909 research outputs found

    Understanding the complexities of supporting children’s career aspirations and preparedness for the changing world of work

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    Aspiring to and preparing for a career is becoming an increasingly complex activity for children and adolescents. A young person entering the job market is now more likely to experience multiple career transitions. Recent technological advances are making many routine and some non-routine jobs more susceptible to automation, as well as changing the skill and task requirements within occupations. These changing career conditions are raising complexities for those who support children’s and adolescents’ career aspirations and preparedness. Career theories and interventions incorporating person-occupation matching approaches may increasingly encounter problems as it may become more difficult to explore rapidly evolving occupational requirements with young people and achieve good-fitting or sustained matches between their career aspirations/choices and future job opportunities. Possible mismatches could mean that more young people experience unemployment and/or various opportunity costs from pursuing or failing to adequately prepare for careers affected by automation. To contribute to an enhanced understanding of these problems, this thesis investigated the complexities of supporting children’s and adolescents’ career aspirations and preparedness for the changing world of work. To understand different aspects of the problem, this thesis reports three consecutive and interrelated studies carried out using a mixed methods design. These studies were conducted to address the following overarching research question: what are the complexities of supporting children’s career aspirations and preparedness for automation and job change? The research studies were informed by Social Cognitive Career Theory. First, to estimate the automation-related career risks different groups of school students may encounter over the coming decades, an analysis was conducted using large-scale survey data covering primary and secondary school students’ career aspirations and probability statistics on job automation. Study results revealed that adolescents, male students, lower-income groups, and students’ parental occupation were associated with a greater likelihood of aspiring to an occupation at higher risk of automation. While the results from Study One highlighted possible automation-related risks for school children and different subgroups, these risks are potentially nuanced, affecting some higher status and non-routine occupations as well as routine roles. Due to this emerging complexity, it was important to review how recent career aspiration interventions have approached the changing career conditions to critically evaluate a range of possible approaches to the problem. The second study comprised of a systematic review of career aspiration intervention studies involving children (aged 5-18) to gain insights and identify gaps in how recent intervention approaches have/have not addressed job change. Review findings showed that the interventions often focused on select demographic groups and job sectors, with STEM occupations, females, and adolescents targeted more frequently. It was also shown that the intervention objectives and learning content largely did not address changes within occupations or job markets. Because of the limited approaches to addressing job change identified in Study Two, along with the automation-related career risks estimated in Study One, there was reason to explore how a contemporary career education provision could address automation and job change with children. Considering the context-specific complexities involved in supporting children’s preparedness for automation and job change, it was important to examine the perspectives of stakeholders who contribute to children’s career education to reveal possible conceptual issues and the practical opportunities and challenges they encounter. Focusing on the Scottish career education system, a case study was conducted using a thematic analysis of career documentation, a focus group, and interviews with career policymakers, practitioners, and a sample of primary and secondary schoolteachers. Findings revealed that the career education stakeholders conceptualised automation as creating new occupations rather than resulting in the mass displacement of jobs. However, despite recognising that specific job types were becoming more susceptible to automation and that different groups of children tend to aspire to certain types of occupations, stakeholders did not infer that automation may contribute to differential career impacts across groups. Several practical challenges were raised by stakeholders, including managing some children’s anxiety due to future career uncertainty. Consistent with insights from Study Two, Study Three findings showed stakeholders focused on general career skills and adaptability without also exploring the reasons and principles underlying automation and job change. Fostering this meta understanding of job change could aid young people in their career preparedness and decision making by enabling them to discern likely changes to occupations and job markets. After synthesising findings from the three studies, recommendations for advancing career theory and practice were provided. A key contribution of this research was highlighting potential limitations of aspiration-occupation matching theories and interventions by identifying automation-related career risks and supplementary approaches to address the nuanced changes within occupations and job markets. In sum, this thesis revealed how automation and job change may serve as both an environmental barrier and a potential source of inspiration for children as they pursue and prepare for their future careers

    Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law

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    This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Systemic Circular Economy Solutions for Fiber Reinforced Composites

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    This open access book provides an overview of the work undertaken within the FiberEUse project, which developed solutions enhancing the profitability of composite recycling and reuse in value-added products, with a cross-sectorial approach. Glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymers, or composites, are increasingly used as structural materials in many manufacturing sectors like transport, constructions and energy due to their better lightweight and corrosion resistance compared to metals. However, composite recycling is still a challenge since no significant added value in the recycling and reprocessing of composites is demonstrated. FiberEUse developed innovative solutions and business models towards sustainable Circular Economy solutions for post-use composite-made products. Three strategies are presented, namely mechanical recycling of short fibers, thermal recycling of long fibers and modular car parts design for sustainable disassembly and remanufacturing. The validation of the FiberEUse approach within eight industrial demonstrators shows the potentials towards new Circular Economy value-chains for composite materials

