Training complete engineers: Global enterprise and engineering education

For the past few years a discussion has been going on about the specific skills and knowledge a complete engineer should possess. Apart form this discussion, a separate debate has focused on the content of an engineer's education. This article is a combination of two joint papers (De Graaff and Ravesteijn 2000, Ravesteijn and De Graaff 2000) bearing on these respective subjects, presented by the authors at the SEFI 2000 conference in Paris. The demands from industry that engineers of the future will have to meet are summarized and related to characteristics of modern training methods. It is argued that a new view on the content of the engineer's education implies, at least to a certain extent, a new set of educational tools.     

Psychosocial Hazards in UK Universities: Adopting a Risk Assessment Approach

Drawing on the findings of a recent national survey, this article examines the extent to which higher education institutions in the United Kingdom meet the minimum standards recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the management of work‐related stressors. A comparison is also made between the average weekly working hours reported in the current survey with those found in two previous studies of the higher education sector (1998 and 2004). A sample of 9,740 academic and academic‐related employees working in higher education institutions in the UK completed a measure of seven job‐related stressors (or psychosocial hazards) (that is, demands, control, support from colleagues and managers, interpersonal relationships, role clarity and involvement in organisational change). With one exception (job control), levels of job‐related stressors in the higher education sector exceeded the benchmarks stipulated by the HSE. Stressors relating to change, role, job demands and managerial support were particularly high. Recommendations made by the HSE for interim and longer‐term targets to be achieved for the management of each stressor category are provided. Findings also revealed that average working hours remain high in the sector, with many employees continuing to exceed the weekly limit set by the UK Working Time Directive. The utility of the HSE approach in higher education institutions and ways in which the sector might work towards meeting the HSE management standards and consequently enhance employee well‐being are considered.     

Personality traits and job exploration among Latino business students: An exploratory investigation

We examine the role of the Big Five personality traits in the job exploration process of Latino undergraduate business students to ascertain the personality traits and socio‐cognitive variables that lead to greater success of students in their job searches. We find that personalities such as extraversion and conscientiousness are positively associated with career self‐efficacy, career expectations, and interests in both academic and professional skills, which in turn positively influence job exploration behaviors. Additionally, we find that personalities such as agreeableness and neuroticism have a negative influence on career exploration behaviors. Our findings provide Latino business students with college vocational guidance that can help enhance their career confidence, job beliefs, and career interests in the job‐seeking process.     

情绪劳动、工作压力与工作满意度关系研究

金融业为使顾客感受宾至如归的感觉,第一线服务人员即使碰到顾客无理要求,也必须压抑负面情绪,展现亲切微笑,让顾客感到满意即为情绪劳动基本精神,此作法将增加金融业第一线服务人员工作负荷,形成工作压力来源,进而影响工作满意度。本文以某金融业第一线服务人员为研究对象,探讨情绪劳动、工作压力与工作满意度之因果关系,运用问卷调查,便利抽样方法共发放207份,有效问卷为205份。实证发现,情绪劳动对工作满意度具有正向显着影响、工作压力对工作满意度、情绪劳动对工作压力具有负向影响。本文提出结论、管理启示,作为金融业参考。     

从企业所需的核心技能谈激发大学生学习动机

文章指出大学生在学习中应获得的四种核心能力与企业工作所需要的核心能力有着直接的内在联系,并较详细地分析了高校教学需培养学生具备的四种核心技能和企业工作取得成功所需要的四种能力是相通的。高校教育者如果使学生意识到这种相通性,学生学习动机就会被激发,就会成为积极的学习者。     

Implications of job rotation literature for performance improvement practitioners

Job rotations have existed as a means of developing individual knowledge and skills since the industrial revolution, and in today's dynamic global workplace, they afford organizations an opportunity to manage changing psychological work contracts and employee desires for self‐managed careers. Through the systematic mining of psychology, business, management, and educational databases, this literature review provides a summary of job rotation practices, individual and organizational benefits, likely costs associated with job rotations, and implications for practitioners. Findings indicate that while employees seek learning and marketability over job security and stability, organizations strive to maintain continuity and internal growth and development of their workforce. Job rotations can appease both individuals and organizations through enhanced knowledge and skills, facilitation of greater job satisfaction, and identification of individual strengths for optimal organizational performance. However, these benefits come at a price to the individual and the organization in the form of increased work/life conflict, potentially higher training costs, and possible lower work unit morale. Conclusions are presented on the practical implications and recommendations for implementing job rotations and integrating the practice into performance improvement models.     

