Journal Article

There is broad acknowledgement that higher education should produce career-ready graduates and the role of practical experience - such as part-time employment, unregulated extra-curricular internships and work-integrated learning (WIL) - in achieving this. WIL is critical for developing the non-technical skills, disciplinary expertise and career self-management competencies required to prepare graduates for the world-of-work. Although Australia appears committed to growing WIL, many employers engage in extra-curricular internships while there is a lack of industry partners available to meet student demand for WIL. Extra-curricular internships may, therefore, be considered the 'black market' to WIL and could be constraining the achievement of targeted growth in Australia's National Strategy for WIL . This paper highlights that extra-curricular internships may not be governed by the good practice principles critical to a quality work-based learning experience. It explores possible reasons for stakeholder preference for unregulated, extra-curricular internships and presents strategies to shift their engagement to WIL.

As job security declines and precarious employment arrangements become more prevalent, transferable skills have become vital for job seeking success. In recognition of this issue, many governments are seeking to redesign their training systems in ways that transferable skills become better emphasised. This paper examines the challenges of developing transferable skills among a nation's workforce and the tensions that can emerge between training design intentions and training delivery outcomes when training delivery is marketised. Australia, where incremental training sector reforms have occurred since the late 1980s, serves as the context for this study. While training design occurs through a tripartite process involving employer, government and union representatives, training delivery is now determined in an open, deregulated market environment., Our analysis reveals a complex underlying design with an in-built intention of developing widely transferable skills, yet there exists significant concern about the actual training outcomes. We conclude that in an environment where VET delivery is user-choice driven with the aim of fulfilling specific employer skills needs the quality, depth and breadth of transferable skills are compromised.

To what extent do favourable job characteristics contribute to the variation in numeracy skills between countries? Based on theory of maintenance and further development of pre-existing skills, this is explored by applying data on numeracy skills among employed persons in seven European countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). Regression analyses are used to examine the extent to which numeracy skills vary with job characteristics and education levels across the seven countries, when controlling for industrial sector, work hours, demographic variables (gender, age, Western and Non-Western immigrant background), cultural capital (books at home and parental education level). The findings indicate that job characteristics and the individuals' educational level have large and equal statistical impact on the total skills variation in the seven countries. However, regarding the country- differences, variations in education level play a lesser role than job characteristics., This article is part of a special issue entitled 'Work-related training and workplace learning: Nordic perspectives and European comparisons', guest edited by Tarja Irene Tikkanen, Liv Anne Storen, and Elisabeth Hovdhaugen.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how kindergarten, as a learning arena equal to a university college, creates learning spaces that engage or intervene in the professional learning of student teachers in early childhood education. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on narratives from students in work-based education. Findings: The paper addresses the complexity of education by outlining how the concept of learning is applied in earlier research on work-based learning (WBL). Research limitations/implications: This earlier understanding is complemented this with two theoretical lenses (sociocultural and sociomaterial thinking) to analyse a constructed narrative from the students. Originality/value: The two theoretical positions open up to examine knowledge development and potentially enrich the picture of learning spaces in experiential WBL, going beyond the student as an individual learner.

The aim of this article is to investigate how the formal competence development activities provided by the Production Leap, a workplace development programme (WPDP), were interwoven with everyday work activities and to identify the conditions that enabled learning and employee-driven innovation that contributed to production improvement, in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. The study adopts a qualitative case approach and draws on evidence from research conducted in four manufacturing SMEs that participated in this Swedish WPDP. Funded by EU authorities, WPDPs provide competence development activities to SMEs in order to boost their production capabilities and/or promote innovation. The findings reveal that the competence development activities provided by the programme triggered learning in everyday work activities and fostered the development of different approaches to employee-driven innovation in the enterprises. The conclusion is that it is essential to consider that employee-driven innovations may take different forms and involve functions that can support innovative learning that goes beyond minor adjustments to the existing standards of production. Moreover, employee-driven innovation may impose new demands on management leadership skills. The findings provide important guidance for future WPDPs, for vocational education and training or university activities that are customised to SME contexts to promote production capabilities, and for SMEs that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation.

The study was aimed at comparing the expectations of Slovak employers and students in terms of employability skills. Twenty-seven companies which employ university graduates working in the manufacturing and financial sectors, represented by a Managing Director or Human Resources Director and 534 university students in the Bratislava region completed a questionnaire that evaluated the perceived importance of, and satisfaction with, generic employability skills. Employers perceived a lack of appropriate skills as the biggest barrier to employing graduates. With regard to the importance of skills, students considered only three skills to be more important than employers did; experience in the field, leadership and authority, and field knowledge. Compared to students, employers regarded engagement and willingness to take on extra work as the most important. In terms of satisfaction, students were more satisfied than employers in nineteen skills from a total of thirty-two. To reduce the satisfaction gap between graduates and employers, higher education institutions can promote students' self-awareness through career psychological services centers.

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 [Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society 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 sub-sample, while none of the competencies exerts a significant impact on females' wages.

This study explores the challenges of assessing student workplace performance during work-integrated learning. It highlights the need for, yet difficulties with, combining positivist and constructivist assessments where workplace supervisors make evaluative judgements on performance, yet students are also agents in their own assessment. It examines the ratings awarded by 163 workplace supervisors for 213 business undergraduates completing a work placement as part of their degree program in Western Australia. Students were rated on 17 capabilities associated with employability and results indicate, in alignment with previous studies, a tendency among supervisors to assign inflated marks across capabilities. The mean capability rating awarded to each student was significantly higher than their weighted course average, suggesting workplace supervisors mark more highly than academics in coursework units. To identify solutions to manage leniency bias, the study examined variations in supervisor ratings for a range of personal and contextual variables such as gender, organisation size, work area, and sector. Although supervisor ratings were inflated, they were consistent across the sample with variations recorded for only four capabilities in certain work areas. Reasons for leniency bias among workplace supervisors are explored in light of the findings and alternative approaches to evaluating student workplace performance are presented.

Since the mid-1990s, governments of different political persuasion have tried to reform VET policy to address problems in skills formation and social inclusion. Despite considerable policy activism, success has been somewhat limited, and England failed to overcome the problems associated with its liberal training regime. This article assesses the failure in vocational skills formation as a political economy and a public policy problem. It challenges the determinism in the political economy literature, points to poor public policy-making, and outlines possible policy levers.