A manifesto for higher education, skills and work based learning: through the lens of The Manifesto for Work

Purpose: This paper is prompted by recent professional and political events and specifically the politically oriented ‘Manifesto for Work’ recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), to propose a manifesto for the broad professional sphere of higher education, skills and work based learning. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises a unique form of political ideology critique, applied to the CIPD’s Manifesto for Work, to propose alternative directions for practice, research and policy. Findings: This paper highlights four key areas which need further research and development in the area of higher education, skills and work based learning. These are discussed in relation to: overhauling corporate governance; inclusive workplaces, flexible working, and disadvantaged groups; investment in skills, lifelong learning, and well-being; and re-balancing working practices and rights. Research limitations/implications: This paper highlights areas for further research in the broad professional area of higher education, skills and work based learning. Originality/value: This paper is a unique, time-bound political response to the current political landscape, and is the first to propose a manifesto for the professional sphere of higher education, skills and work based learning

Reclaiming professional identity through postgraduate professional development: Career practitioners reclaiming their professional selves

Careers advisers in the UK have experienced significant change and upheaval within their professional practice. This research explores the role of postgraduate level professional development in contributing to professional identity. The research utilises a case study approach and adopts multiple tools to provide an in-depth examination of practitioners’ perceptions of themselves as professionals within their lived world experience. It presents a group of practitioners struggling to define themselves as professionals due to changing occupational nomenclature resulting from shifting government policy. Postgraduate professional development generated a perceived enhancement in professional identity through exposure to theory, policy and opportunities for reflection, thus contributing to more confident and empowered practitioners. Engagement with study facilitated development of confident, empowered practitioners with a strengthened sense of professional self

Embedding OER\u27s For The Development of Information Literacy in the Foreign Language Classroom

Despite a rapid growth of Open Educational Resource (OER) availability, Thoms and Thoms (2014) note that few empirical studies examine the impact of OERs on foreign language learning and teaching. This paper presents an action research study investigating the embedding of selected components of DigiLanguages, an OER for Digital Literacies (DLs) for Foreign Languages (FL) within a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Business and Languages at the Technological University Dublin. Digilanguages.ie is an open portal developed collaboratively by six tertiary education institutions in Ireland. Digital literacies for FL learning and teaching is a key strand in this resource. The study involved two groups of students, one majoring in French and one in Italian. One of the aims of the study was to pilot the portal and identify affordances and constraints of introducing and adapting this OER to the individual FL classroom. Of equal importance was to analyse the potential of the OER to introduce and/or change pedagogical practices in an area that remains largely under investigated, namely DLs for foreign language learning. The study informs future steps in how to use a particular OER to embed units of DLs into FL courses. It also provides insights on developing a new set of professional practices among language teachers

Problematising parent–professional partnerships in education

The value of, and need for, parent–professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to ‘special educational needs’. In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one a parent of a disabled child while the other was a teacher for 20 years of children with the label autism. The paper deconstructs the concept of partnership and then, drawing on the expertise of parents, suggests how enabling and empowering parent–professional relationships might be achieved

Problematising parent–professional partnerships in education

The value of, and need for, parent–professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to ‘special educational needs’. In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one a parent of a disabled child while the other was a teacher for 20 years of children with the label autism. The paper deconstructs the concept of partnership and then, drawing on the expertise of parents, suggests how enabling and empowering parent–professional relationships might be achieved

Resilience and survival : black teenage mothers 'looked after' by the State tell their stories about their experience of care

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Nadia Mantonavi, and Hilary Thomas, 'Resilience and Survival: Black Teenage Mothers ‘Looked After’ by the State Tell their Stories About their Experience of Care', Children & Society, Vol. 29 (4): 299-309, July 2015, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12028. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.‘Looked after’ young people are among the most disadvantaged members of our society. While their disadvantaged status should not be ignored, poor outcomes are often emphasised at the expense of good ones. This paper reports a study that adopts the concept of resilience to understand the narratives of the participants’ experience of care and foster care. A total of 15 young mothers, aged 16-19 and mainly from black African backgrounds, were interviewed. Despite lacking a ‘secure base’, informants invested in a sense of moral identity and a source of self-directedness, which enabled them to move from victim of circumstances to individuals who overcome their circumstances.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions

Graduate outcomes – including rates of employment and earnings – are marked by persistent inequalities related to social class, as well as gender, ethnicity and institution. Despite national policy agendas related to social mobility and ‘fair access to the professions’, high-status occupations are disproportionately composed of those from socially privileged backgrounds, and evidence suggests that in recent decades many professions have become less socially representative. This article makes an original contribution to sociological studies of inequalities in graduate transitions and elite reproduction through a distinct focus on the ‘pre-hiring’ practices of graduate employers. It does this through a critical analysis of the graduate recruitment material of two popular graduate employers. It shows how, despite espousing commitments to diversity and inclusion, constructions of the ‘ideal’ graduate privilege individuals who can mobilise and embody certain valued capitals. Using Bourdieusian concepts of ‘social magic’ and ‘institutional habitus’, the article argues that more attention must be paid to how graduate employers’ practices constitute tacit processes of social exclusion and thus militate against the achievement of more equitable graduate outcomes and fair access to the ‘top jobs

Higher education, graduate skills and the skills of graduates: the case of graduates as residential sales estate agents

The UK labour market is subject to significant graduatisation. Yet in the context of an over-supply of graduates, little is known about the demand for and deployment of graduate skills in previously non-graduate jobs. Moreover, there is little examination of where these skills are developed, save an assumption in higher education. Using interviews and questionnaire data from a study of British residential sales estate agents, this article explores the demand, deployment and development of graduate skills in an occupation that is becoming graduatised. These data provide no evidence to support the view that the skills demanded and deployed are those solely developed within higher education. Instead what employers require is a wide array of predominantly soft skills developed in many different situs. These findings suggest that, in the case of estate agents, what matters are the ‘skills of graduates’ rather than putative ‘graduate skills’

Implementing the Right of People with Disabilities to Vocational Training. Report of an Action-Research Seminar, Quebec City, 25-26 Aug. 2008

The Action-Research seminar was co-organized by the ILO Skills and Employability Department in collaboration with the CTNERHI (Centre technique national d\u27études et de recherches sur les handicaps et les inadaptations), Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training (GLADNET) and the Rehabilitation International Work and Employment Commission, with funding support by the Government of Ireland and Rehabilitation International (RI). A follow-up to the Tripartite European Regional Meeting, The Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Vocational Training and Employment , held in Geneva, March 2007, and to an Expert Group Meeting on the same topic, held in Bangkok, February 2006, the seminar had three main objectives: 1. to identify elements of good practice in skills development for people with disabilities in countries around the world; 2. to highlight areas in which more progress is needed and examine attempts to address these challenges; 3. to formulate an agenda for action and research. The seminar took place in the form of four optional sessions during the Rehabilitation International World Congress, Disability Rights and Social Participation: Ensuring a Society for All . Participants included skills development practitioners, government officials including policy-makers and administrators; disability advocates and researchers