Training Transfer and Transfer Motivation: The Influence of Individual,Environmental, Situational,Training Design,and Affective Reaction Factors

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of individual, environmental, training design, and affective reaction factors on training transfer and transfer motivation. To determine the relationship between these factors and their influence on training transfer and to test the model, the researchers collected data from employees in the Malaysian banking sector. Structural equation modeling with Amos 16 was used to test the model and determine the relationship. The study suggested that training stakeholders should manage the training program effectively. Transfer is maximized when trainees have social support, high performance self‐efficacy, and transfer motivation. Stakeholders (e.g., trainers, trainees, supervisors, and peers) are important to the training transfer process, as are learner readiness, trainee reaction, instrumentality, and training retention. This study revealed that perceived content validity and transfer design work together and influence the trainee's performance self‐efficacy. In other words, if trainers want to improve the performance self‐efficacy level of trainees, they need to explain how the trainee can transfer the learned skills at the workplace and make sure the content of the training is similar to the actual job. The main objective of training programs is to align the employee's expertise with organizational goals. Organizations can achieve their desired objectives only when employees transfer the learned skills on the job. Unfortunately, employees often transfer only a small percentage of skills they have learned in training. To effectively manage their training programs, organizations need to identify and focus on the factors that resist effective training transfer.     

高等院校开设体育产业经营管理专业的构想

根据国家新时期的奋斗目标和体育事业的改革发展趋势，体育作为产业将迎来巨大的发展机遇，建议体育院校积极开办体育产业经营管理专业，为体育产业的快速发展培养大批经营管理人才，以适应体育事业发展的需要．     

Assessing alignment between information technology educational opportunities,professional requirements,and industry demands

Information technology (IT) and computing are growing fields, offering far more job opportunities than applicants. Yet, little data are available to indicate how course content, employer needs, and additional learning opportunities work together the prepare graduates to enter the IT workforce. To understand the extent to which learners were prepared to for these highly technical careers, we used text analysis to examine the extent to which course syllabi, job postings, internship postings, and industry certifications from information technology preparation programs at state college and two universities commonly reflected national IT curriculum knowledge areas. Integrated data suggested that while the two-year and four-year programs imparted key technical skills, to qualify employers sought applied, or “soft,” skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and written and verbal communication. These soft skills were more difficult to detect as learning outcomes, but the determination of the extent to which the examined programs foster these skills presents a fertile area for subsequent research.     

论知识经济与高校创新型外语人才的培养

80年代末以前提出的具有"听说读写译"基本技能的工具型外语人才以及80年代末提出的既懂外语又懂某一专业知识的"复合型外语人才"已不能满足一些岗位的更高要求。知识经济时代需要有一批更为尖端的外语专业人才,即创新型人才,他们能在国际交流中独当一面,能够创新性地开展工作。本文首先指出知识经济环境下我国大学教育面临的普遍问题,在此基础上提出培养创新型外语人才的必要性,并对其培养模式作出有益的探讨。     

Helping Business Students Acquire the Skills Needed for a Career in Analytics: A Comprehensive Industry Assessment of Entry‐Level Requirements

Fact‐based decision making is changing job functions within organizations more than any other technology. Analytics, once the purview of the data scientist, is now spread throughout organizations. No longer is there a single job title, job function, or set of required skills and credentials for an analytics career. Companies have moved away from seeking applicants with a specific degree to now recruiting analytics talent based on required skill sets. For more than a decade, business schools have been developing new programs in analytics in response to industry's needs. However, in developing meaningful career‐ready professionals, business programs must understand the skills required across different analytics job functions. In this article, the authors present a comprehensive assessment of the skills sought by employers when considering a candidate for an entry‐level analytics position. The authors describe the demand for various types of analytics professionals, identify the job titles and functions with the most significant demand, and then draw a comparison of the job requirements of hard skills, soft skills, software skills, and credentials between three of the most sought‐after analytics areas: data science, data analytics, and business analytics. The authors conclude by providing faculty and administrators with recommendations on how to adapt their courses and programs to provide students with the fundamental preparation necessary for careers in data science, data analytics, and business analytics.     

An IT Bachelor Degree Using Modern Technologies to Illustrate Core Concepts and Principles and Building Generic Skills

Information Technology (IT) changes very quickly and influences business, industry and the public in an enormous manner. Outsourcing of IT jobs to cheaper overseas labor and globalization of IT companies become a common practice. Graduates of IT university courses must be well prepared to address the needs and expectations of business, industry and every day life. Many factors in an Information Technology curriculum influence graduates’ professional preparation and image. The most important of them is to reflect technology change, the current state of knowledge of computing, business and industry demands and students’ expectations. The aim of our project was to develop a new Bachelor of IT curriculum that satisfies these requirements. In this report we concentrate our attention on two critical aspects of IT curriculum content, the modern technologies to be used to illustrate basic concepts and principles of computing, and the generic skills that each graduate is expected to acquire to get a job in Australia.     

