Discussion paper: Disability and poverty reduction strategies: How to ensure that access of persons with disabilities to decent and productive work is part of the PRSP process

[Excerpt] In 1999, the IMF and the World Bank launched the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach to poverty reduction in low-income countries in order to ensure that concessional funding through the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and the World Bank Group’s IDA, as well as debt relief under the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative address poverty reduction more effectively. At present, nearly 70 low income countries are engaged in the formulation of national PRSPs that, once approved by the World Bank and IMF Boards, become the basis of concessional assistance from the two institutions

Enterprise and employability: to conflate or not to conflate?

Back in 1992, Watts and Hawthorn provided definitions of ‘enterprise’ that could subsume the concept of employability. They argued that enterprise may be about: helping students set up a business; working within an enterprise (organisation); or being enterprising, innovating and creative. Their comments were made in the context of the Enterprise in Higher Education programme, which ran for eight years until 1996. This predated the nomenclature ‘employability’, but ran alongside traditional employability elements such as career development learning. More recent enterprise initiatives (for example the National Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship) have focused more specifically on entrepreneurship, innovation and knowledge transfer, not on employability

Why are we here? An investigation of academic, employability and social facets of business undergraduates' motivation using Thurstone Scaling

In the UK employability is a key university performance measure. This reflects both the tightening graduate employment market and the demands on the sector for greater accountability. The literature on employability considers the implications for institutions and the student motivation literature examines students’ intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientations. This exploratory study complements both areas of work by considering employability, currently deemed an all-pervasive extrinsic goal, as far as students’ motivation is concerned relative to the more conventional drivers of decisions to enter higher education; achieving academic success and social fulfilment. It aims to establish both the significance of employability as a motivating factor and ascertain the degree of association with the academic and social factors as well as profile variables. The research design applies Thurstone attitude scaling. Several hundred business undergraduates were asked to encapsulate why they were on their course. The responses were collated and scored by a set of judges against scales of academic, employability and social motivation. The judges’ scores were used to determine the most appropriate statements to use in the research instrument, which was then used to survey the attitudes of 75 students. The results suggest that employability is a significant aspect of students’ motivation and is associated with the academic and social aspects of motivation. This significance of employability suggests effective learning support strategies are likely to be those that are based on experiential and skill-driven learning alongside more tightly drawn cognitive approaches. The balance of motivational aspects can also inform institutions’ student recruitment

India Country Profile

[From Introduction] This country study for India is part of the ILO project \u27Employment of People with Disabilities – the Impact of Legislation\u27 which aims to enhance the capacity of national governments in selected countries of Asia and East Africa to implement effective legislation concerning the employment of people with disabilities. Starting with a systematic examination of laws in place to promote employment and training opportunities for people with disabilities in selected countries of Asia and the Pacific (Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Japan, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Thailand), the project sets out to examine the operation of such legislation, identify the implementation mechanisms in place and suggest improvements Technical assistance is provided to selected national governments in implementing necessary improvements. The country study outlines the main provisions of the laws in place in India concerning the employment of people with disabilities. A brief review of the implementation of the legislation is also provided, insofar as this was possible, based on a survey of documentary sources, a study by an in-country consultant and feedback from Indian delegates to a Project Consultation held in Bangkok, 17 January 2003. It may be read in conjunction with the regional overview prepared for this Consultation \u27Employment of People with Disabilities – the Impact of Legislation (Asia and the Pacific). Project Consultation Report, Bangkok 17 January\u27, ILO 2003

Temporary employment and employability: training opportunities and efforts of temporary and permanent employees.

The rise of temporary employment contributes to the fact that people can no longer count on life time employment with one employer. The conclusion that life time employment within the same organisation is no longer a prerogative for all, inspires the search for new career concepts. 'Life time employability' is often put forward as an alternative to 'life time employment'. A successful career is, then, believed to be assured by having and obtaining the appropriate capacities for being continuously employable on the internal and external labour market during one's working life. At first sight, temporary employment relations and employability go hand in hand. For temporary employment is less dramatic when it is linked to a higher employability. The career opportunities of temporary workers are safeguarded by their employability. Opponents, however, add some critical observations to this statement and claim that contractual flexibility and employability enhancement are at odds. In this article, we deal with this question. If temporary employment and employability enhancing activities are at odds, temporary employees get less facilities to expand their employability. This can have important implications for the career opportunities of temps. We compare the employability enhancing activities of temporary and permanent employees. We study one central employability enhancing activity, namely training. Firstly, we have a look at the capacity and the willingness of temporary and permanent employees to participate in training in order to enhance their employability. Secondly, we also study the training opportunities that are offered by employers to temporary and permanent employees. The results indicate that, although temps do largely take responsibility for their own training, they get less opportunities to enhance their employability than permanent employeEmployment;

Fight for your alienation: The fantasy of employability and the ironic struggle for self-exploitation

This paper draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis, to introduce employability as a cultural fantasy that organizes identity around the desire to shape, exploit and ultimately profit from an employable self. Specifically, the paper shows how individuals seek to overcome their subjective and material alienation by maximizing their self-exploitation through constantly enhancing their employability. This linking of empowerment to selfexploitation has expanded into a broader organizational and political demand calling on individuals to fight for their alienation by having managers and governments help them better exploit themselves through enhancing their employability. Paradoxically, the more contemporary subjects aim to overcome their subjective and material alienation through fantasies of employability the more alienated they become

Australia Country Profile

[From Introduction] This country study for Australia is part of the ILO project \u27Employment of People with Disabilities – the Impact of Legislation’ which aims to enhance the capacity of national governments in selected countries of Asia and East Africa to implement effective legislation concerning the employment of people with disabilities. Starting with a systematic examination of laws in place to promote employment and training opportunities for people with disabilities in selected countries of Asia and the Pacific (Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Japan, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Thailand), the project sets out to examine the operation of such legislation, identify the implementation mechanisms in place and suggest improvements Technical assistance is provided to selected national governments in implementing necessary improvements

Do university students, alumni, educators and employers link assessment and graduate employability?

Within higher education literature, assessment and graduate employability are linked and co-presented, in that quality student assessment is purported to enhance employability. This research was designed to query the extent to which these same conceptual links are perceived by those actively involved in higher education. Four stakeholder groups from multiple disciplines and eight Australian states and territories (students, alumni, educators and employers) were interviewed about graduate employability (n s= 127). Interviewers intentionally omitted any mention of assessment to determine whether the various stakeholders would bring it up themselves when asked questions such as what is and is not effective for nurturing employability. The results indicated that among the educators, assessment emerged as a dominant theme. While the three other stakeholder groups infrequently used the term assessment, they did discuss related educational concepts and practices in the context of enhanced employability. All stakeholder groups identified a missing link between theory and practice, with educators specifying that link as assessment. Recommendations to improve employability through assessment are the key takeaways from this research. © 2017 HERDS

Out of the comfort zone: Enhancing work-based learning about employability through student reflection on work placements

This paper examines the work-based learning about employability reported by 26 undergraduate Geography and Environmental Management students on part-time, unpaid work placements. The students' “reflective essays” emphasized their learning more in terms of emotional challenges than in terms of skills, as being pushed out of their “comfort zone” forced them to be more proactive, tackle unfamiliar activities and develop emotionally. This conceptualizes employability as more than skills and as integrative, reflective and adaptable. This also emphasizes that higher education institutions must support employability and work-based learning outside the academic zone and better integrate off-campus work-based learning with on-campus reflection