Preparing sport graduates for employment: satisfying employers expectations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore from an employer’s perspective the skills, attributes, and capabilities required of a sports graduate, whilst also discovering how a student is expected to demonstrate these skills in the context of a sports organisation. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a qualitative interpretive case study approach through the use of face to face interviews with six employers from sports organisations involved in the delivery of sport. Interviews lasted between 30-42 minutes and were recorded. This was followed by a thematic review to allow for common themes to be selected and represented. The results were then reviewed and evaluated by a further 15 industry professionals and sports educators. Findings The results suggest employers seek skills that are characteristically enterprise/ entrepreneurship skills, together with an articulation of a ‘sports graduate’ mind-set. This mind-set is described by the employers as being something which is demonstrated through a combination of behaviours and attributes. The paper concluded that in the classroom the use of case studies and challenges where students have to respond to and solve problems by the very nature of the activity is optimal. Originality/Value The originality of this paper lies in both the context of study and the integration of enterprise and entrepreneurship skills that are needed for the changing world of work in sport. The value of the papers is in both the employer’s description of the graduate mind-set and also examples of how the skills can be applied in the context of sport

Using Enterprise Education to Prepare Healthcare Professional Graduates for the Real-world

Objectives: Every year, HEIs around the world provide an increasing number of graduates with professional degrees in various areas of healthcare including for example medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and podiatry. In most cases, these graduates will get the opportunity to develop a range of generic transferable skills during their HE. Yet, many of these become self-employed or responsible for managing a business, but are not always exposed to curricula that develop their awareness of the concepts of enterprise and entrepreneurship and their role in developing economies and societies, and, thus, do not have the necessary range of enterprise skills that they will need in the real-world, whether employed or self-employed. This paper investigates the extent to which Enterprise Education (EE) is applied at professional health schools at HEIs to develop graduates’ ‘soft’ and ‘functional’ enterprise skills, and how effective the process of delivering this education is. Prior work: Previous literature mainly deals with the application of EE through business and management schools, rather than professional ones. Yet, there is a call for researching EE and skills with more focus on exploring the methods and objectives of specific disciplines. At the same time, research investigating learning in professional degrees focuses almost entirely on the development of technical skills related to the discipline, without a general perspective on developing a wider range of enterprise skills. Approach: The study draws on a qualitative research study in the pharmacy education context. Personal interviews with pharmacy employers and academics were carried out, and thematic analysis was applied to identify themes and codes. Results: Despite that experiential and interactive learning approaches, which can support the development of graduates’ enterprise skills, are applied quite often at pharmacy schools, the application of these approaches is focused on discipline-related material and, therefore, can only support the development of graduates’ ‘soft’ enterprise skills. However, there appears to be resistance against developing graduates’ ‘functional’ enterprise skills in pharmacy disciplines, especially in light of the lack of awareness of the concept of EE among academics. The study offers some possible opportunities/propositions that could facilitate the development of more enterprising healthcare graduates, while highlighting the importance of raising the awareness of academics in this regard and embedding EE as part of schools’ philosophies. Implication: This study should help professional health schools at HEIs decide more accurately on how to develop their graduates’ ‘soft’ and ‘functional’ enterprise skills, and address the needs of the real-world. Value: This study directs the attention of HEIs to support developing professional graduates who are ready for the real-world, and who can support the growth and success of any organisation whether employed or self-employed

Health visitor education for today's britain: Messages from a narrative review of the health visitor literature

Highlights •An aspirational ‘orientation to practice’ underpins all health visitors' work •Practice focuses on home visiting, forming relationships and needs assessments •Health visitors' knowledge, skills and abilities are central to effective practice •The large amount of the learning needed is not well covered by current preparation •A radical re-think of health visitor education is needed to accommodate the depth and breadth of knowledge skills and abilities required for practice Objectives This paper draws on a narrative review of the literature, commissioned to support the Health Visitor Implementation Plan (DH, 2011a), and aimed at identifying messages about the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by health visitors to work within the current system of health care provision. Design The scoping study and narrative review used three complementary approaches: a broad search, a structured search and a seminal paper search to identify empirical papers from the health visitor literature for review. The key inclusion criteria were messages of relevance for practice. Data Sources 378 papers were reviewed. These included empirical papers from the United Kingdom (UK) from 2004 – February 2012, older research identified in the seminal paper search and international literature from 2000- January 2016. Review Methods The review papers were read by members of the multi-disciplinary research team which included health visitor academics, social scientists and a clinical psychologist managed the international literature. Thematic content analysis was used to identify main messages. These were tabulated and shared between researchers in order to compare emergent findings and to confirm dominant themes. Results The analysis identified an ‘orientation to practice’ based on salutogenesis (health creation), human valuing (person-centred care) and viewing the person in situation (human ecology) as the aspirational core of health visitors' work. This was realised through home visiting, needs assessment and relationship formation at different levels of service provision. A wide range of knowledge, skills and abilities were required, including knowledge of health as a process and skills in engagement, building trust and making professional judgments. These are currently difficult to impart within a 45 week health visitor programme and are facilitated through ad hoc post registration education and training. The international literature reported both similarities and differences between the working practices of health visitors in the UK and public health nurses worldwide. Challenges related to the education of each were identified. Conclusions The breadth and scope of knowledge, skills and abilities required by health visitors makes a review of current educational provision desirable. Three potential models for health visitor education are described

Erasmus Language students in a British University – a case study

Students’ assessment of their academic experience is actively sought by Higher Education institutions, as evidenced in the National Student Survey introduced in 2005. Erasmus students, despite their growing numbers, tend to be excluded from these satisfaction surveys, even though they, too, are primary customers of a University. This study aims to present results from bespoke questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a sample of Erasmus students studying languages in a British University. These methods allow us insight into the experience of these students and their assessment as a primary customer, with a focus on language learning and teaching, university facilities and student support. It investigates to what extent these factors influence their levels of satisfaction and what costs of adaptation if any, they encounter. Although excellent levels of satisfaction were found, some costs affect their experience. They relate to difficulties in adapting to a learning methodology based on a low number of hours and independent learning and to a guidance and support system seen as too stifling. The results portray this cohort’s British University as a well-equipped and well-meaning but ultimately overbearing institution, which may indicate that minimising costs can eliminate some sources of dissatisfaction

Learning the hard way: the effect of violent conflict on student academic achievement

We study the effect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on various education outcomes for Palestinian high school students in the West Bank during the Second Intifada (2000–2006). Exploiting within-school variation in the number of conflict-related Palestinian fatalities during the academic year, we show that the conflict reduces the probability of passing the final exam, the total test score, and the probability of being admitted to university. The effect of conflict varies with the type and the timing of the violent events the student is exposed to and it is not significant for students in the upper tail of the test score distribution. We discuss various possible transmission mechanisms explaining our main result. Evidence suggests a role for both the conflict-induced deterioration of school infrastructures and the worsening in the student's psychological well-being due to direct exposure to violent events