Journal Article

National systems of vocational education and training around the globe are facing reform driven by quality, international mobility, and equity. Evidence suggests that there are qualitatively distinctive challenges in providing and sustaining workplace learning experiences to international students. However, despite growing conceptual and empirical work, there is little evidence of the experiences of these students undertaking workplace learning opportunities as part of vocational education courses. This paper draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involved 105 in depth interviews with international students undertaking work integrated learning placements as part of vocational education courses in Australia. The results indicate that international students can experience different forms of discrimination and deskilling, and that these were legitimised by students in relation to their understanding of themselves as being aninternational student' (with fewer rights). However, the results also demonstrated the ways in which international students exercised their agency towards navigating or even disrupting these circumstances, which often included developing their social and cultural capital. This study, therefore, calls for more proactively inclusive induction and support practices that promote reciprocal understandings and navigational capacities for all involved in the provision of work integrated learning. This, it is argued, would not only expand and enrich the learning opportunities for international students, their tutors, employers, and employees involved in the provision of workplace learning opportunities, but it could also be a catalyst to promote greater mutual appreciation of diversity in the workplace.

In a time of increased digitization, disruptive technologies, and the Internet of Things, dependency on in- formation and communication technology (ICT) increases. As the differences between the traditional and technology spheres narrow, organizations of all types will need talented individuals who can navigate the digital world. However, identifying the precise mix of skills is easier said than done. Canada's continued economic growth will require more than a workforce of trained coders; it will need a workforce with a well-rounded set of skills for non-technical and technical employees alike. Drawing on specific examples of programs designed for skills development at the post-secondary level, this article explores practical ways to cultivate a broad skill set by immersing post-secondary education students into the workplace and by engaging them in private-sector research environments.

Despite the existence of a large volume of literature on subjective well-being (SWB) of the general population, very few studies have focused on individuals with disabilities. The present study uses data on 24,036 Canadians with disabilities to investigate factors affecting their SWB. It found that SWB, measured here by level of happiness, decreases with severity of disability but is independent of the type of physical disability. Those born with a disability are likely to be happier as compared to those disabled later on in life. Per capita family income has no effect on happiness. However, unemployment decreases happiness. Happiness is found to be U shaped in age, bottoming out around 40 years of age. Some of these results vary when the sample is split according to the timing, type or severity of disability.

In this paper, I use data from the National Survey of Class Structure and Labour Process in Canada (NSCS) to estimate the returns to over and undereducation. I find that there are positive returns to overeducation for males in jobs that require a university bachelor's degree; but for other levels of required education, the returns are insignificant. I also find evidence of lower pay for undereducated males in jobs with low education requirements. For females, the returns to over and undereducation are insignificant for all levels of required education.

Male immigrants are disproportionately employed in information and communication technology (ICT) industries and occupations in Canada. The authors use a measure of basic ICT skills to document differences in skill levels, and those skills’ relationship with labour market earnings, across immigration classes and categories of Canadians at birth. Adult immigrants, including those assessed by Canada’s points system, have lower average ICT scores than Canadians at birth, although the rate of return to ICT skills is not statistically different between them. Immigrants who arrive as children and the Canadian-born children of immigrants have similar outcomes as the Canadian-born children of Canadian-born parents.

Background: This paper uses new data to examine the gap in injury and fatality rates between immigrant men and women and their Canadian-born counterparts. Methods: Data from the 2011 National Household Survey and the Association of Workers² Compensation Boards of Canada were used to determine the difference in occupational and industry injury and fatality rates between various arrival cohorts of immigrants and those Canadian born. Results: For both men and women, there is no significant difference in occupational injury and fatality rates between various arrival cohorts of immigrants and Canadian-born workers. However, industry injury and fatality rates are lower for the most recent arrival cohorts of immigrants relative to Canadian-born workers. Conclusions: Although immigrants face many hurdles and challenges in their resettlement process in Canada, given the evidence from the paper, they are not likely to be at higher risk for work-related injuries relative to those Canadian-born.

Economie outcomes of former Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) and former international students (ISs) are compared to those of Skilled Worker Principal Applicants who have no Canadian experience at the time of landing. Controlling for only variables from the immigration points system, former TFWs have both higher earnings and employment rates, while ISs are no lower. When models are estimated separately by gender, male immigrants who were former TFWs have superior outcomes. Overall, the evidence provides support for the Canadian Experience Class in that former TFW, and to a lesser extent IS, status provides signals regarding immigrants' labour market integration.

A model of factors thought to affect the treatment of disabled individuals in organizations is presented. Specifically, the model suggests that person characteristics (e.g., attributes of the disabled person, attributes of the observer), environmental factors (i.e., legislation), and organizational characteristics (e.g., norms, values, policies, the nature of jobs, reward systems) combine to affect the way disabled individuals are treated in organizations. Furthermore, the model indicates that the relationships just noted are mediated by observers' cognitions (i.e., categorization, stereotyping, expectancies) and affective states. Finally, the model predicts that the disabled person's responses feed back to modify observers' expectancies and organizational characteristics. Implications for conducting research on disability issues and facilitating the inclusion of disabled individuals in organizational settings are discussed.

Digital platform businesses primarily utilise on-call contingent workers, using their own tools and equipment, to perform the productive work associated with the supplied service. The expansion of this business model has led some to proclaim that traditional 'jobs' will come to an end. Some welcome this development, others fear its consequences for the stability and quality of work - but most see it as driven primarily by technology, and therefore largely 'inevitable'. This article provides historical and theoretical perspective on the expansion of digitally mediated work, to better understand the range of forces (technological, economic and socio-political) at work. It shows that the major features of platform work were all visible in earlier periods of capitalism, but they became less prominent with the rise of the 'standard employment relationship' in the 20th century. The rise and fall of the standard employment relationship is described with reference to the changing context for the labour extraction effort of private employers. A better understanding of the complete range of forces driving changes in work organisation, and a rejection of the assumption that they are technologically determined and hence inevitable, can inform regulatory and political responses to the rise of platform work.