In different streams of literature employability has been defined in different, often related ways. We take an interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from research on higher education and workplace learning, taking a Western perspective. In doing so we take a multi-dimensional, competence-based approach. Our approach to conceptualizing…

There is contrary research around whether collaboration at work fosters individual learning and skill development. This study's purpose was to examine the relationship between social characteristics of jobs on adults' cognitive skills as measured by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). For select industry…

A skill gap in Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments (PS-TRE) between U.S. Baby Boomers and younger generations has been documented in previous studies using the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Survey of Adult Skills (Rampey et al., 2016). Bringing this generation of workers up to speed in this…

Virtual Reality and education have been evolving for many years, moving from in-person classroom and online sessions to utilizing Virtual reality for training. Virtual reality allows students to actively engage with training rather than being passive in a classroom. The virtual world has been moving forward as a new tool to assist with…

The demand for relevant skills for the labor market constitutes one of the fundamental challenges facing the post-school system in South Africa. The South African government has therefore proposed a policy on professional development teacher education programs for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the South African Department of…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the business operations of informal clothing manufacturing micro enterprises (CMMEs) and identifies ways to support owners to achieve economic sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach applying a case study design was used to study the business operations of 13 informal CMME owners…

Our research explores the experience of adults looking for flexible online learning opportunities that intersect with university study. We interviewed 58 people living in 14 African countries who have taken a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed by the University of Cape Town. The interview data reveals diverse uses of MOOCs in workplace…

Accelerated aging trend has become a serious issue in meeting workforce demand in many developing and developed countries. Various workplace interventions have been sought to address this issue. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent that there is a typology of older workers whose skill proficiency and skill utilization are influenced…

Some countries have certifying institutions for competence acquired at the workplace. These institutions provide incentives for workplace training that may have favourable effects on productivity, earnings and labour market participation. We present evidence on the earnings effects of attaining vocational qualifications in adulthood through two…

This study further extends a theoretical model of psychological empowerment by investigating the relationships between self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-esteem. A sample of 383 of Malaysian undergraduates participating in Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programmes across five public universities is used to test the model employing…

The Constitution for the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) embraces language as a basic human right and multilingualism as a national resource. One latest foreign language to be given recognition by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2015 is Mandarin, a Chinese language, for incremental implementation as a non-official optional…

The aim of this article is to investigate how the formal competence development activities provided by the Production Leap, a workplace development programme (WPDP), were interwoven with everyday work activities and to identify the conditions that enabled learning and employee-driven innovation that contributed to production improvement, in small…

A companion to "Traditional Trade Apprenticeships: Training Activity, Employer Incentives and International Practice," this report collates qualitative material from in-depth interviews and focus groups with employers, trainers, apprentices and relevant government officials describing what is effective, what is not, and what needs…

The effectiveness of workplace learning programs is linked to employee/learner motivation. However, our current understanding of workplace learning does not always acknowledge the importance of learner motivation to acquire new skills. In this study, I proposed that to obtain learning success and engage employees to learn on- the- job, employers…

Every year, the BC Student Outcomes Program collects feedback from former students who took post-secondary programs. Student feedback is essential to maintain quality and relevance in the education system. In 2022, over 28,500 former students were surveyed; key results from those surveys are presented in this report. 90% of the former…