Employability for the workers - what does this mean?

Purpose – UK government strategies for higher education (HE) continue to emphasise the promotion and enhancement of students' employability skills and subsequent graduate opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to explore what this means for those HE learners already in work. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents the findings of a national study on the impact of Foundation degrees (Fds) on students and the workplace, in the light of government's plans for the continuing expansion of HE, and discussions about employability. Findings – The study found that the majority of Fd students cited increased confidence as the main gain from their studies; such confidence was expressed in terms of how students' enhanced knowledge and understandings informed their workplace activities and tasks but these expressions did not necessarily fit neatly into narrow skills' definitions. Also the findings hint at some students facing difficulties in using their enhanced “skills” in the workplace. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a relatively small number of Fd programmes, the student voices represent a powerful message of the value of linking studies to their workplace practices and of the multi-dimensional nature of “confidence” based on personal experiences and trajectories. Practical implications – While the term “employability skills” is regularly used in the discourse of graduates' trajectories in to the labour market, more nuanced understandings are needed in relation to HE learners already in the workplace. Originality/value – Given government's expectation that the next phase of expansion of UK HE will embrace an increase in part-time study and work-based learning, the article represents a timely exploration of work-based students' perceptions of the development of employability skills and how they are able to deploy these in the workplace

Predator Publishers

This article warns against publishing with companies who find your work published in Digital Commons and offer to publish it or free but really mean to exploit you

Regulating access to essential facilities in Australia : review and reform of Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act

This dissertation critically evaluates the rationale for, and implementation of, the regulatory scheme governing third party access to essential infrastructure services (the 'national access regime') set out in Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). The analysis and synthesis of background reports, economic and legal theory, statutory provisions, existing case law, academic commentary and regulatory guidelines contained herein represents a useful and necessary contribution to this nascent area of Australian competition law. In particular, the comprehensive nature of the research has permitted informed assessment of the Productivity Commission's recent review of the national access regime and the Commonwealth Government's response to that inquiry. While the dissertation endorses both the Productivity Commission's finding that retention of the Part IIIA access regime is warranted and many of the (notably light-handed) recommendations advanced by the Commission to improve aspects of the regime's operation, it takes issue with the Commission's failure to propose a more substantial refashioning of the regime's architecture. Stepping into this breach, the dissertation specifies the systemic changes to Part IIIA that are imperative to enhancing the efficacy of the national access regime

Honorable Mention Wants to Publish Your Articles on Traveling

Honorable Mention is soliciting articles on travel abroad experiences by former and current Honors students, faculty, and staff

Dr. Ayres, Assistant Director of Honors and Fulbright Scholar

Dr. Ayres learned about Brazil while on a Fulbright with fourteen other professors in 2002

Relationship between personality type and grade point average of technical college students

Includes bibliographical references

Axonal regeneration in hippocampal and spinal cord organotypic slice cultures

Under normal conditions, axonal regeneration after lesions is not possible in mature CNS but can occur in embryonic and early postnatal nervous systems. In recent years, a number of possible strategies to enhance axonal regeneration and eventually treat spinal cord and brain injuries have been identified, some of which have been used successfully in animal experiments, but till now there is still no successful treatment available for patients. This problem is partly due to the complexity of the animal experiments which makes it difficult to compare different treatment strategies. In this project, we have used organotypic slice culture models to test the effectiveness of pharmacological compounds that interfere with various signal transduction mechanisms, to promote axonal regeneration. We used the entorhino hippocampal slice cultures to assess regeneration of entorhinal fibers projecting to the dentate gyrus after mechanical lesions and treatment. It was previously shown (Prang et. al., 2001) that there is a marked decrease in regenerating fibers when a lesion is made at 6 7 days in vitro or later in slices derived from postnatal day 5 6 mice. We took this as a control model where there is little spontaneous axonal regeneration, added treatments on the day of lesion and later traced for entorhinal axons with biotinylated dextran amine (BDA). In this study it was shown that compounds acting on the cAMP, PKC and G proteins can promote regeneration. Furthermore, we have identified the inhibition of the PI3 kinase pathway and the IP 3 receptor as potential drug targets that promote axonal regeneration. In order to study axonal growth in a spinal cord environment we have developed a spinal cord longitudinal organotypic slice culture model which allowed us to follow axons along the rostro caudal extension of the spinal cord. Slices of cervical spinal cord were cut in the sagittal plane from early postnatal mice and were maintained in culture for various time periods up to 4 weeks. Histological and immunohistochemical stainings of the cultures have shown that these slice cultures maintain the ventro dorsal polarity of the spinal cord and that an intrinsic fibre projection develops which runs along the rostro caudal extension of the spinal cord slice culture. After mechanical lesion, these fibres have the ability to regenerate spontaneously demonstrating the intrinsic ability of the spinal cord for repair, but this ability is decreased with increasing time in culture. During the culture period the axons became myelinated and expressed synaptic markers. These cultures could thus serve also as a model for myelin formation and synaptogenesis. We have analyzed the potential of axons from longitudinal spinal cord cultures to grow into an adjacent slice of cerebellar tissue. We could show that spinal cord axons do enter the cerebellar slice in particular when early postnatal spinal cord is combined with postnatal cerebellum. Pharmacological treatments were used to enhance axonal growth. Similarly to our findings in the entorhino hippocampal model, cAMP activators and PKC inhibitors promoted axonal growth from the spinal cord to the cerebellum. In cocultures of longitudinal spinal cord slices with cortical slices we have shown that fibers from the cortical slices grew extensively into the spinal cord slice and extended caudally for substantial distances. Our results demonstrate that organotypic slice cultures can be a useful tool to study axonal growth and regeneration. Intrinsic spinal cord axons have a considerable potential for spontaneous regeneration in the early postnatal period and are able to grow both through a mechanical lesion and into another tissue. Moreover, compounds interfering with signal transduction mechanisms, particularly cAMP, PKC, PI3 Kinase, G proteins and IP3 receptors, were able to promote axonal growth and regeneration in diverse slice culture models making them interesting drug candidates for the promotion of axonal regeneration

Mutual Funds of Irwin Consulting Planning in Singapore and Tokyo, Japan

Mutual funds are common investments because they provide a cost-effective and effective means to vary your investments (or possess an assortment of securities -- stocks, bonds, etc.) without having to make a huge starting investment

The Power of Community: How Foster Parents, Teachers, and Community Members Support Academic Achievement for Foster Youth

Foster children have been identified as one of the most high-risk groups for academic failure in schools today. However, a small number of foster youth are beating the odds by achieving academically. How are they able to overcome tremendous barriers and succeed? This phenomenological study reports the findings of former foster youth and their P-12 education experience. In-depth interviews are shared, offering a rare glimpse into the challenging lives of foster youth and revealing the supports that contributed to their success. The significance of each support entity identified by the participants must be broadly shared. The support entities are family, school, community, and self-reliance. The insights of the foster youth show how family, teachers, and community can work together to support the academic achievement of foster youth