Work first versus human capital development in employability programs

Policymakers across advanced welfare states have prioritized programs to enhance the employability of unemployed people and help them to find and sustain work. In this regard, analysts have drawn attention to the difference between Work First and Human Capital Development (HCD) models. The former seek to direct people to any available job as quickly as possible; the latter seek to improve long-term employability through investments in human capital (typically via education and training). This chapter deploys a framework for comparing Work First‒ and HCD-oriented approaches to employability, identifying differences in rationales, content, and outcomes. A key conclusion is that policymakers (and indeed researchers) need to adopt a broader, more holistic view of the factors affecting the unemployed. A better understanding can inform the development of programs that combine Work First and HCD elements and address the problems that explain why some people face prolonged periods excluded from the workplace

An appetite for learning : increasing employee demand for skills development

Raising the demand for skills amongst individuals in the workforce is critical if the UK is to meet its 2020 Ambition. This edition of Praxis highlights a number of policy interventions that the evidence suggests can work, and proposes a policy framework for describing and understanding these. The paper aims to stimulate wider debate about the policy interventions most likely to address the barriers to learning faced by the UK workforce. To this end the UK Commission welcomes readers' responses to the following questions, prompted by this paper

Engaging older adults and people with dementia in the design of digital technologies

PhD ThesisImprovements in healthcare and nutrition have led to increased life expectancies for people around the world, and a growing need to support the larger numbers of older people living with chronic and age-related health conditions. Although the use of digital technologies is increasingly proposed for health and social care solutions, in practice the designers of these technologies are ill equipped to actively engage older people and in particular people with syndromes such as dementia. An examination of previous work on design for older people, and people with dementia, suggests that poor design arises from a gulf in knowledge and experience between the designers and their subjects. To address this divide the KITE participatory design method for engaging people with dementia in design is proposed. KITE facilitates engagement by structuring and scaffolding an empathic relationship between designers and their participants. The approach is elaborated and evaluated through an exercise to design a digital technology to help people with dementia have safe walking experiences. The analysis of this process leads to the formulation of the OASIS design method which is intended to apply to older people more generally. OASIS is evaluated and refined through a number of design studies for technologies to support healthy eating, day-to-day travelling needs and living safely within the community. Reflection on the application of the OASIS method highlights a number of key strategies that can be used to establish and maintain respectful, empathic, and productive participatory design relationships with older adults and people with dementia

Engaging low skilled employees in workplace learning : UK Commission for Employment and Skills Evidence Report no. 43

The Employee Demand study (UKCES, 2009) highlighted the significant barriers to learning that are faced by a number of UK employees. This report sets out the findings of a study into the motivators and barriers to participation in workplace learning by low skilled employees. Employees in low skilled jobs are a group which has been overlooked in previous research. The study was carried out by the Employment Research Institute (ERI) at Edinburgh Napier University on behalf of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (the UK Commission). The report presents the results of a survey of both employee and employer views on participation in workplace learning in the care sector in north east England and the hotel sector in Yorkshire and Humberside. As well as a standard survey, the report also outlines the stated preference approach adopted. The stated preference approach allows employees to consider a hypothetical case of participation in workplace learning. Employees were given choices of combinations of job and learning related factors that might affect their preference for or against workplace learning. In conclusion, the report suggests many positive features which employers, individuals and policy makers could build on in developing the skills of people in low skilled jobs, which is important in securing our competitive advantage in the long term

Pavlovian Processes in Consumer Choice: The Physical Presence of a Good Increases Willingness-to-Pay

This paper describes a series of laboratory experiments studying whether the form in which items are displayed at the time of decision affects the dollar value that subjects place on them. Using a Becker-DeGroot auction under three different conditions — (i) text displays, (ii) image displays, and (iii) displays of the actual items — we find that subjects' willingness-to-pay is 40-61 percent larger in the real than in the image and text displays. Furthermore, follow-up experiments suggest the presence of the real item triggers preprogrammed consummatory Pavlovian processes that promote behaviors that lead to contact with appetitive items whenever they are available

