We draw on theories of policy enactment to explore the ways in which the situated, material and external contexts and professional cultures in adult literacy in the UK have influenced practitioners. Our analysis of the transnational (OECD, EU) and UK external policy contexts found that skills-related education is prioritised, with a focus on economic growth through increased productivity and accountability. This can lead to a narrow conceptualisation of literacy as a set of information processing skills needed for employment that limits the curriculum so that the knowledge of the participants is ignored. However, our findings show that there is not a one-way flow from the transnational to the local. Instead, literacy practitioners translate and enact policy texts based on their situated contexts and professional cultures leading to approaches to teaching and learning that keep learners and their goals at the centre of the curriculum. We conclude that shared understandings of good practice and an underpinning value system, along with creative ways of delivering pre-set outcomes, allow practitioners to resist to some extent the neoliberal discourse whilst meeting the requirements of policy and funding. However, how feasible delivering this alternative curriculum is over the longer term remains to be seen.

The importance of work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences in the development of work ready graduates is well known. Despite the centrality of WIL to graduate employability, the vast majority of studies relating to student feedback tend to focus on the evaluation of learning and teaching in the classroom context. This article reports on the development and implementation of a university wide systematic approach to the collection of student feedback on learning in the workplace. It is anticipated that the approach and development of the summative survey tool described in this article will enhance the capacity of the tertiary sector to routinely capture student feedback on the experience of learning in the workplace and assist the development of models of best practice in work-integrated learning. We argue that ensuring quality in the student experience of work-integrated learning is core University business.

In 2018, Australia will include, for the first time, an engagement and impact (EI) assessment exercise as a companion to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) national framework. The research underpinning this paper sought to identify the core competencies that are crucial to supporting roles within emerging impact and engagement expectations. A content analysis of research support position descriptions and job advertisements from the UK and Australia was conducted and these were mapped to current industry skill audits for library and information science (LIS) professionals. Also discussed are the current knowledge and skills of LIS professionals and what additional competencies they may need to acquire or develop if they are to contribute to institutions and researchers meeting the requirements of an EI assessment exercise. The hard skills required by both UK and Australian EI support roles are aligned to those endorsed and promoted by the LIS industry and are reflected in the Australian Library and Information skills templates. The study points to the viability of using current academic library networks and LIS professionals to meet the demands of future EI assessment in Australia.

Because of rising life expectancy and declining birth rates, reducing early retirement and prolonging employees' working lives have become major goals on social policy agendas. In this context, ensuring the adaptability and employability of the existing workforce has become an important issue. The aim of this article is to conduct a review of the most recent literature on employment outcomes of adult learning. The review covers literature published in English since 2010.

Predicting the gender effects of the next phase of technological change is complex. Potential mass job displacement, as predicted by some of the most quoted analysts, could be expected to put gender equality gains at risk, with women again encouraged to focus more on unpaid work, as happened after the two world wars when mass unemployment was threatened. Predictions of job loss by gender are based on extrapolating from the current pattern of gender segregation. This may be a reasonable method to predict job loss, provided attention is paid to the fact that not all women’s jobs are routinized and automatable and that women’s low wages may reduce incentives to displace female labor.

This study explores the perspectives of business college graduates, how technology has shaped the structures of their jobs, and the role of non-technical skills as they navigate the changing career path. Three overlapping themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) influence of increased technology capabilities on job structures and careers; (2) participation in job-related training and formal education as means of adapting to the new work environment; and (3) the role of non-technical skills in the workplace amidst the intensification of technology change. This research provides higher education practitioners and labor market researchers qualitative perspectives on work structure changes.

The development of any assessment should be an iterative and careful process. Ideally, this process is guided by a well-defined framework (see for example Downing in: Downing and Haladyna (eds) Handbook of test development, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, 2006; Mislevy et al. In On the roles of task model variables in assessment design (CSE Technical Report 500), Educational Testing Service, Princeton, 1999; AERA et al. In Standards for educational and psychological testing, AERA, Washington, DC, 2004), but such a framework is not always available when the instrument to be developed is new or innovative. Frameworks for the development of traditional computer-based tests have been published and experimented with since the late 1990s, by which time CBT had already existed for more than a decade. In an earlier empirical pilot study, we described a new type of assessment for Dutch vocational education, called multimedia-based performance assessment (MBPA) (self-revealing reference 2014). This CBT uses multiple media formats and interactive tasks to measure skills that are currently measured by performance-based assessment. In conducting that pilot study, deficits in the existing literature made it difficult to ground all developmental steps in sound scientific theory. To remedy those deficits, this article presents and validates a framework for the design and development of MBPA, combining a search of the relevant literature from several subfields of educational assessment and consultation with assessment experts. The framework unites assessment development and multimedia development theory, focus solely on vocational education, and answers the call for a framework from the scientific community. The first step in validating the prototype framework involved five semi-structured interviews with Dutch assessment and multimedia experts to produce a final version of the framework. Second, the pilot MBPA was reconstructed in accordance with this finalized framework, resulting in an improved MBPA and demonstrating that the proposed framework is a useful and applicable tool for the design and development of MBPA in vocational education.

The future of work debate is cast with the certainty that technology-driven change is inevitable as numerous pundits profiteer from predicting the future. Among the many books, conferences, workshops and consultancy reports, there is a notable silence regarding the impact on gender. The aim of this article is to present a corrective, by arguing that if the gender bias that is embedded in the current social order is not tackled head-on, the future world of work is likely to exacerbate gender equality gaps.

Across the globe the term “twenty-first century skills” has become the focus of schools for preparation for work and the center of attention for industry leaders to maintain a competitive advantage in our ever-changing, technologically advanced world. Definitions of twenty-first century skills vary, but include lists of similar competencies and proficiencies commonly termed employability skills, soft skills, and hard skills. Career Ready Practices have been identified by the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium/National Career Technical Education Foundation as skills required in 16 career and technical education career clusters that students should know and be able to do upon completion of a program of study. International perspectives of cross-cultural competencies and global awareness have been jointly recognized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a collaborative of 34-member countries which comprise 80% of world trade and investment. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, to increase productivity and effectively address skills for the future, the international philosophy has become based not on “lifetime employment” but rather on “lifelong employability and lifelong learning.” Many agree that communication skills are the number one competency required to be a successful wage earner. Several lists of twenty-first-century skills are reviewed and presented in summary format to assist the reader in understanding what currently exists in the literature base to better define work readiness in the twenty-first century.