    New party entry and political engagement : electoral turnout and satisfaction with democracy

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    Defence date: 15 June 2023Examining Board: Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi, (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Elias Dinas, (European University Institute); Prof. Ruth Dassonneville, (University of Montrèal); Prof. Chris Anderson, (London School of Economics and Political Science)The last two decades have seen a surge in the institutionalization of new political parties, yet low levels of political engagement are persistent in many Western democracies. This raises questions about whether new parties can effectively channel political discontent and promote participation. This thesis argues that new party entry has distinct implications for different forms of political engagement. While new parties can increase electoral participation, they can also reinforce democratic dissatisfaction in affectively polarized environments. The empirical chapters provide evidence to support these arguments. Chapter 2 demonstrates that obtaining parliamentary representation does not significantly increase satisfaction with democracy and even reinforces political discontent among anti-establishment radical party voters. Chapter 3 introduces the concept of disruptive elections and shows that rapid electoral shifts can hinder changes in democratic satisfaction by introducing uncertainty into the government formation process. Chapter 4 proposes that considering an in-group/out-group logic is critical to understanding post-electoral changes in satisfaction with democracy among affectively polarized voters. It provides evidence that the establishment party win fosters political discontent among radical party voters despite electoral success. Finally, chapter 5 offers causal evidence that new party entry increases electoral turnout. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the effects of electoral change on political attitudes and behavior and highlight concerning implications for normative democratic theory. While new political parties may bring new forms of engagement, they can also exacerbate polarizing competition patterns that put democracy at risk. Ultimately, their impact depends on the specific conditions that led to their entry, urging us to consider ways to incorporate new political demands while reducing partisan animosity

    Towards a Digital Capability Maturity Framework for Tertiary Institutions

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    Background: The Digital Capability (DC) of an Institution is the extent to which the institution's culture, policies, and infrastructure enable and support digital practices (Killen et al., 2017), and maturity is the continuous improvement of those capabilities. As technology continues to evolve, it is likely to give rise to constant changes in teaching and learning, potentially disrupting Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) and making existing organisational models less effective. An institution’s ability to adapt to continuously changing technology depends on the change in culture and leadership decisions within the individual institutions. Change without structure leads to inefficiencies, evident across the Nigerian TEI landscape. These inefficiencies can be attributed mainly to a lack of clarity and agreement on a development structure. Objectives: This research aims to design a structure with a pathway to maturity, to support the continuous improvement of DC in TEIs in Nigeria and consequently improve the success of digital education programmes. Methods: I started by conducting a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) investigating the body of knowledge on DC, its composition, the relationship between its elements and their respective impact on the Maturity of TEIs. Findings from the review led me to investigate further the key roles instrumental in developing Digital Capability Maturity in Tertiary Institutions (DCMiTI). The results of these investigations formed the initial ideas and constructs upon which the proposed structure was built. I then explored a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to substantiate the initial constructs and gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between elements/sub-elements. Next, I used triangulation as a vehicle to expand the validity of the findings by replicating the methods in a case study of TEIs in Nigeria. Finally, after using the validated constructs and knowledge base to propose a structure based on CMMI concepts, I conducted an expert panel workshop to test the model’s validity. Results: I consolidated the body of knowledge from the SLR into a universal classification of 10 elements, each comprising sub-elements. I also went on to propose a classification for DCMiTI. The elements/sub-elements in the classification indicate the success factors for digital maturity, which were also found to positively impact the ability to design, deploy and sustain digital education. These findings were confirmed in a UK University and triangulated in a case study of Northwest Nigeria. The case study confirmed the literature findings on the status of DCMiTI in Nigeria and provided sufficient evidence to suggest that a maturity structure would be a well-suited solution to supporting DCM in the region. I thus scoped, designed, and populated a domain-specific framework for DCMiTI, configured to support the educational landscape in Northwest Nigeria. Conclusion: The proposed DCMiTI framework enables TEIs to assess their maturity level across the various capability elements and reports on DCM as a whole. It provides guidance on the criteria that must be satisfied to achieve higher levels of digital maturity. The framework received expert validation, as domain experts agreed that the proposed Framework was well applicable to developing DCMiTI and would be a valuable tool to support TEIs in delivering successful digital education. Recommendations were made to engage in further iterations of testing by deploying the proposed framework for use in TEI to confirm the extent of its generalisability and acceptability

    Strengthening Privacy and Cybersecurity through Anonymization and Big Data

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    L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
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