Cash & Compassion: The Somali Diaspora's Role in Relief, Development & Peacebuilding

This research report, commissioned by UNDP Somalia, is based on work done in six diaspora hubs (Dubai, London, Minneapolis, Nairobi, Oslo, and Toronto) as well as in Somaliland, Puntland and South/Central Somalia. It examines the involvement of Somalis in the diaspora in dynamics in their country of origin, including collective and social remittances. Volume 1 contains the full report. Volume 2 contains the research guides, terms of reference and other annexes

Creating a Professional Development Plan for a Simulation Consortium

As the United States struggles with health care reform and a nursing education system that inadequately prepares students for practice, dramatic advances in educational technology signal opportunities for both academic and practicing nurses to affect our profession as never before. Simulation technologies provide large and small institutions with the means to educate health care students and novice professionals effectively and efficiently through hands-on experience, but the costs of such a venture can be prohibitive. A simulation consortium offers a venue for different health care and educational institutions with shared goals to pool knowledge, monies, and labor toward health care education throughout a geographic area. This article details one Midwestern U.S. region's work in creating a professional development plan for a new simulation consortium

Bridges to Manhood: A Multifaceted Probation Strategy That Incorporates Fatherhood Development

Describes the rationale for, development of, and early lessons from a program that helps young men complete probation while learning to become responsible fathers and family members. Includes logic model, considerations for implementation, and curriculum

Are physiotherapy students adequately prepared to successfully gain employment?

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Physiotherapy. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Objectives - To explore the preparedness of final-year physiotherapy students for their progression into employment, and identify what universities can do to facilitate a smooth transition. Design - A single-cohort study, utilising a qualitative design incorporating a survey followed by transcribed and coded semi-structured interviews. Setting - Interviews were held in the Placement and Careers Centre at Brunel University, London. Participants - Sixty final-year full- and part-time students participated in the survey, and 12 final-year full- and part-time students participated in the semi-structured interviews. Methods - Sixty students completed a questionnaire which explored their preparedness for employment. Questions related to the current job situation, the application process and the student's ideal first post. Responses from the questionnaire were analysed and discussed further through a digitally recorded interview. Twelve students were interviewed by an experienced interviewer from a non-physiotherapy background. Results - Students felt unprepared for employment. Forty-seven per cent wanted a rotational post, but 26% would only spend 6 months and 39% would only spend 1 year looking for a job. Seventy-one percent would change career and 99% would work abroad if they were unable to secure a post in the UK. Most importantly, students could not identify transferable skills required by potential employers; only 25% cited effective communications, and 10% cited flexible working as a transferable skill. Self-management skills (e.g. prioritisation, time management and documentation) were not perceived as essential for employment. Conclusions - The job market requires physiotherapy graduates to possess transferable skills which can be applied to any situation. Many are integral to the profession and the undergraduate curriculum; however, analysis and assimilation of these skills cannot be assumed. Universities should reflect on their curriculum delivery to produce graduates who meet employers’ expectations and make a smooth transition into the workplace

Technology skills and perceptions of online classes in the Social Studies Department at Merrill Senior High School as a foundation for organizational change

Includes bibliographical references

Competence-Targeted Education for BIM Professionals: A Case Example of the Vietnamese Construction Industry

The adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry has grown substantially worldwide, and in Vietnam, there was no exception. This creates an increasing need for new BIM professionals that requires specific competencies. Vietnamese educational institutes have made efforts to develop a strategic education plan of incorporating BIM components into their programs in Construction Engineering and Management (CEM). It is crucial to figure out the highly demanded competencies from both the job market and academic requirements. This paper conducts a survey on targeted competencies from current BIM job ads in the Vietnamese construction industry and worldwide systematic literature review. Competency criteria from the two distinct sources were evaluated and compared. The results show that the Vietnamese job ads competencies were reasonably consistent with those of surveyed literature where BIM software skill is must-have competence. The required competencies also include knowledge of BIM concepts and standards, regulations, soft skills, and work behaviours. From these BIM demanded competencies, this paper suggests a system thinking approach to organise, in principle, BIM competence-targeted program, integrating BIM components into the existing/new curricula, taking case example of Vietnam education institutes. The paper may be of interest to anyone who is involved in BIM education

Partnering with Practice: How Partnerships can be Developed, Shared and Managed

Partnerships between business schools and practice are an area of underused potential. In their recent report, the AACSB (2012) recognizes the need for a stronger connection between education and practice and stresses that schools need to articulate the impacts of their investments in scholarship on students’ educational experiences and on the broader communities they serve. In this paper, we discuss our partnering experience that we undertook to integrate an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system into our curriculum. ERP systems pose a significant technical challenge due to their complexity. We discuss the importance of developing a partnership with practice and how such a partnership offers a solution to our problem of working with a complex system in our courses. We detail a partnership with a consulting company with significant experience with ERP systems and a commitment to education. We outline how a practice partner can collaborate with faculty to enhance students’ educational experience. Developing good working partnerships between practice and academe, if done effectively, can provide an opportunity to bring educational value to a new height