Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Europe


Book Description

This book explores a noteworthy variety among economically advanced countries in the competences fostered by higher education, and the emphasis placed either on laying a broad basis of knowledge or direct preparation for professional tasks. In some countries, universities are closely involved in ensuring a rapid transition from student to employee; in others, students typically face a long period after graduation for the search of a suitable career.




The Professor Is In


Book Description

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.




Graduate Employability in Context


Book Description

This book explores the highly significant and contested area of graduate employability and employment which is paid so much attention by those in the media and policy-makers. This is driven largely by concerns over the wider economic impact and value of graduates as increasing numbers complete their studies in higher education. At a time when graduates are seen as key to economic success, the critical question remains as to how their employability plays out in a changing labour market. This book brings together innovative approaches and research to present an extensive survey of the field. It provides insight on what is a complex and often elusive social and economic problem, ranging from how graduate employability is constructed as an economic and policy agenda to explorations of how graduates manage the transition from higher education to paid employment and finally to suggest future directions for curricula, policy and research.




Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning


Book Description

This book explores the efficacy of game-based learning to develop university students’ skills and competencies. While writing on game-based learning has previously emphasised the use of games developed specifically for educational purposes, this book fills an important gap in the literature by focusing on commercial games such as World of Warcraft and Minecraft. Underpinned by robust empirical evidence, the author demonstrates that the current negative perception of video games is ill-informed, and in fact these games can be important tools to develop graduate skills related to employability. Speaking to very current concerns about the employability of higher education graduates and the skills that university is intended to develop, this book also explores the attitudes to game-based learning as expressed by instructors, students and game developers.




Graduate Attributes in Higher Education


Book Description

Graduate Attributes in Higher Education illuminates the value of graduate attributes for students, graduates and lecturers in higher education. A coherent, intelligent, subtle and important enhancement to the field, this text guides readers through a theoretical and historical analysis of graduate attributes, using interdisciplinary and interprofessional lenses. This unique approach offers pertinent coverage of a wider range of graduate attributes than one usually sees, generating multiple perspectives and discourses that have implications for both theory and practice. Through an open and exploratory analysis, this text asks questions such as the following: • Are programmes of study which claim ‘postgraduate’ attributes providing something further, deeper or enhanced in comparison, or just more of the same? • Should we be developing continuing professional development attributes for our professional learning programmes of study, or are attributes of this nature established at the undergraduate level? • How can we embed graduate attributes in curricula in a wide range of subject discipline-specific and interdisciplinary ways? • In a culture of lifelong learning and a cross-disciplinary changing global market, are attributes simply a starting point – a launch pad for future and ongoing development required for a world of increasing complexity? Clearly structured and offering a mix of case study and theoretical frameworks to explore each GA, practical guidance is offered at the end of each chapter on how to embed the relevant graduate attribute whilst providing well-researched theoretical underpinning. The varied methods applied and methodological attitudes espoused will prove inclusive to a wide range of readers. Bringing together analysis of specific case studies from a wide range of professional and discipline-specific contexts, Graduate Attributes in Higher Education will be a valuable text for educators and professionals focused on curriculum development and professional learning.




The Changing Nature of the Graduate Labour Market


Book Description

The assumptions made in the media regarding graduate skills and occupations are no longer valid within the changing educational context. This book traces seven key trends that shape the graduate labour market and reveals that their effects contradict the conceptualisation of the graduate labour market which dominates media and policy discourses.




Universities and the Labour Market


Book Description

Debate surrounding the employability of graduates has been around for many decades, and interest in this area has grown particularly since the start of this century. Tackling this relevant area of scholarship, this book uses an innovative approach to analyse the relationship between the university and the labour market from different perspectives, taking into account both sociological and economic theories. Key areas explored include work transition, graduate employability, and the effects of public interventions/initiatives which are aimed at matching the competences of graduates to labour market needs. The chapters summarise several years of author original research, including study on the employability of graduates in Poland more specifically, and the effects of their public interventions to increase graduate employment and facilitate entry into the workforce (e.g. Commissioned Fields of Study, Competences Development Programme). More generally, university – labour market relations are analysed from three perspectives: micro (understood as individual characteristics shaping educational and occupational choices and decisions), and meso and macro (e.g. features of the education system and such as the strength of the signal sent by HE diplomas; the macroeconomic situation and the condition of the labour market and the state of debate on general and employability competences and its implications). The conclusions made are pertinent given ongoing debates around graduate mismatch in the labour market, as well as the questioning of tuition fees and the role of the university in society more broadly. The interdisciplinary nature of this book makes it of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of sociology, economy, public policy, and also to practitioners designing educational interventions themselves.




Graduate Work


Book Description

The expansion of Higher Education has been one of the most important changes to affect Western labour markets. More than a third of all British workers are now degree holders. The graduate labour market is often understood as that part of the labour market characterized by high skills and high knowledge intensity and that is perceived to be needed and used in an increasingly complex economy. Higher education is presumed to be the developer of these advanced skills. Yet with the graduatisation of the workforce, comes growing concerns about, as well as misunderstanding, of what jobs graduates occupy, how they utilise their skills, and what the role of education is within graduate work and the competition for jobs. The book examines some of the assumptions placed on graduate work, graduate jobs, graduate skills, and graduate careers. It provides valuable insights how we can understand the meaning of graduate work within a rapidly changing economic, technological, and organizational context. Based on in-depth qualitative case studies of software developers, financial analysts, laboratory scientists, and press officers, the book shows that the graduate labour market is more heterogeneous than often is understood. What counts as graduate work remains contested and under constant reinterpretation and re-negotiation. Access to work, job performance, and career advancement are not necessarily driven by university qualifications and skills associated with Higher Education. The book begins to explore how and to what extent, those workers with university degrees are defined by their educational experiences, status, and qualifications.




International Handbook on Education Development in the Asia-Pacific


Book Description

The Springer International Handbook of Educational Development in Asia Pacific breaks new ground with a comprehensive, fine-grained and diverse perspective on research and education development throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 13 sections and 127 chapters, the Handbook delves into a wide spectrum of contemporary topics including educational equity and quality, language education, learning and human development, workplace learning, teacher education and professionalization, higher education organisations, citizenship and moral education, and high performing education systems. The Handbook is grounded in specific Asia Pacific contexts and scholarly traditions, using unique country-specific narratives, for example, Vietnam and Melanesia, and socio-cultural investigations through lenses such as language identity or colonisation, while offering parallel academic discourse and analyses framed by broader policy commentary from around the world.