Marketing plan on the employability program of action against hunger in Spain

Treball Final de Grau en Administració d'Empreses. Codi: AE1049. Curs 2017-201

Engineering students\u27 preferred roles: Are they stable, are there gender differences?

Being able to situate oneself in an engineering role is a developmental process. Students may initially have idealized perceptions of a professional role and over time, they make this role more congruent with their own values and goals [1]. In light of this, Higher Education Institutions are being challenged to offer learning experiences and career exploration activities to enable students to clarify their interests, values and competencies in relation to a professional role [2]. This study compared the professional role preferences of more than 700 engineering students at TU Dublin (Ireland) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Professional role preference was measured with PREFER Explore, a personal preference test for engineers. The test aligns students to three professional roles for early career engineers: Product leadership (focus on radical innovation), Operational excellence (focus on process optimization) and Customer intimacy (focus on tailored solutions and customer satisfaction). A comparison was drawn between the role preference of first year students at TU Dublin and KU Leuven to establish if there were significant differences in preference across both universities. The results suggest that the role preference of engineering students does not shift from first to third year. There is also evidence that the PREFER Explore is sensitive to gender differences, with female students showing a greater preference for customer intimacy than males and males showing a greater preference for operational excellence than females at TU Dublin. The data have a number of implications for the labor market in Ireland and Belgium

Strategies Information and Communication Technology Managers Use to Build Employee Competencies

The World Economic Forum (WEF) found that Botswana\u27s information and communication technology (ICT) networked readiness index (NRI) had declined from position 89 in 2012 to 104 in 2015. A decline in Botswana\u27s ICT NRI resulted in a modest gross domestic product (GDP) growth increasing from 4.2% in 2012 to 5.0% in 2015. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies ICT service provider managers use to build employee competencies to address ICT infrastructure performance deficiencies. The target population for this study consisted of over 120 managers from 2 ICT service providers located in Gaborone and Francistown in Botswana. The conceptual framework for this study was information technology (IT) competency model. Face-to-face interviews with 15 managers and a review of 12 company documents were gathered and all interpretations from the data were subjected to member checking to ensure the trustworthiness of the study findings. The thematic analyses of participants\u27 interviews and company documents resulted in the emergence of 3 common themes: developing professional employee competencies through training, promoting knowledge acquisition and skills transfer, and developing budgets for funding the development of employee competencies. Participants cited training and professional development as a reason for ICT infrastructure performance deficiencies. Social implications from this study include developing strategies business managers can use to build employee competencies to improve ICT infrastructure performance, which could result in improved services to citizens and enhanced national development, social transformation, and economic diversification

Exploration of the relationship between implicit theory of intelligence and employability

The world of work today calls for individuals to be active participants in designing their careers. This study focuses on the relationship between one’s beliefs (mindset) about intelligence and employability. Quantitative data were collected using the implicit theory of intelligence (self-theory scale) from 75 participants of a high-technology company in San Jose, California. Participants were divided into two groups of mindsets, growth and fixed. Twenty participants were randomly selected for a semi-structured interview where qualitative data were gathered and analyzed. The study found that individuals with a growth mindset emphasize newness as a variable in their career decisions, look at their careers in the broader context of organizational impact, and are more likely to view their careers using their own lens. Alternatively, individuals with a fixed mindset are more likely to be influenced by other people in making career decisions. Also, the difference in mindsets does impact employability orientation

The Higher Short Term : the CET and the future

As part of the activities of the Centre for Policy Research and Education Systems (CIPSE), the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, in collaboration with the FOR.CET, organizational unit of the Institute which is responsible for the achievement of technological specialization courses (CET), held on in 2011, the International Conference “the Higher Short Term: the CET and the Future.” The papers presented are gathered in this publication, available to the community of stakeholders in education and training, a set of texts from specialists and testimonials from entrepreneurs and graduates who can contribute to further reflection on the role of Technological Specialization Courses, as well as their contribution to the training and development of the country and its future in the context of similar training in EU countries. The conference goal is shaped in this edition, whose intent is to contribute for the collection of information that allows a better understanding of the Portuguese experience in this area and a perspective for the future, including a possible evolution towards Short Cycle Higher Education (SCHE)

On data-driven systems analyzing, supporting and enhancing users’ interaction and experience

