In the context of an increasingly precarious and competitive graduate labour market, exposure to pre-graduation professional work experience is becoming an increasingly critical feature of graduate employability. Outside the creative professions the contours of this shift have received comparatively little empirical attention. This study provides evidence of increasing participation in unpaid work beyond the creative industries where it is well established as a common practice. This study examines the complex patterns of opportunities and challenges that are created for and by Australian urban planning students in gaining relevant exposure to professional work, with a particular emphasis on participation in unpaid work experience. Through the lens of employability and the voices of early career professionals, this study explores the complexity of decisions to engage in unpaid work and identifies the potential personal and professional implications of these decisions., Focussing on the ways decisions around unpaid work are shaped by a range of factors including labour market conditions and disciplinary norms the findings yield new knowledge of how unpaid work is practised and shaped as a principal means through which employment-related advantage and enhanced employability in education to employment transitions is sought by participants and the potential implications of this.

This chapter is part of the issue 'Support transitions for adults with special needs' edited by Bob Hughes, Cinda Johnson and Brendon Taga. The chapter describes several essential skills necessary for success in postsecondary education (PSE) for young adults with disabilities and provides a variety of models of support available to students with disabilities as they transition into PSE.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an argument supporting the growth of online outsourcing, which will exponentially increase in the coming years with the spread of internet availability to the less-developed regions of the world. In addition, this paper stresses the role of human decision-making in fostering this growth, rather than promoting inhibitory policies because of nationalism or fear of change. Design/methodology/approach First, globalization and the three “waves” of outsourcing are discussed. Next, the economic principles guiding online outsourcing (disintermediation, the rise of global internet connectivity and the benefits of output-based pay over input-based pay) are discussed. After explaining how artificial intelligence will complement rather than replace human laborers, a case study and evidence are provided. Then, suggestions for government policies going forward, including skill development and education are provided. Finally, the debate that will inevitably emerge regarding online worker benefits is introduced. Findings Evidence points toward the growth of online outsourcing and the resulting increased efficiency and gains through this type of trade. The increase in freelance workers and their earnings, the investments of Google and Facebook to develop internet capabilities in less-developed regions and the reducing costs of technology (such as laptops) provide support for this argument (Elance, 2013; Forbes, 2014; Pofeldt, 2015). Finally, a case study provides evidence illustrating how individuals may gain from these advances. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by providing a compelling argument for the upcoming transition to increased efficiency in work through online outsourcing. Technological advances will allow the modern worker to delegate his/her mundane tasks so that he/she is free to focus on more pressing issues. This shift will multiply the domestic and foreign labor markets, creating opportunities that have not been available to this point. As this transition is not inevitable, this paper further outlines suggestions for policymakers to ensure maximized gains in the future.

Nowadays programming and computational skills are of great importance in working and social life. Knowing how to code is empowering. It allows to understand the digital world we live in and to shape it. Basic coding skills are essential for accessing the jobs of today and tomorrow and for achieving a better skills-match between education and the labor market. This paper presents a European Project entitled 'Coding and Youth: An innovative program in the digital era' (Code@Youth), which attempted to utilize constructively the long period of summer vacations in European countries in order to introduce students to the world of programming and robotics by offering hybrid learning activities in parallel with on-line learning facilities. The main purpose of this program was to plan, implement and evaluate these activities for young people, through the on-line platform, in order to lead to the acquisition, recognition and validation of computational skills obtained through non-formal learning.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the first-year university experience as an agent for the (re)learning and (re)making of masculine identity as it intersects with other categories of identity. Historically, male students from working-class backgrounds have often struggled with identity issues and many leave school early for vocational employment where their masculinity is reinforced and validated. A small percentage, however, re-enrol in higher education later in life. This paper explores how 'Deo', a tradesperson who became a university student, reconstructed his identity during this transition. Design/methodology/approach: The primary methodology for this case study is semi-structured interviews., Findings: Deo articulated his transition in terms of 'change' and 'transformation', in which a theme of risk was central. He also drew attention to cultural practices that regulate hierarchies of masculinity as they intersect with the identities of age, sexuality, ethnicity and socio-economic status within his work and study. Research limitations/implications: This study focusses on one student's experience in an Australian public university, so findings may not be generalisable. However, single stories are an important means of illustrating the intersection of shared socio-cultural practices. Originality/value: Within adult education literature there is limited engagement with intersecting cultural narratives that shape experiences, inequalities and barriers in learners' lives. Deo's story gives voice to socio-cultural narratives around masculinity, age, ethnicity, sexuality and socio-economic status, highlighting their central significance to learning, being and belonging.

Drawing on research of Australian cafes, this article examines the link between product market strategies, skill and pay. Addressing the methodological problems within existing research, the findings not only suggest a new methodology for future research examining these linkages but also a new theoretical proposition about the linkages based on occupation rather than firm, industry or sector.

Canadian society is characterised by a plurality of immigrants and Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria, qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question how immigrants who have acquired their highest qualification outside Canada are able to use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current job. The analyses are conducted to verify the assumptions of human capital theory as well as the lack of transferability of human capital across country borders. To answer these questions a labour market success index is developed, which is used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results show that traditional operationalisations of human capital (years of education, years of work experience and skills) have a positive effect on individual labour market success. At the same time, being born abroad and having acquired one's highest qualification abroad in comparison to Canada, especially in a Non-Western country, has negative effects on the overall labour market success of an individual. Detailed comparisons regarding different indicators of labour market success also prove these comparatively negative effects. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of human capital theory and the necessity to complement it with Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the longitudinal relationships between planned happenstance skills (PHS) and life adjustment and to examine whether this relationship was moderated by the degree of career barriers. The participants were 307 Korean college students going through a school-to-work transition. The results showed that PHS preceded and were positively associated with life adjustment. Additionally, the association between PHS and life adjustment differed by the levels of career barriers; individuals with greater PHS were more likely to adjust well in life even when they perceived high career barriers. The findings suggest empirical support for planned happenstance theory. Implications regarding career counseling interventions for college students in a school-to-work transition are discussed.

The elevated demands of the new knowledge economy pose particular challenges to rural and northern regions in Canada, long acknowledged by policymakers to suffer from acute human capital deficits. Rural residents obtain lower levels of education than their urban counterparts and those that do obtain post-secondary training often migrate to urban regions offering abundant employment opportunities and higher wages. Despite an emerging consensus around over skill deficits across rural regions, Canadian researchers have yet to systematically explore contemporary rural-urban differences in human capital using refined measures of literacy and numeracy skills. We ameliorate this deficiency by mapping rural-urban disparities in skills across the working age population (16–65) using Statistics Canada's 2012 Longitudinal International Study of Adults (LISA). Our results indicate that residents from smaller population centers and rural areas within Canada show significantly lower skills proficiencies. These differences across location of residence shrink considerably when controlling for education level, underscoring the need to enhance post-secondary access in rural areas.