Who pays for youth disengagement and unemployment? A case for smarter thinking and for investment

Background: In March 2015 a Working Group was established by Andrew Neophytou (CEO, Inner Eastern Local Learning & Employment Network) on behalf of the Inner Metro Youth and Community Partnership (IMCYP). This Working Group was formed to discuss and consider actions around youth transitions and pathways, as a response to worrying levels of youth disengagement and unemployment, whether viewed from a regional, state or national perspective. Part of the impetus behind the Group’s formation was concern for the wellbeing of young people (largely but not exclusively those aged 15 and over) who were at risk of disengaging from education, or were already disengaged. Like the IMYCP, e2e has these aims: Advocacy and strategic input and advice to government about children and young people, and the organisations that support them Sharing information and research around transitions and pathways Building relationships with key stakeholders to develop a cross-sectoral response to address issues relating to transitions and pathways Identifying potential pathways and referral options for young people that are most at risk Providing best-practice examples / models for work and professional development. A dozen stakeholder organisations / bodies have embraced these aims, and form the nucleus of the e2e Working Group: Representatives from the following stakeholders form the nucleus of e2e: Ardoch Youth Foundation Capital City LLEN City of Stonnington – Youth Services Education Engagement Partnership (EEP) Inner Melbourne VET Cluster (IMVC) Melbourne City Mission (MCM) / SKYS Melbourne Polytechnic Prahran Community Learning Centre (PCLC) SouthPort Uniting Care (SPUC) Taskforce Community Agency Victoria Police As a first step, this Working Group agreed to develop a Discussion Paper. This Paper, completed in late July 2015, provides key reflections arising out of discussions the network members have had, and the reading we’ve done.  This discussion paper is intended for a broad readership.  It includes some introductory pages (eg background; a note about terms and definitions used; statistics; and five principles for smarter thinking and investment).  The bulk of the paper covers eleven themes, each followed by a number of recommendations (averaging about six per section), which are aimed for a range of stakeholders, including government departments, peak bodies, and NFP organisations.   The eleven themes are: policy; consultation; funding / youth specific programs; workforce strategy – including professional learning; partnerships – including with industry; education disengagement; VCAL & VET; disabilities; “middle years”; abuse and trauma; and diversion.&nbsp

Sexuality education : what is it?

This policy brief developed by the European Expert Group on Sexuality Education provides an overview of key issues in sexuality education. It focuses primarily on sexuality education in Europe and Central Asia but is also relevant to countries outside of these regions

#BadgedtoHire Final Report

Education Design Lab, through professional input and focus groups, developed eight badges that address the instruction of “soft skills” to postsecondary students. With the emergence of alternative credentialing and badging, Education Design Lab wanted to contribute to the evidence of student confidence differences as attributed to completing the badge content as expressed on their resume, interview, and through application or example. Postsecondary institutions were engaged in this evaluation across the nation and allowed for three differing viewpoints on badge importance and expression – student, instruction, and employer

America's Next Manufacturing Workforce: Promising Practices in Education and Skills Building

The promising practices presented in this report demonstrate some of the most encouraging approaches for education and skill building of America’s new manufacturing workforce. These practices have been selected by a panel of experts from business, government, and education who serve on the MForesight Education and Workforce Development Working Group (EWD). This report summarizes a sampling of replicable and scalable promising practices being pursued to ensure that America builds an educated, skilled, and ready workforce. MForesight has not endorsed any particular product or method in presenting these promising practices, and is pleased to invite learning institutions, professional organizations, and manufacturers to submit descriptions of additional programs and initiatives serving similar purposes. In this way, MForesight hopes to build a community of practitioners and learners to help build an educated, skilled, and ready advanced manufacturing workforce. Concurrently, the EWD will continue its work to translate the key characteristics of these promising practices into policy and investment guidelines for government, industry, and educational enterprises that will support efforts to bring such practices to scale.National Science Foundation, Grant No. 1552534https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145154/1/WorkforceReport_Final.pd

The Australian Research Quality Framework: A live experiment in capturing the social, economic, environmental, and cultural returns of publicly funded research

Copyright @ 2008 Wiley Periodicals Inc. This is the accepted version of the following article: Donovan, C. (2008), The Australian Research Quality Framework: A live experiment in capturing the social, economic, environmental, and cultural returns of publicly funded research. New Directions for Evaluation, 2008: 47–60, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ev.260/abstract.The author regards development of Australia's ill-fated Research Quality Framework (RQF) as a “live experiment” in determining the most appropriate approach to evaluating the extra-academic returns, or “impact,” of a nation's publicly funded research. The RQF was at the forefront of an international movement toward richer qualitative, contextual approaches that aimed to gauge the wider economic, social, environmental, and cultural benefits of research. Its construction and implementation sent mixed messages and created confusion about what impact is, and how it is best measured, to the extent that this bold live experiment did not come to fruition

Proposed Higher Education Funding Formula

Objectives for New Formula: •Transition to I&G funding based on outputs and outcomes • Recognize enrollment growth and state priorities of: - Increasing the number of degrees and certificates awarded, - Meeting workforce needs, and - Closing the achievement gap by serving at-risk students • Maintain a level of equity by sector and by institutions • Simplify the formul

Equations in a consumer culture: mathematical images in advertising

Affect energises the learning and use of mathematics; a key influence comes from the images of mathematics available in society. We sought advertisements containing such ‘images’ (e.g. mathematical expressions, equations or graphs) in 1600 editions of UK newspapers, over two recent three-month periods. We found that 4.7% of editions included a ‘mathematical’ advert, compared with 1.7% found in the pilot for 1994-2003. This supports the idea that mathematical images are being used more in advertising, paralleling the increase observed anecdotally in films. The incidence varied from 8.2% among the ‘quality’ papers, to 2.3% in mid-market, to 0.6% among the ‘populars’, suggesting a correlation with the social class of the readershi

Which primary care practitioners have poor human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge? A step towards informing the development of professional education initiatives

Background: Primary care practitioners (PCP) play key roles in cervical cancer prevention. Human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge is an important influence on PCPs’ cervical cancer prevention-related behaviours. We investigated HPV knowledge, and associated factors, among general practitioners (GPs) and practice nurses. Methods: A survey, including factual questions about HPV infection and vaccination, was mailed to GPs and practice nurses in Ireland. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine which PCPs had low knowledge (questions correctly answered: infection ≤5/11; vaccination: ≤4/10). Questions least often answered correctly were identified. Results: 697 PCPs participated. For HPV infection, GPs and practice nurses answered a median of nine and seven questions correctly, respectively (p⅓ of PCPs. Conclusions: There are important limitations in HPV infection and vaccination knowledge among PCPs. By identifying factors associated with poor knowledge, and areas of particular uncertainty, these results can inform development of professional education initiatives thereby ensuring women have access to uniformly high-quality HPV-related information and advice