Measuring Competences in School-leaver Surveys

The measurement of competences is a relatively new topic in the economic science. In the past, economists have usually measured worker competences by educational background, tenure, or other simple quantifiable indicators. In the transition from the industrial to the knowledge economy, however, this classical approach has become rather unsatisfactory. Individual labour market performance is no longer dependent on just the individual’s initial education, since todays labour market requires continuous learning and development throughout the career. Employability has become a key concept in the knowledge economy, and the traditional lifetime employment career in a single firm has been replaced by what has been termed the protean career (Hall and Moss, 1998). In such a career, the person, not the firm, is the managing agent. In order to measure or predict career success, uni-dimensional indicators such as educational background that economists have used in the past are no longer sufficient. In the modern economy, skills and knowledge are the main factors in production, and the measurement of competences is a logical step in determining and predicting individual labour market success more accurately and reliably.education, training and the labour market;

Aspects of learning style and labour market entry an explorative study

Since ‘soft factors’ gain more interest for their relevance for the labour market, this study explores the effect of learning style on labour market entry. Learning style is considered to be a relative stable educational concept representing an individual’s learning preferences. This study links the educational concept of learning style with labour market research. The sample has been composed of graduates in Economics of the Maastricht University who graduated in between 1991 and 1995. They all started their studies in 1986 or 1987, in which years their learning style data were collected. Learning style aspects were tested for their effect on job chances, quality of work and type of job (job match) at the time of the survey one and a half year after graduation. Analyses were applied within a two step model. In the first step only learning style data and control variables were included. In the second step, relevant covariates like study results were included in the analyses in addition to the learning style data. Logistic and normal lineair regression analyses point out that the motivational aspects of learning style tend to have an effect on most of the labour market indicators, whereas the cognitive information processing aspects merely affect the chance of getting an academic job. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses reveal some effects on entering an accounting job in comparison with a managing job (job match). The learning style aspect ‘holism’ shows a limited, although unexpected positive effect in this respect. For globalism a negative effect on entering an accounting job appeared. Extendedness appeared to have a limited negative effect on entering an accounting job as well. For research jobs in comparison with managing jobs, no effects are found. Altogether, the effects of learning style aspects appear to be more profound than the effects of study results with respect to labour market entry. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.labour market entry;

Fiction and common ground:a workspace account

The main aim of this dissertation is to model the different ways in which we use language when we engage with fiction. This main aim subdivides itself into a number of puzzles. We all know that dragons do not exist. Yet, when I read the Harry Potter novels, I do accept the existence of dragons. How do we keep such fictional truths separate from ‘ordinary’ non-fictional truths? What is the difference between Tolkien writing down all sorts of falsities, and a liar who also says all sorts of untrue things? How can it be true that Frodo was born in the Shire while it is also true that he was invented by Tolkien? Given that a fiction such as Pride and Prejudice is not about the actual world, how can I learn things about 19th century etiquette in England by reading this novel? I develop a coherent semantic analysis of these different puzzles: the ‘workspace account’. This theory is an extension of Stalnaker’s famous pragmatic ‘common ground’ framework. In this framework, assertions are modelled as proposals to update the ‘common ground’ (the set of shared assumptions) between conversational interlocutors