This article draws upon results from an ESRC-funded research project exploring young graduates' attitudes to, and experiences of, further education or learning postgraduation. Respondents' narratives indicated a strong emphasis upon job-based learning, or training, over and above an oft-stated desire to do further study "for its own sake". Whilst…

This article examines the discrepancy between newly qualified nurses' and physicians' assessment of acquired knowledge in education and their assessment of the knowledge demands in occupational practice. Knowledge learned in educational institutions is traditionally conceived as general and decontextualised with great potential for transmission…

UK Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) are seen as critical to policymakers' aspirations to develop an education and training (E&T) system that is both "demand-driven" and "employer-led" and where employers "play their part" in national upskilling. However, the concept of employer leadership remains deeply problematic in the English context, with some…

Using data from a three-year project funded under the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme, this article examines two major questions: (1) How has the organisation of the learning and skills sector (LSS) in England changed as a result of recent policy? (2) What are the implications of these reforms? We draw on the theoretical work of…

The rapid growth in undergraduate business education over the last three decades has coincided with the growing dominance of an economic ideology of higher education (HE); that its role is principally one of contributing to national competitiveness through the development of graduate "employability". In particular, undergraduate business education…

This article applies a democratic learning conceptual framework to an analysis of the Ontario (Canada) Guidance and Career Education program. Although the program respects some principles of democratic learning, it fails to explicitly recognise the distinction between social and natural reality. As a result, student agency and democratic…

We analyse the role of private schools in the teachers' labour market. Private schools employ an increasingly-disproportionate share of teachers in Britain, relative to the number of their pupils. Their teachers are more likely than state school teachers to possess post-graduate qualifications, and to be specialists in shortage subjects.…

Work values help to shape cognitions and motivations and are therefore essential in one's process of searching for employment and remaining employable. The present study explored the typical work values preferred by university students in Malta. Gender and faculty differences as well as gender differences within faculties were explored.…

It is the aim of this paper to provide a better understanding of how university students in Australia are preparing for their future work in the labour market through their work orientations. It draws upon a survey of over 300 final-year undergraduates to present their rationales for engaging in paid work, and their preferences for different job…

The nature of work can be explored from a number of perspectives such as political, sociological and here philosophical. The intent of this paper is to introduce Heidegger's phenomenological concepts of the workplace, its content and how, through his notion of circumspection, work can be described and understood. The paper builds on Heidegger's…

This article is concerned with the production and employment of technically skilled labour at the intermediate level in South Africa. Three differing labour market pathways to intermediate skilling are identified. These are: the traditional apprenticeship route, the new "Learnerships" pathway (similar to the "modern apprenticeship" schemes adopted…

The quality of jobs of economics graduates was studied in terms of educational mismatch. The returns of over-education on earnings and on the job-search were also investigated. The discussion regards the second wave of a longitudinal survey of a random sample of economics graduates from the University of Naples "Parthenope", a major school of…

Current UK skills policy is centred on the need to drive up qualification obtainment and make the system more employer-led with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) being given the role of articulating the "voice" of employers. Through a study of recruitment and selection processes in the fitness industry, this paper explores employers' attitudes to…

The article elaborates and discusses the relation between professional college programmes in social work, nursing and primary school teaching and professional work in institutions, hospitals and schools. Empirical data from bachelor students in the beginning (first year) and the end (third year) of their programmes and from candidates three years…

This article explores the experience of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by supervisory-level clinical staff in the National Health Service. Four main themes are highlighted in the literature, namely the nature and experience of CPD, its relationship with human resource management practices and in particular in career development and…