertise in the subject matter. CTA‐BID has produced innovative instructional programmes aimed at teaching cognitive skills, accelerating the development of expertise, and improving student performance and training efficiency. This article provides an overview of CTA‐BID and its applications in the design of instructional and testing materials for distance education. I also review recent developments in education, psychology, and instructional design that complement CTA‐BID.     

Human capital linkages to labour productivity: implications from Thai manufacturers

Human capital investment is a necessary condition for improving labour market outcomes in most countries. Empirical studies to investigate human capital and its linkages on the labour demand side are, however, relatively scarce due to limitations of firm-level data-sets. Using firm-level data from the Thai manufacturing sector, this paper aims to investigate the effects of skill and human capital on labour productivity. Costs and benefits of human capital improvement are compared indicating that hiring workers who have higher education as well as providing them with in-service training has a statistically and significantly positive impact on an increase in labour productivity. However, hiring workers who have higher education yields less benefit than costs which come from higher average wage expenditures. However, providing training should contribute more benefit than cost. Besides education and training measures, we also measure workers’ skill levels into cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills and find that skill in information technology is found to be the most important cognitive skill for increasing labour productivity among Thai manufacturers. Non-cognitive skills such as those in leadership, time-management and communication are also important and seem to have positive relationship to labour productivity among Thai manufacturers.     

Subject leaders in secondary schools and informal learning: towards a conceptual framework

Much of the emphasis on the learning of subject leaders in secondary schools is placed on what Eraut (2000) terms ‘organised formal learning events’. This article attempts to redress the balance by focusing on the somewhat neglected area of their informal learning about the role, which is predominantly based in the workplace. It is argued that informal learning consists of three components: implicit learning, learning through experience and non-taught or deliberative learning (following Eraut, 2004). Such forms of learning can be underpinned by theoretical notions of cognitive, affective and behavioural developments. A model of work-based informal learning is proposed that also tries to incorporate the memories of relevant past and current events. It is hoped that this model might be useful as a framework for the future analysis of the learning of subject leaders.     

Learning to ‘become somebody well’: Challenges for educational policy

This article argues that education has a role in promoting young people’s wellbeing. It draws on research on young people’s lives to highlight the changing world for which educators prepare young people. While older educational agendas such as literacies and numeracy remain significant, it is argued that education is increasingly important for its role in assisting young people to develop the capacities and skills that will enable them to live well and that will enhance social cohesion. Although these more recent social agendas are often acknowledged in significant policy documents, their enactment in schools is compromised by economistic policy imperatives that see young people primarily in terms of their capacities to attain labour market skills that will ensure Australia’s international competitiveness. I make a link between the work that young people do to make themselves, and wellbeing, highlighting the role that education plays in shaping identities — and in enabling them to ‘become somebody well’. The article concludes that health and wellbeing are marginalised in school curricula not because of a ‘crowded curriculum’ but because not all elements are given equal value within our current policy frameworks.     

非认知能力在大学毕业生从学校到工作过渡中的作用及培养

人力资本理论强调教育通过传授知识技能提高劳动者的劳动生产率,影响劳动力市场的产出。近年来国际教育经济学界特别关注非认知能力对个人发展的作用及教育对于非认知能力的影响。非认知能力在教育影响劳动力市场产出这一关系中表现为:工作前毕业生评价自身就业力主要基于专业能力,工作后个性品质等非认知能力因素对于毕业生适应职场、提高就业力等发挥了更重要的作用。非认知能力因素可以通过参与社团活动、丰富校园生活、增进人际交流、建设校园精神文化等途径来培养。     

Perspectives into learning at the workplace

The article presents a thematic review of the recent research on workplace learning. It is divided into two main sections. The first section asks what we know about learning at work, and states four propositions: (1) the nature of workplace learning is both different from and similar to school learning; (2) learning in the workplace can be described at different levels, ranging from the individual to the network and region; (3) workplace learning is both informal and formal; and (4) workplaces differ a lot in how they support learning. The second section focuses on workplace learning that is related to formal education. Different models of organising work experience for students and the challenges of creating partnerships between education and working life are described. It is concluded that the worlds of education and work are moving closer each other and that the integration of formal and informal learning is an essential prerequisite for developing the kinds of expertise needed in response to the changes taking place in working life.     

On the determinants of employment-related organised education and informal learning

This paper analyses the distribution of employment-related organised education and informal learning in the Canadian workforce. The paper draws on a large-scale survey, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), which was based on structured and standardised telephone interviews with a representative sample of 5783 Canadian members of the employed labour force. In exploring the determinants facilitating employment-related informal learning, three analytical categories of factors derived from previous research on learning participation were used: individual-level factors, job characteristics and workplace environment. The analyses focus on differences in individuals, jobs and workplace characteristics among adult workers who acquired or improved their job-related skills through different training pathways. In addition, analyses were performed to compare the extent to which these factors differ in their influence on learning decisions among workers who combine both organised education and informal learning and those who receive only informal learning. The results indicate that important predictors of participation in employment-related organised education and informal learning are age, educational attainment, learning skills, occupational class, education-job relation, degree of autonomy, degree of labour intensity, principal area of production and organisation size.     

Gritting it out: The importance of non-cognitive skills in academic mismatch

I examine the importance of non-cognitive skills in the matching process in higher education in the United States. Across two longitudinal data sources, I show that students with lower non-cognitive skills are more likely to undermatch (enrolling in less selective colleges given their academic credentials) and less likely to overmatch. The application process drives the relationship between non-cognitive skills and academic mismatch, as students with low non-cognitive skills are less likely to apply to a well-matched institution. I further show that non-cognitive skills are strong predictors of Bachelor’s degree completion. I propose an alternative definition of undermatch, which additionally considers students’ non-cognitive skills. Under this definition, a smaller share of high-achieving students undermatch in higher education.     