[EN]The research areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Architectures have been traditionally treated separately, but in the literature, many authors made efforts to merge them to build better software systems. One of the common gaps between software engineering and usability is the lack of strategies to apply usability principles in the initial design of software architectures. Including these principles since the early phases of software design would help to avoid later architectural changes to include user experience requirements. The combination of both fields (software architectures and Human-Computer Interaction) would contribute to building better interactive software that should include the best from both the systems and user-centered designs. In that combination, the software architectures should enclose the fundamental structure and ideas of the system to offer the desired quality based on sound design decisions. Moreover, the information kept within a system is an opportunity to extract knowledge about the system itself, its components, the software included, the users or the interaction occurring inside. The knowledge gained from the information generated in a software environment can be used to improve the system itself, its software, the users’ experience, and the results. So, the combination of the areas of Knowledge Discovery and Human-Computer Interaction offers ideal conditions to address Human-Computer-Interaction-related challenges. The Human-Computer Interaction focuses on human intelligence, the Knowledge Discovery in computational intelligence, and the combination of both can raise the support of human intelligence with machine intelligence to discover new insights in a world crowded of data. This Ph.D. Thesis deals with these kinds of challenges: how approaches like data-driven software architectures (using Knowledge Discovery techniques) can help to improve the users' interaction and experience within an interactive system. Specifically, it deals with how to improve the human-computer interaction processes of different kind of stakeholders to improve different aspects such as the user experience or the easiness to accomplish a specific task. Several research actions and experiments support this investigation. These research actions included performing a systematic literature review and mapping of the literature that was aimed at finding how the software architectures in the literature have been used to support, analyze or enhance the human-computer interaction. Also, the actions included work on four different research scenarios that presented common challenges in the Human- Computer Interaction knowledge area. The case studies that fit into the scenarios selected were chosen based on the Human-Computer Interaction challenges they present, and on the authors’ accessibility to them. The four case studies were: an educational laboratory virtual world, a Massive Open Online Course and the social networks where the students discuss and learn, a system that includes very large web forms, and an environment where programmers develop code in the context of quantum computing. The development of the experiences involved the review of more than 2700 papers (only in the literature review phase), the analysis of the interaction of 6000 users in four different contexts or the analysis of 500,000 quantum computing programs. As outcomes from the experiences, some solutions are presented regarding the minimal software artifacts to include in software architectures, the behavior they should exhibit, the features desired in the extended software architecture, some analytic workflows and approaches to use, or the different kinds of feedback needed to reinforce the users’ interaction and experience. The results achieved led to the conclusion that, despite this is not a standard practice in the literature, the software environments should embrace Knowledge Discovery and datadriven principles to analyze and respond appropriately to the users’ needs and improve or support the interaction. To adopt Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles, the software environments need to extend their software architectures to cover also the challenges related to Human-Computer Interaction. Finally, to tackle the current challenges related to the users’ interaction and experience and aiming to automate the software response to users’ actions, desires, and behaviors, the interactive systems should also include intelligent behaviors through embracing the Artificial Intelligence procedures and techniques

On Data-driven systems analyzing, supporting and enhancing users’ interaction and experience

Tesis doctoral en inglés y resumen extendido en español[EN] The research areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Software Architectures have been traditionally treated separately, but in the literature, many authors made efforts to merge them to build better software systems. One of the common gaps between software engineering and usability is the lack of strategies to apply usability principles in the initial design of software architectures. Including these principles since the early phases of software design would help to avoid later architectural changes to include user experience requirements. The combination of both fields (software architectures and Human-Computer Interaction) would contribute to building better interactive software that should include the best from both the systems and user-centered designs. In that combination, the software architectures should enclose the fundamental structure and ideas of the system to offer the desired quality based on sound design decisions. Moreover, the information kept within a system is an opportunity to extract knowledge about the system itself, its components, the software included, the users or the interaction occurring inside. The knowledge gained from the information generated in a software environment can be used to improve the system itself, its software, the users’ experience, and the results. So, the combination of the areas of Knowledge Discovery and Human-Computer Interaction offers ideal conditions to address Human-Computer-Interaction-related challenges. The Human-Computer Interaction focuses on human intelligence, the Knowledge Discovery in computational intelligence, and the combination of both can raise the support of human intelligence with machine intelligence to discover new insights in a world crowded of data. This Ph.D. Thesis deals with these kinds of challenges: how approaches like data-driven software architectures (using Knowledge Discovery techniques) can help to improve the users' interaction and experience within an interactive system. Specifically, it deals with how to improve the human-computer interaction processes of different kind of stakeholders to improve different aspects such as the user experience or the easiness to accomplish a specific task. Several research actions and experiments support this investigation. These research actions included performing a systematic literature review and mapping of the literature that was aimed at finding how the software architectures in the literature have been used to support, analyze or enhance the human-computer interaction. Also, the actions included work on four different research scenarios that presented common challenges in the Human-Computer Interaction knowledge area. The case studies that fit into the scenarios selected were chosen based on the Human-Computer Interaction challenges they present, and on the authors’ accessibility to them. The four case studies were: an educational laboratory virtual world, a Massive Open Online Course and the social networks where the students discuss and learn, a system that includes very large web forms, and an environment where programmers develop code in the context of quantum computing. The development of the experiences involved the review of more than 2700 papers (only in the literature review phase), the analysis of the interaction of 6000 users in four different contexts or the analysis of 500,000 quantum computing programs. As outcomes from the experiences, some solutions are presented regarding the minimal software artifacts to include in software architectures, the behavior they should exhibit, the features desired in the extended software architecture, some analytic workflows and approaches to use, or the different kinds of feedback needed to reinforce the users’ interaction and experience. The results achieved led to the conclusion that, despite this is not a standard practice in the literature, the software environments should embrace Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles to analyze and respond appropriately to the users’ needs and improve or support the interaction. To adopt Knowledge Discovery and data-driven principles, the software environments need to extend their software architectures to cover also the challenges related to Human-Computer Interaction. Finally, to tackle the current challenges related to the users’ interaction and experience and aiming to automate the software response to users’ actions, desires, and behaviors, the interactive systems should also include intelligent behaviors through embracing the Artificial Intelligence procedures and techniques

