Purpose: This study aims to examine the anticipated and actual challenges encountered by occupational therapy and physiotherapy students during their first full-time professional placement and to understand the strategies they implemented to manage their multiple life roles. Design/methodology/approach: Longitudinal qualitative research examined…

High quality student outcome measures provide the foundation for effective learning assessment. These outcomes can be organized into different categories, such as skills or habits of mind, and evidence types, such as direct or indirect. Prevailing models of assessment, however, focus only on the distinction between direct and indirect evidence…

Whilst the issue of how to best educate sports coaches in the UK persists there is, however, a consensus that the use of informal learning helps foster deeper engagement with the process of reflection. This consensus outlines how the cycles of experience, consideration of practice, and subsequent future action can challenge existing coach…

Using data from the 2014 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), we examined traditional and nontraditional students' perceived preparation for job skills in terms of the "three ways of knowing" from a career capital perspective. Results showed that traditional and nontraditional students shared commonalities as well as…

Globalisation, technological changes and the industry-to-service economy transition has produced dramatic changes in the labour market, thus affecting higher education. It is no longer sufficient to provide students with disciplinary knowledge. Graduates are also expected to be adaptive, innovative and flexible. As these competencies are better…

Noncredit community college programs provide an important route for workforce development. They offer affordable and accessible short-term training options for individuals seeking access to middle-skills jobs. Absent the burdens of accreditation standards, they can respond nimbly to local labor market needs. However, they can also be varied and…

Purpose: The paper aims to improve students' job placements, higher education institutions invest considerable resources and their students spend considerable time in academic clubs. Yet, quantitative findings on the effect of students' academic club involvement on job placements are mixed. This paper aims to help resolve ambiguity regarding the…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an activity with inherent risks, different from those that occur with on-campus learning experiences. Risks associated with WIL may have serious financial, reputational and legal consequences for universities, WIL staff, students and host organizations. Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined how risk…

We study whether the completion of an optional professional year placement during undergraduate studies enhances job quality, in terms of earnings, job security and career fit, for economics graduates from a UK university. Using linear and discrete choice models, we estimate the effect of doing a professional year placement on four graduate…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) placements seek to improve employability for all, but increasing evidence suggests equity groups see significant barriers in accessing WIL, in part due to existing barriers to work and study. This project sought to investigate the experiences of students with disabilities in engineering and IT WIL through a…

Traditional employment is typically defined as ongoing full-time work for one employer. However, other employment relationships are becoming more prevalent, a phenomenon often called the "rise of the gig economy." As much as one third of the adult workforce may already be involved in gig work, and this proportion is likely to grow. The…

Purpose: This paper explores the institutional and economic drivers of employability, as existing literature focuses on the individual and skills aspects, of employability. Tertiary institutions, possessing a strong academic reputation and standing amongst potential employers, will achieve high graduate employability, however when measured, this…

It has become evident within higher education and within (or in partnership with) the workplace that there is a growing demand for an integration of learning within the workplace. Formal and intentional models and processes utilizing experiential learning methods and pedagogy are often referred to as work integrated learning. However, there is a…

Preparing students for employment involves encouraging ownership of their employability and engagement in opportunities that can help them improve it. Industrial placements play an important role in this but declining numbers of students are undertaking them. Using data collected over a three-year period at a Business School in a UK university,…

This study assessed the impact of field-based practical training on job performance in Tanzania from students' and work supervisors' perspectives. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from 1,617 undergraduate, diploma ad certificate students from the seven colleges of The University of Dodoma and 67 interviews held with work…