Perceived Level of Personal Control Over the Work Environment and Employee Satisfaction and Work Performance

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of background information regarding perceived level of personal control over the physical features of the work environment and its impact on individual satisfaction and outcomes. In today's business with the fast growth of technology, e‐market development, and innovative methods of communication, the workplace will continue to change rapidly. To control and accommodate these fast changes while sustaining or enhancing outcomes, organizations have increasingly turned to a model of work teams; therefore, employees’ skills in working within team environments has been emphasized. To guarantee that the work environment itself supports these new approaches of working, flexible workplaces are often suggested. Open‐plan offices offer more flexibility when compared to completely closed and private ones and they are considered to have more capabilities and are, therefore, highly valued in today's industry. Apart from its advantages, open‐plan office design does create some problems due to lack of personal control over the work environment, which can negatively affect employees’ satisfaction and performance. It is, therefore, important to emphasize the significance of personal control over the physical work environment and the impact of that on employees’ satisfaction and outcome.     

高职高专商品花卉人才素质和能力解析

花卉业是我国的朝阳行业,从业人员不断增加,但现有专业技术力量难以满足花卉业快速发展的需要,商品花卉高技能人才培养任重而道远。根据花卉业就业岗位和人才需求的特点,对人才进行定位,并分析人才基本素质、基本能力和专业能力,从而为人才培养方案的制定提供依据。     

台湾员工的工作绩效、福利制度对于员工工作满意度与组织承诺之影响

员工一直是企业最重要的资产,员工所累积的技术与经验是无法被复制的,为了使企业的员工提升工作的动机与用心态度,即是工作绩效观点,另外在员工的薪资福利制度,也可以激励及改善员工并提升整体对企业的向心力,则是工作满意度最主要的影响因素。工作绩效与员工福利对于工作满意度有正向显著关系;工作绩效与员工福利对于组织承诺有正向显著关系;工作满意度对于组织承诺正向显著关系。研究结果可知,企业为了留住人才、降低员工流动率、盼望员工能多一些绩效及责任,利用福利制度,激励员工并达成组织目标。未来企业的部分单位更可能采用人力外包制度,相同单位下会出现同工不同酬的现象,在薪资制度无法调整之下,企业必顸提升员工潜在的知觉感受,才能留住高素质员工及保持良好工作效率。     

Towards a Theory of Pedagogic Text Analysis

The present study examines why businesses and government ministries use and need occupational second foreign language (L3) skills, but fail to mention these in job advertisements. It contrasts data from two quantitative surveys of language use in business and government domains with two studies of the mention of L3 skills in job advertisements. While the former show that L3 languages are still used and still considered important and relevant, the latter show that such skills are hardly mentioned in job advertisements, not even as cautious requests in positions where these would be highly relevant. The authors discuss whether this may be due to the lack of L3 skills among new employees or due to the belief that English is sufficient, also known as “Anglophone complacency.”     

Evaluating the Impact of a Performance‐Based Methodology on Transfer of Training

Transfer of training is the degree to which trainees can apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained in training to the job. Currently only between 5% and 20% of what is learned in training is ever applied on the job. At this time, little is known about the effects of work environment factors, such as support, feedback, and goal setting, on training transfer. We utilized a quasi‐experimental between‐groups design using surveys, interviews, and behavioral measures to evaluate the impact of performance‐based work environment factors on training transfer. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group reported a higher level of training transfer than those in the control group. These findings suggest that a performance‐based approach to training can be an effective method to increase the likelihood that employees transfer training knowledge to the job context.     

The Efficacy of Consulting Practicum in Enhancing Students’ Readiness for Professional Career in Management Information Systems: An Empirical Analysis

Consulting practicum (CP) is a form of experiential learning technique to prepare students for professional careers. While CP has become a popular way to help students acquire the essential practical skills and experience to enhance career readiness and ensure a smooth transition from college to employment, there is a lack of empirical studies that establish any link between CP and the career readiness of students. This study seeks to fill this gap. Undergraduate students enrolled in practicum classes undertook consulting projects for several organizations in the areas of management and information systems (MIS) with the purpose of implementing projects and solving real‐life business problems while gaining valuable professional experience and career specific skills. Each team had a mentor who was also the contact person representing the client organization. At the end of the projects, the teams’ supervisors evaluated the performance of the consulting teams based on 10 criteria, classified into behavioral and technical skills. The results show that students developed essential career‐related competencies and behavioral skills as an indication of career readiness, thus affirming CP as an innovative pedagogical strategy that can enhance students’ readiness for professional careers in MIS.     

The Numeracies of Boatbuilding: New Numeracies Shaped by Workplace Technologies

Within increasing pressure on young people to perform successfully in work, there is a growing concern regarding their levels of numeracy (and literacy). Whether such concerns are founded is the basis of this paper. This paper reports on the numeracy practices undertaken by three young boatbuilders who were nearing the completion of their 4-year apprenticeship. Using a method of stimulated recall and supplemented with interview data, the numeracy practices enacted by the boatbuilders was documented. It was found that the employees were highly competent in a number of areas—estimation, problem solving, holistic thinking and measuring (formal and informal). These skills are at variance with the basic skills being called for by public and government. It is proposed that the numeracy skills used by the employees may represent significant changes in workplaces being brought about through new technologies, and thus creating new and different numeracy demands from those of previous generations.