Search Results for
"human"

The employment market for graduates is competitive with employers requiring appropriate work experience in addition to academic qualifications. Sandwich courses, where up to a year is spent in industry, provide an opportunity for structured work experience to be gained alongside studying. Benefits of placements include improved academic performance and the development of transferable skills to increase employability. This paper evaluates the impact of placements on academic performance and graduate employment among management students. Analysing performance data and graduate destinations data, results indicate that management students completing a placement are more likely to perform better academically with improvements in their personal grades between year 2 and the final year. Additionally, a qualitative themed analysis of student experiences indicates placement students feel more confident in engaging with the graduate recruitment process, with a better understanding of their personal skills and an ability to articulate their experience in relation to the workplace.

The professional dental literature is lacking in information concerning the use of technology in evaluation procedures utilized in postgraduate dental education. The purpose of this study was to identify the methods of evaluation of U.S. postgraduate specialty residents currently in place. The study also sought to determine if there were any patterns among programs more likely to utilize electronic submission in the evaluation process. An electronic survey consisting of eighteen questions was sent to the program directors of all accredited U.S. dental specialty programs (n=416). The survey yielded 150 responses, for a 36 percent response rate. The results showed that the majority of responding program directors (68 percent) evaluate their residents using a hardcopy evaluation instrument, while a minority of directors (32 percent) reported using an electronic evaluation instrument. The majority of respondents (58 percent) said they require faculty members to formally evaluate residents semiannually. Fifty percent of responding program directors reported a need for improvement in their current evaluation system. Those reporting a need for improvement were less likely to be using an electronic format. There was no statistical significance between faculty responsiveness and the mode of evaluation used. With many program directors reporting room for improvement in their current evaluation system, innovation in the evaluation systems of postgraduate dental education is needed.

Many hotel management students show negative attitudes toward entering the hotel industry. Such attitudes are likely the result of a negative internship experience that may cause a young person to quickly turn away from the industry. At present, work-life balance is recognized as one of the top five important challenges in human resource management. Additionally, different hotel job characteristics would lead to different internship experiences. This article aims to establish a conceptual framework by reviewing the extensive literature on the study of the interrelationship of internship core job characteristics and work-life balance toward general job satisfaction and future career intention of hotel interns. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

[No abstract available]

[No abstract available]

Education is key to addressing the challenges of providing high-quality care to the ever growing number of people with dementia. Although dementia education is required for multiple professions and disciplines working with people with dementia and their families and friends, there is a gap in knowledge of students' views about university-level online dementia education. This article reports on an evaluation, via an online questionnaire, of student views of the delivery modes and learning impact for the first online postgraduate program in Dementia Studies worldwide. The majority of our respondents (65%) reported their participation in the Dementia Studies program as broadening their thinking, with 61% reporting that it broadened their practice. Students also reported on the utility of initial face-to-face teaching and the extent to which they are able to apply their learning to practice. The article concludes by suggesting that a blended learning approach, comprising online and face-to-face teaching with an emphasis on reflexivity has the potential to meet the global demand for skilled dementia care practitioners and to create leaders in the dementia care field. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This paper reports on a sustainability outreach study based on an assessment of human and social capital. The aim was to capture the national sustainability outreach of twenty years of Environmental Sciences education, centered at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. The study contained two lines of research, one being a human capital assessment with a survey among graduates from the years 1992 to 2005 (n = 542) and the other being a social capital analysis based on interviews with institutions that represent the Swiss social systems of economy, politics/public administration and civil society (20 institutions). Our analyses reveal several functional forms of both human capital (specialists, pioneers, leaders) and social capital (qualification profile, internalization, networks, standardization, professionalization) that trigger and channel sustainability outreach. © 2012 by the authors.

Background: Lifelong learning is critical for the professional practice of pharmacists. Lifelong learning can be described as a philosophy recognising that learning occurs throughout one's life. Pharmacists' concept of lifelong learning has not been investigated, with most literature focused only on one aspect of lifelong learning - continuing professional development. Aim: To explore pharmacy interns' understanding of lifelong learning. Method: Thematic analysis of interviews with interns from an Australian university was undertaken Results: There were 2 major findings. The very narrow definition of lifelong learning adopted by the interns, i.e. it was viewed as continuing professional development and the need to keep up-to-date. The intern period was described as a period of intense learning. Conclusion: Pharmacy interns appear to be focused on continuing professional development rather than lifelong learning. This may reflect disciplinary contextualisation of university graduate attributes or the focus of activity during the intern period.

By taking up the strand in Lave and Wenger's writing on situated learning that directs attention to social dynamics and issues of power and positioning, the present article argues for the fruitfulness of including the concept of negotiated participation in approaches to teaching and learning. Based on a fieldwork in vocational media production projects, this study demonstrates the tensions and contradictions that came out of the hybrid nature of these vocational practices in high school. Establishing the professionally relevant modes of participation in the projects was fraught with struggles in which the project members had to bracket institutionalized school routines as well as handle and negotiate particular work life conditions (including cooperation with old timers in the target professions). It is argued that the way institutional contradictions are manifested and negotiated in everyday teaching and interaction can inform our understanding of the premises for multifunctional educational praxis. © 2012 Copyright Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Laboratory of Comparative human Cognition.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN IN THIS AREA: • Independent practice is likely to require not only actual competence, but also self-perceived competence. • Self-perceived competence is not strongly correlated to actual competence. • Some studies have found low levels of self-perceived competence in general practice residents. WHAT THIS WORK ADDS: • Consistent with previous studies, self-perceived competence levels were not satisfactory for a significant proportion of our GP trainees. • Self-perceived competence was not linked to gender, experience, effort or knowledge. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: • Other factors influencing self-perceived competence should be looked into and might include characteristics of supervision and feedback. • Longitudinal studies could be conducted to monitor the development of self-perceived competence over the residency period. © 2012 Radcliffe Publishing Limited.