The use of social media in portuguese companies: Empirical study with SMEs protocolated with ESTGA-UA

In the last five years, portuguese government policies and european guidelines have been reinforcing the promotion of strategies that foster innovation, access to the digital market and the creation of conditions to optimize the growth potential of companies in the digital context. Digital innovation is inevitably contributing to accelerate the change of organizations in terms of business models, but also of communication and professional skills required. The way that information has been shared and received has changed the way that companies work and communicate. This is why a significant number of companies, particularly small and medium sized companies, at the time of recruiting they value the skills to use communication tools and digital technologies that enable to create and share content, including more Social Media – like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter or Linkedin. In Europe, it is expected that 16 million new jobs will be created by 2020 which will require information and technology (IT) skills. In Portugal, according to the Minister of Education, in 2030, about 80% of the population will have digital skills and 8% will be specialists in information and communication technologies. This reality demands a work of joint reinforcement and partnership between the companies and educational establishments responsible for the training of young professionals in all areas. This evidence and necessity justify the present study whose data were obtained through the administration of an online questionnaire survey to a sample (N=89) of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) protocols with the Águeda School of Technology and Management – University of Aveiro (ESTGA-UA), in Portugal, within the scope of the curricular internships of the Degree in Retail Management and the Higher Education Training Course (TESP) in SME Management. The study aims to make a diagnosis that allows to know the reality and to draw the digital picture of these companies and tries to verify how these SMEs are responding to the challenges of digital communication in three dimensions: to identify the social media used and the importance attributed to it; assess whether SMEs have a strategy for managing and producing digital content; and identify the profile of the person responsible for the production/management of these contents. The results show that SMEs use social media to communicate, although they do not have a defined communication strategy and the focus of communication is too focused on the company and its products/services. Moreover, even though they recognize the excellent oral and written knowledge of the language as an essential requirement for content production, this task is carried out in many cases by internal workers without specific training and who add this function to others. It is intended that this study contribute to a reflection on the higher education provided and its suitability to the needs of these companies in an increasingly global and digital economy.publishe

Desarrollo de competencias en ingeniería industrial y programas afines en torno a la optimización de procesos productivos y logísticos: el caso de Medellín

This study examines the correlation between the skills and competencies developed in engineering programs and those required by the most representative economic sectors in Medellín for optimizing their production and logistics processes. In general terms, this paper aims to contribute to the research on higher education institutions and the alignment of their programs with the expectations of businesses in emerging countries. Thus, the proposed research question is as follows: What is the systemic relationship between academia and businesses in Colombia regarding the development of skills and competencies related to the optimization of production and logistics processes? To address this question, the study methodology starts by defining the target population (Industrial Engineering and related academic programs) and the dialogue methods adopted. Subsequently, a morphological space is created to establish systemic interconnections among the study variables and factors. Finally, patterns and qualitative/quantitative relationships are identified and grouped into two drivers that support the optimization of production and logistics processes. These drivers, in turn, consist of five key driving variables: quality defects, work environment, information and communication technology usage, operation traceability, and logistics and planning. The results indicate a correlation of 60% between courses and job competencies, 85.71% between academic skills and job competencies, and 71.88% between courses and academic skills. These findings provide insights to enhance cooperation between the academic and business sectors and foster the development of new local competitive capacities.El presente estudio examina la correlación entre las habilidades y competencias desarrolladas en los programas de ingeniería y las requeridas por los sectores económicos más representativos de Medellín para optimizar sus procesos productivos y logísticos. Desde una perspectiva más amplia, este artículo pretende contribuir a la literatura sobre las instituciones de educación superior y la alineación de sus programas con las expectativas de las empresas en los países emergentes. En este sentido, la pregunta de investigación propuesta es: ¿Cuál es la relación sistémica entre la academia y la industria en Colombia en torno al desarrollo de habilidades y competencias relacionadas con la optimización de procesos productivos y logísticos? Para abordar esta pregunta, la metodología empleada parte de la definición de la población objetivo (programas de Ingeniería Industrial y afines) y de los métodos de diálogo empleados. Posteriormente, se crea un espacio morfológico para establecer interconexiones sistémicas entre las diferentes variables y factores del estudio. Por último, se identifican patrones y relaciones cualitativas/cuantitativas y se agrupan en dos impulsores que contribuyen a optimizar los procesos productivos y logísticos. Estos impulsores, a su vez, constan de cinco variables impulsoras clave: defectos de calidad, clima laboral, uso de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, trazabilidad de las operaciones, y logística y planeación. Los resultados indican una correlación del 60 % entre los cursos y las competencias laborales, del 85,71 % entre las competencias académicas y las competencias laborales y del 71,88 % entre los cursos y las competencias académicas. Estos resultados podrían ayudar a mejorar la cooperación entre los sectores académico y empresarial y favorecer el desarrollo de nuevas capacidades competitivas locales