16 research outputs found
Inequalities and Agencies in Workplace Learning Experiences: International Student Perspectives
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12186-016-9167-2National systems of vocational education and training around the globe are facing reform driven by quality, international mobility, and equity. Evidence suggests that there are qualitatively distinctive challenges in providing and sustaining workplace learning experiences to international students. However, despite growing conceptual and empirical work, there is little evidence of the experiences of these students undertaking workplace learning opportunities as part of vocational education courses. This paper draws on a four-year study funded by the Australian Research Council that involved 105 in depth interviews with international students undertaking work integrated learning placements as part of vocational education courses in Australia. The results indicate that international students can experience different forms of discrimination and deskilling, and that these were legitimised by students in relation to their understanding of themselves as being an âinternational studentâ (with fewer rights). However, the results also demonstrated the ways in which international students exercised their agency towards navigating or even disrupting these circumstances, which often included developing their social and cultural capital. This study, therefore, calls for more proactively inclusive induction and support practices that promote reciprocal understandings and navigational capacities for all involved in the provision of work integrated learning. This, it is argued, would not only expand and enrich the learning opportunities for international students, their tutors, employers, and employees involved in the provision of workplace learning opportunities, but it could also be a catalyst to promote greater mutual appreciation of diversity in the workplace
The COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons on building more equal and sustainable societies
This discussion paper by a group of scholars across the fields of health, economics
and labour relations argues that COVID-19 is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis
from which there can be no return to the âold normalâ. The pandemicâs disastrous
worldwide health impacts have been exacerbated by, and have compounded, the
unsustainability of economic globalisation based on the neoliberal dismantling of state
capabilities in favour of markets. Flow-on economic impacts have simultaneously
created major supply and demand disruptions, and highlighted the growing withincountry inequalities and precarity generated by neoliberal regimes of labour market
regulation. Taking an Australian and international perspective, we examine these
economic and labour market impacts, paying particular attention to differential
impacts on First Nations people, developing countries, women, immigrants and young
people. Evaluating policy responses in a political climate of national and international
leadership very different from those in which major twentieth century crises were
addressed, we argue the need for a national and international conversation to
develop a new pathway out of crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons on building more equal and sustainable societies
This discussion paper by a group of scholars across the fields of health, economics and labour relations argues that COVID-19 is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis from which there can be no return to the âold normalâ. The pandemicâs disastrous worldwide health impacts have been exacerbated by, and have compounded, the unsustainability of economic globalisation based on the neoliberal dismantling of state capabilities in favour of markets. Flow-on economic impacts have simultaneously created major supply and demand disruptions, and highlighted the growing within-country inequalities and precarity generated by neoliberal regimes of labour market regulation. Taking an Australian and international perspective, we examine these economic and labour market impacts, paying particular attention to differential impacts on First Nations people, developing countries, women, immigrants and young people. Evaluating policy responses in a political climate of national and international leadership very different from those in which major twentieth century crises were addressed, we argue the need for a national and international conversation to develop a new pathway out of crisis
Identity work in refugee workforce integration: The role of newcomer support organizations
Do Migrants get Good Jobs in Australia? The Role of Ethnic Networks in Job Search
We study the role of ethnic networks in migrants' job search and the quality of jobs they find in the first years of settlement. We find that there are initial downward movements along the occupational ladder, followed by improvements. As a result of restrictions in welfare eligibility since 1997, we study whether this increases the probability that new migrants accept 'bad jobs' quickly and then move onto better jobs over time. Holding employability constant, our results support this view. However, accounting for their higher employability, new migrants seem to fare better up to 1.5 years after settlement.16 page(s