This study proposes a way of evaluating the importance recruiters ascribe to certain social skills. In an increasingly competitive recruitment setting, the qualities employers seek are often psychological and relational and not always associated with applicant's actual education and training. If skills of this kind are to be enhanced in order to…

While management education increasingly uses creative crowdsourcing techniques (e.g. hackathons and innovation crowdsourcing) to help students apply their knowledge to real business problems, this research examines crowdsourcing as a learning approach that enhances students' learning experience, not by giving access to knowledge resources, but…

This article presents results of a cross-cultural comparison of trainer and trainee attitudes towards a variety of diversity issues, notably attitudes towards non-national trainees and those from other ethnic, religious and racial groups. Cross-cultural comparisons are made in the six European countries studied: France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,…

The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students' and employers' perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft…

Despite the emerging discussions about the growing role of engineers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a lack of agreement on which competences should be prioritised to prepare engineering students to resolve future sustainability challenges. This study examined and compared the views of key stakeholders of…

Little is known about recruiters' attitudes to hiring 'native' and 'non-native speakers', or the factors which might influence their potential preference for the former group. Of the four studies conducted thus far, three were carried out in the US or the UK, and are over a decade old (Clark & Paran, 2007; Mahboob et al., 2004; Moussu, 2006).…

Spelling deficiencies are becoming a growing concern among employers, but few studies have quantified this phenomenon and its impact on recruiters' choice. This article aims to highlight the relative weight of the form (the spelling skills) in application forms, compared with the content (the level of work experience), in recruiters' judgment…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the sociocultural factors influencing learners of Arabic as a foreign language in the Sultanate of Oman. A qualitative inquiry approach was adopted for the study, using in-depth interviewing, and students' diaries to understand how the sociocultural context impact non-Arab learners of Arabic in the…

This article presents the major findings of an international study that attempted to investigate the labour market outcomes of qualifications frameworks in six countries--Belize, France, Ireland, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia, as well as the regional framework in the Caribbean. It finds limited evidence of success, but fairly strong support for…

We estimate the market value that employers assign to the complex problem solving (CPS) skills of their employees, using individual-level Mincer-style wage regressions. For the purpose of the study, we collected new and unique data using psychometric measures of CPS and an extensive background questionnaire on employees' personal and work history.…

In our knowledge society and economy, doctoral education is increasingly considered as a means to produce knowledge workers to feed the needs of the global employment market. This raises concerns about the competencies developed through doctoral training. Surprisingly, only a few studies have addressed this question and most of them are restricted…

Induction in enterprises is a crucial phase for each employee not only to become able to fulfil all relevant tasks but also to enable professional development as well as social and value-oriented integration into the new organisation. This is even more relevant for young people coming from initial vocational education and training with…

Lifelong learning has become one of the keys to making workers' career paths more secure at both the French and the European policy level. However, the implementation of these policy lines raises delicate questions as to how the responsibility for vocational training should be shared among employees, employers and public institutions. The…

The author appraises the training policies of French enterprises in light of the experiences of neighboring countries and from two complementary points of view: (1) the need of the enterprise for trained personnel and (2) its major role in providing training. (CH)

Policy developments resulting from increased women's participation in the labor force are described for each of five European countries. The societal factors that led to the development of alternative policy models in these countries are analyzed. (Author/MC)