Delivering job search services in rural labour markets: the role of ICT

This paper reports original research on job seekers in two contrasting rural areas in Scotland: one a remote rural area; the other semi-rural with strong metropolitan connectivity. It seeks to answer two key questions. Firstly, what are the potential benefits and barriers associated with the delivery of services for rural job seekers through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based systems? And following from this, what is the nature and extent of the 'digital divide' affecting unemployed job seekers and what policies are required to address this problem? Rural labour markets in the United Kingdom, like those across Europe, have recently experienced a period of continuous and rapid change. The decline of primary sector industries has been accompanied by increases in service employment, especially in tourism. However, in the UK, as elsewhere, this economic transition has not been without its difficulties. Whilst social exclusion is less prevalent in rural areas than in many cities, instances f poverty remain. Unemployment, and particularly long-term unemployment, has been cited as an important factor explaining the continuing problem of social exclusion in many rural areas. Recent research has suggested that an important barrier to work faced by unemployed people in rural areas relates to the absence of locally-based job search and advice services. The Employment Service (the main public agency in the UK dealing with job seekers) has argued thagiven the remote and sparsely populated nature of many rural labour markets, ICT-based job search and advice services (e.g. delivered through telephone helplines and the Internet) may offer the most efficient and cost-effective policy solution in many areas. However, the viability of this policy is dependent on the level of ICT awareness and access among job seekers. Interviews were conducted with over 400 job seekers in the two areas. The Caithness and Sutherland area in northern Scotland is among the most remote and least densely populated in Europe, with unemployment rates well above the national average. West Lothian, in contrast, is situated near to Scotland's economic centre and is a major centre of manufacturing activity with unemployment below the national average. The interviws examined the level of ICT skills possessed, attitudes towards and access to ICT, and additionally collected information on a range of personal skills and attitudes. Evidence of relatively low levels of ICT awareness and access was found in both communities Although those residing in the more remote study area were also more likely to have Internet access, a significant minority did not even have access to a telephone at home. The paper concludes that, if ICT is to prove to be the waforward in delivering services for job seekers in rural areas, community-based access and support facilities must be provided, along with appropriate training for job seekers in basic and higher level ICT skills.

"Do you want fries with that?": the McDonaldization of university education — some critical reflections on nursing higher education

Public universities, as the predominant source of nurse education, serve an instrumental role as pressure mounts to produce large numbers of workready graduates to meet the needs of the labor market. Neoliberalism is recognized as the dominant political and economic philosophy across the globe, and new managerialist, corporatized practices, as its “organizational arms,” are ubiquitous within the higher education sector worldwide. Intersecting this agenda are dramatic developments in the way university courses are being conceived and delivered based upon the increasing integration of digital technologies. Given the radical transformations brought about by Web 2.0 technologies, it is timely to critically analyze current narratives shaping the teaching and learning agenda and their impact on the nature and quality of nursing higher education. This article draws on the “McDonaldization thesis” of George Ritzer, concepts from the work of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, Habermasian social theory, and critical pedagogy. It concludes with a short overview of possible outcomes of the new agenda, and some strategies for resistance. Although the focus is on Australia, it is relevant to other countries to the extent that they are facing similar challenges and undergoing analogous pedagogic transformations

In search of Christian theological research methodology

The burgeoning methodological literature available for the guidance of researchers caters for a wide range of standpoints, but it ignores perhaps the commonest personal philosophies encountered in the nursing profession, those based on Christianity. Nursing’s historical and continuing relationship to Christian faith has been well-documented, and although this is reflected in literature stressing the importance of spiritual care, it has had no discernible impact on nurses’ formulations of research methodology. This article outlines the core features of Christian belief and draws out some of their methodological implications for nurse researchers, with a view to initiating a constructive debate from which Christian theological methodologies might be developed

SWELL Action 3 Evaluation

This report details the findings of research undertaken by the Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh as part the evaluation of the Scottish Workforce Empowerment for Lifelong Learning (SWELL) project. The report focuses on SWELL's ‘Action 3' activities, concerning the communication, dissemination and mainstreaming of practice and outputs from the project

New perspectives on employability and labour market policy: reflecting on key issues

This editorial introduces a theme issue on ``New Perspectives on Employability and Labour Market Policy''. The papers that follow were developed by participants in a cross-national research network established with the support of the Regional Studies Association, which aimed to share knowledge on both the individual and spatial dimensions of employability and labour market exclusion, and related policy responses. The papers were selected to take in research on barriers to work and job-search strategies among different groups, the role of employers in providing opportunities for job seekers, how the geography of labour markets shapes the experience of unemployment, and local and regional governance arrangements that provide the context for policy responses