Skills utilisation at work,the quality of the study programme and fields of study

This paper examines the factors that may have impact on the extent to which the knowledge and skills of master’s degree graduates in Norway are utilised at work, three years after graduation. The focus is on the impact of the quality of the study programme as well as the graduates’ fields of study, when also taking into account other factors influencing the utilisation of skills. The analysis indicates that the quality of the study programme has an independent effect on skills utilisation at work. The analysis also shows large differences in skills utilisation according to fields of study, even among graduates who are not formally overeducated for their job. Not formally overeducated graduates in humanities and social science utilise their knowledge and skills less frequently than other similar graduates. The findings involve challenges for higher education institutions and graduates, as well as employers, to find ways that the expertise of master's degree graduates could be better exploited.     

Professional skills development in a resource-poor setting: the case of pharmacy in Malawi

The dominance of the human capital approach in vocational skills development has been increasingly questioned for being de-humanised and de-contextualised. Contrary to this trend, the discourse in health professional skills development has shown increasing enthusiasm for consolidating this existing paradigm. To debate whether professional skills development should indeed be insulated from such scepticism, this paper examines one strategy adopted by the health professions. Called ‘task shifting’, this strategy involves re-delegating professional tasks to nonprofessional cadres according to a skills-based toolkit. Challenging the context-free approach to using this toolkit, this paper presents ethnographic evidence derived from a case study of pharmacy workforce issues in Malawi. It was found that task shifting was inhibited by a perception barrier about the moral and intellectual superiority of the pharmacists. Pharmacy technicians were judged to be unfit for a professional task because of a perceived lack of professional status, power and ethics. On tracing the origin of the inherent professional prowess assigned to the pharmacists, it was found that professionalism was an ideology borrowed from external sources, inter alia, colonial legacies and global health governance. This study exposes our hidden assumption about an axiomatic transferability of Anglo-American skills development models to a postcolonial, aid-dependent context. This paper therefore suggests redefining this toolkit by bridging health research into dialogue with non-health disciplinary concerns such as postcolonialism and aid-dependence. In conclusion, it argues that professional skills development is context-laden; and in need of a human-centred approach that involves true indigenous participation–challenges not unlike those faced by the vocational skills discourse.     

Skills for inclusive growth in South Africa: Promising tides amidst perilous waters

Skills development is critical to South Africa's development. It has been argued that South Africa's twin post-Apartheid challenges, poverty and unemployment requires a level of skills development not undertaken before (0300 and 0045). The creation of a separate ministry, the department of higher education and training (DHET), which has incorporated institutional entities from former Ministries of Education and Labour has engendered an expectation for the realisation of a co-ordinated and integrated post school education and training system. The establishment of this entity for the first time anticipates a coherent response to the education, training and skills development challenges faced by the country. The initial anticipation that this development will provide the basis for a coherent post-school education, training and skills development system, that is responsive to national development encapsulated by the notion of inclusive growth, have waned somewhat. In an attempt to link education and labour market more deliberately, it attempts to respond to both the education and labour market constituencies for greater synergy. The reality of success of a new institutional structure, within a wider structure embedded in the older pre-merged configuration, has proved more difficult than anticipated. The notion of ‘policy as boundary object’ is considered a critical missing element in the current re-positioning and the changed political circumstances represent a golden moment to do things differently. This paper explores the current structural re-configuration, as it has, and is likely to, impact on the skills development provisioning in the country. In particular, it focuses on the impact of current developments on the delivery of intermediate level skills, and the likely role of the beleaguered public FET Colleges (FETCs) in this regard. Whilst it is accepted that the current development is new and unlikely to have a track record, the current context is critically evaluated in terms of the potentials and challenges identified against the empirical experience of ten years of skills development in the country.     

Towards a Seamless Web or a New Tertiary Tripartism? The Emerging Shape of Post-14 Education and Training in England

ABSTRACT:?

Government policy aims at a ‘seamless web’ of learning provision. This is exemplified in a local Learning and Skills Council supported by work on widening participation to higher education (HE) in another London sub-region. The emerging system described is comprehended as a whole from ‘Foundation Learning’ in compulsory schooling to post-compulsory ‘Lifelong Learning’ in further, higher and continuing education and training thereafter.     

发挥开放性实验室在医学研究生实验教学中的作用

由于医学研究生的实验教学不仅需要优化其开放性实验所需的师资队伍,而且还需建立一个实验教学的科学体系,同时完善实验的功能配置,达到实验时间等方面的开放,以便构建出实验教学的创新性平台,从而才能够更好的满足开放性实验于医学研究生的教学目的与作用。     

群体规模对属性议程设置的影响——基于议程融合假设的实验研究

本研究基于议程融合的假设,通过实验的方法对受众在不同媒介信息获取渠道中产生的属性议程设置进行探讨,验证了不同大小的群体规模对属性议程设置效果的不同影响,以及在议程融合过程中群体规模对受众的不同信息依赖程度的倾向的影响。该实验研究对议程融合假设做出了一定的修正并提出了一些值得进一步研究的问题。     

论“金针暗度”技法的审美意蕴

金针暗度作为诗文谋篇布局的一种重要方法,在文学作品中大量运用,具有特殊的艺术魅力,理应成为我们关注的课题。从文学评点史料出发,重点探讨评点家对金针暗度的批评指涉予以言说,其审美意蕴表现为:委婉含蓄,曲尽人意;轻笔点染,妙阐幽微;秘移潜换,巧妙布局。     

接地气——毕节试验区高等教育发展战略探析

进入21世纪后,高校发展趋势呈现百花齐放之势,但地方本科高校的发展却在资深高校和新建职业技术院校的双重夹击下显得举步维艰,毕节试验区高等教育发展尤为典型。在内忧外患的情况下,试验区高等教育发展的战略定位有着举足轻重的作用。如何做好试验区高等教育的战略定位关系着其命运。笔者从众多成功的案例分析出毕节试验区高等教育的战略定位走向———接地气。     

英语专业考试评价体系优化研究——以《综合英语课程》为例

分析了英语专业小班授课背景下,现行学科考试评价体系的不足之处。以《综合英语课程》为例,实现了考试体系的优化,分析其意义与价值,旨在为英语专业学科考试评价体系改革提供借鉴。     

模具设计与制造专业人才培养模式技能等级标准研究

本文介绍了模具设计与制造专业"职业活动导向技能三段式"人才培养模式的培养过程和三类技能培养的途径和方法,提出了三类技能的内涵、培养手段及观测点。以第二段专业技能为例,详细介绍了专业技能的等级标准。