A recent trend in public policy in many countries is the requirement for "joined up thinking" and "joined up working", including partnership within and between agencies, and between agencies and their publics. This in turn has led to a growth of interest in action learning as a means to bring about the organizational and…

As the largest public sector institution in the United Kingdom, education is a key site for studying the context of "choice" and changes in the identities of professional workers in contemporary society. Recruitment and retention problems in education have led to the creation of new routes into teaching to attract career changers from…

In this article, the author reviews Train to Gain's service and exposes a number of myths about the programme. Since its initial national roll out in September 2006 people have seen encouraging take up, with more than 53,000 employers and 230,000 learners benefiting from Train to Gain. A key element of Train to Gain is the skills brokerage…

Managing by performance indicators (PIs) is an important and controversial issue for many stakeholders concerned with higher education in the university systems all over the world. This study analyzes the voluntary disclosures of PIs by Canadian universities. The sample consisted of the 44 universities used by Maclean's Canadian Universities…

The purpose of this paper is to outline government online training practice. We searched individual research domains of the human-dimensions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), information and communications technologies (ICT) and instructional design for evidence of either corporate sector or government training practices. We overlapped these…

Purpose: This paper sets out to examine the contribution of employer co-funding of publicly-funded vocational education and training in the UK (i.e. training initiatives that are available to all qualified applicants but funded jointly by the public and private sectors). Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on qualitative research…

This paper undertakes a quantitative analysis of substantial reforms to the system of higher education (HE) finance first announced in 2004 and then revised again in July 2007. The reforms introduced deferred fees for HE, payable by graduates through the tax system in the form of income-contingent repayments on loans subsidised by the government.…

The last three decades have seen an intensification of commercialization throughout the public sector in general and state schools in particular. Policies designed to introduce business ideologies, structures and practices have operated in tandem with a push to include the corporate world in the running, governance and provision of educational…

Focuses attention upon a recent phenomenon promoted by public sector policy and government funding and adopted within the private sector as a vehicle for wealth creation, where wealth can mean the development of different forms of capital such as financial, intellectual and social. Incubators and incubation programmes have established themselves…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to report on an in-depth exploration of service quality in an Information Technology service department in a Higher Education Institute (HEI) and to evaluate the instrument used. Design/methodology/approach: The study surveys customers using the SERVQUAL instrument, which is one of the most widely used and…

This paper presents the results of an "HRD Professional Partnership" study of managerial and leadership effectiveness within a UK private sector organization, and discusses how the results are being used to support evidence-based HRD practice. The paper also reveals the extent to which the results are generalized to findings obtained…

Foster care has become the principal placement of choice for children and young people in public care in the United Kingdom (UK). This has been accompanied by a significant growth in its research scrutiny connected to a busy policy agenda, especially since 1997. With its increased usage, fostering has encountered both difficulties and…

Interviews (n=350) and a survey (n=323) of managers, trainers, and union representatives in British health care agencies showed that technology caused some job enlargement and enrichment; positive or negative effects depended on context. Other jobs were deskilled due to work organization, not technology. Technology's impact on job change was…

A review of the development of the United Kingdom obsession with "value for money", and the performance indicators that have led to the current "best value" approach that is working through the public sector in the United Kingdom. I hope to identify the values and problems with the approach offering a salutary warning to those…

The concept of Return on Investment (ROI) in training has hitherto been largely associated with the corporate world where Kirkpatrick's model of training evaluation is widely used. Interest in Kirkpatrick is growing in the public sector. This article examines how the Kirkpatrick model is actually used in a range of commercial organisations and…