Vertically integrated skill development and vocational training for socioeconomically marginalised youth: The experience at Gram Tarang and Centurion University,India

At present, India’s education system turns out millions of young people who are ready to think, but not enough people with entrepreneurial or employment skills. As India faces increasing limits on its resources, both economic and natural, the competency and capability of human resources play a pivotal role in developing and sustaining the economy. The sector of skill development and vocational education requires a paradigm shift, from a static framework to one that is dynamic and constantly adapting to meet industry and social demands. Centurion University of Technology and Management has evolved to provide relevant and inclusive education to young people at every level, from school dropouts to graduates. Through its social entrepreneurship initiative, Gram Tarang Employability Training Services, Centurion partners with industries and the government to develop the capacity for employment and entrepreneurship in all its students and trainees. This article describes Centurion’s vision, operational approach, and the underlying beliefs that guide its innovative thinking, based on its years of working in some of India’s most marginalised and underdeveloped regions.     

Towards a systemic theory of gifted education

In this target article, we argue that current approaches to gifted education are based on the erroneous view that to understand the development of exceptionality we need to understand firstly the components of giftedness, including cognitive such as intelligence and non-cognitive factors such as motivation. In contrast, systemic approaches to understanding exceptionality focuses on the interactions of these components where it is important to firstly understand the system that leads to exceptionality before it is possible to understand its components. After analyzing the weaknesses of current approaches to gifted education we then present three central arguments for the need for a paradigm shift. This is followed by an introduction of constructs of a systemic approach of gifted education. Using the Actiotope Model of Giftedness to understand the development of exceptionality, this article describes the basic principles of a gifted education that is based on this systemic approach.     

Developing ‘active citizens’: Arts Award,creativity and impact

Creativity has become the new watchword in UK academic and policy circles. Within this context, policy discussions about the arts and their impact emphasise economic benefits over educational value, drawing clear distinctions between quantifiable or ‘hard’ measures of impact and those described as ‘soft’, less tangible and lacking a strong evidence base. Departing from the binary logics often underpinning notions of arts impacts, this article is novel in exploring the entwined relationship between impacts seen as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. We draw on research examining the links between arts education and young people's future trajectories and use the concept of ‘active citizenship’ to show how informal, softer skills fostered through creative learning are an important part of citizenship-making for some young people. Participants’ accounts show how improvements in soft skills can give young people opportunities for agency, which shape progression pathways leading to measurable change. This finding is directly relevant in the context of evaluations of arts impacts in the UK and abroad, and should encourage further examination of the impact of creative learning on transfer of skills as well as policy developments in this area.     

Self-efficacy and achievement behaviors

In this article self-efficacy research is reviewed in domains relevant to education. Research addressing cognitive skills, social skills, motor skills, and career choices has shown that self-efficacy is an important construct that helps to explain students' learning and performance of achievement-related behaviors. Research also has identified variables that are associated with educational contexts and that signal to students how well they are achieving or making progress in learning. These task-engagement variables include models/social comparative information, goal setting, attributional and performance feedback, strategy instruction, cognitive processing, and reward contingencies. A suggested future self-efficacy research agenda might include maintenance and generalization of changes in self-efficacy, the identification of additional task-engagement variables, instrument development and validation, integration of efficacy information from diverse sources, developmental influences on self-efficacy, and teachers' sense of efficacy.     

Using the inquiry-based learning approach to enhance student innovativeness: a conceptual model

ABSTRACT

Individual innovativeness has become one of the most important employability skills for university graduates. In this paper, we focus on how students could be better prepared to be innovative in the workplace, and we argue that inquiry-based learning (IBL) – a pedagogical approach in which students follow the inquiry-based processes used by scientists to construct knowledge – can be effective for this purpose. Drawing on research which examines the social and cognitive micro-foundations of innovative behavior, we develop a conceptual model that links IBL and student innovativeness, and introduce three teacher-controlled design elements that can influence the strength of this relationship, namely whether an inquiry is open or closed, discovery-focused or information focused and individual or team-based. We argue that an open, discovery-focused and team-based inquiry offers the greatest potential for enhancing students’ skills in innovation. This paper has several implications for higher education research and practice.     

The intergenerational effects of parental schooling on the cognitive and non-cognitive development of children

This article, using the National Child Development Study, estimates the causal relationship between parents’ schooling and children's cognitive and non-cognitive development using the 1947 compulsory schooling legislation in Great Britain. The least squares estimates suggest strong correlations between parental education and these developmental indicators. However, the instrument variable estimates are not sufficiently precise to find that either parent's schooling has a beneficial effect on children's cognitive and non-cognitive development.     

Making judgments as the basis for workplace learning: towards an epistemology of practice

Workplace learning has emerged as a significant site of adults' informal experiential learning, with implications for the provision and shape of formal education. There are, however, a prohibitive number of variables encumbering research into such learning. We can bypass the variables by focusing on phenomenal accounts of how professionals (in this instance) make judgements at work, underpinned by an organic logic derivable from Dewey. This article shows how to characterize a new epistemology of practice through both empirical and conceptual innovation, and thus advances the detail of this new informal workplace learning. This epistemology deals in five characteristics central to lifelong learning anyway, namely: the contingent (rather than exclusively formal, sustained, and systematic studies); the practical (rather than exclusively the theoretical); the process (rather than exclusively the assimilation of content); the particular (rather than the exclusively universal and a priori as the ‘context’); and the affective and the social domains (rather than exclusively the cognitive domain). Our fieldwork so far shows, through interview findings, how these are prominent in professional workplace judgments, and what prospects there are for further research on judgment as a site of ‘organic’ learning for adults.