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Graduates’ employability skills in East Africa
Get PDFThis paper reports a study about the perceptions of the academic community, employers and civil servants regarding graduates’ employability skills in East Africa. Specifically, it focuses on the mismatch between skills acquired in Higher Education (HE) and those in demand by employers, and explores factors influencing the situation. A mixed method approach was implemented including a survey and a set of focus groups. The questionnaire on employability skills was distributed among regional stakeholders attending the Open Day events organised by three East African HE Institutions. A Principal Components Analysis was applied for the categorisation of the most in-demand skills and the identification of four major workplace skill sets. To gain further insights into the stakeholders’ perceptions of the graduate employability skills gap, 11 focus groups were organised at the same universities. The general results showed that employability skills were mostly perceived as insufficiently developed during the students’ progress in their programs. The final results enabled a better understanding of the nuanced relationship between labour market valuation and graduates’ acquisition of each skill set. It also allowed us to identify problems and barriers, and suggest possible solutions to overcome the shortcomings experienced by the sub-Saharan HE system
Studying Humanitarianism - A Course Audit of Master's Degree Programs in Humanitarian Action
Get PDFHumanitarian emergencies are increasing globally and the world is facing the worst human displacement crisis since the end of World War II. The number of forcibly displaced people due to conflict, violence, severe weather events and complex emergencies has reached a record high of approximately 70 million. The United Nations estimates that 235 million people will urgently require humanitarian assistance in 2021 at a cost of approximately US$35 billion. The increase of emergencies as well as the expansion of the humanitarian sector are accompanied by growing levels of professionalisation. The past few decades are characterised by humanitarian reforms, and the emergence of new codes, standards and frameworks to provide improved, better coordinated humanitarian aid. The increasing professionalisation of humanitarian aid is also reflected in the rapid growth of professional training and formal education. University courses in the field of ‘humanitarian action’ are multiplying around the globe. This is especially the case at a master’s level and most visible in the ‘Global North’. Despite this trend, there is no universal agreement on a core course curriculum in Humanitarian Studies. This working paper surveys 23 ‘humanitarian action’ master’s degree programs offered in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and Nigeria to identify key commonalities across courses. This paper does not put forth a proposal of how a core curriculum should look like; rather, it highlights core commonalities across programs. Findings presented in this working paper are preliminary and contribute to the understanding of what could qualify as part of a ‘core curriculum’
La diversité et la négociation humanitaire
Get PDFThe humanitarian sector has steadily pushed forward with efforts to cultivate negotiation capacity among aid workers. However, considerations of how the profile of the humanitarian negotiator might shape negotiation outcomes have been, at best, in the background of ongoing professional discussions or, at worst, entirely overlooked. This working paper aims to fill this gap. Based on semi-structured interviews and survey data, this working paper assesses the role of identity characteristics in humanitarian negotiation processes. As the interview and survey results suggest, a negotiator’s profile—including identity characteristics and past professional experiences—can shape counterparts’ perceptions of humanitarian negotiators; fuel humanitarians’ own biases and stereotypes of their interlocutors; and feed into challenging internal organisational dynamics, as humanitarian organisations seek to promote diversity and foster inclusion and belonging among staff.Le secteur humanitaire a continuellement poursuivi des efforts pour développer les capacités de négociation parmi le personnel humanitaire. Néanmoins, les questions autour du profil du négociateur humanitaire et comment il pourrait influencer les résultats des négociations ont été, au mieux, à l’arrière-plan des débats en cours dans la profession, ou, au pire, complètement ignorées. Ce document de travail cherche à combler cette lacune. En se fondant sur des entretiens semi-directifs et des réponses de questionnaire, il évalue le rôle des caractéristiques personnelles dans les processus de négociation humanitaire. Comme les résultats des entretiens et du questionnaire le suggèrent, le profil d’un négociateur, y compris ses caractéristiques personnelles et ses expériences professionnelles passées, peuvent façonner la manière dont ses interlocuteurs le perçoivent ; entretenir les préjugés et les stéréotypes des humanitaires eux-mêmes envers leurs interlocuteurs ; et engendrer des dynamiques organisationnelles internes problématiques, avec les organisations humanitaires cherchant à promouvoir la diversité et à encourager l’inclusion et l’appartenance au sein de leur personnel
Religion and culture in Europe: law, policies and realities
Get PDFIs religion simply a part of culture? Can religious diversity be managed as a subset of intercultural diversity? This article explores intercultural dialogue and its relationship to “religion’ in the policies, documents and debates of the European Community. The argument is advanced that religious realities and concerns are misconstrued when religion is subsumed into culture. Religion needs to be historically and conceptually rethought and that for cultural and religious diversities to be skillfully managed in the interests of social solidarity and positive intercommunal relations both need to be addressed discretely and in tandem.1
1An earlier version of this paper appeared in Mansouri (2017), 145-17
Acknowledgement of Country
Get PDFIn the spirit of reconciliation, the Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We acknowledge that the arrival of the English language to this continent impacted the traditional languages and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and celebrate the work to reclaim or maintain these languages. ACTA members teach English in addition to supporting the maintenance and development of First Languages, and encourage the acquisition and use of other languages – including First Nations Languages
Capitalism Run Wild: Zizou Corder’s Lion Boy and Victor Kelleher’s Dog Boy
Get PDFWhile capitalism has long made highly efficient ideological use of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' principle to justify ruthless business practices, this appropriation of animal metaphor has taken on new and considerably more problematic resonances in the wake of globalization. At a time when the negative consequences of corporate greed are becoming more apparent, as inequalities widen and power is shifted beyond governments and their borders, there is a spate of children's novels that explicitly challenges this new world order. As cases in point, Zizou Corder's 'Lion Boy' series (2003, 2004, and 2005) and Victor Kelleher's 'Dog Boy' (2005) demonstrate a concordance of fictional representations between the UK and Australia. Both stories navigate neo-liberalism by trading on the classic schism between nature and culture, using animal tropes and instinctive behaviours in response to the artificiality and unnatural cruelty of business enterprises
‘Like Columbine! Viva Columbine!’ Abjection and the Representation of School Violence in Young Adult Fiction
Get PDFIn this paper I will focus on fictional representations of school massacres in young adult books and what they might reveal about the ways in which the genre engages with cultural ideas of the (male) teenager. There are a number of young adult books which have school massacres as their theme but many of them are only in print overseas. I will discuss two young adult books that are currently in print in Australia: 'Big Mouth and Ugly Girl' by Joyce Carol Oates and 'Give a Boy a Gun' by Todd Strasser, both published in 2002
Do university graduate competences match post-socialist labour market demands:? Evidence from Azerbaijan
Get PDFThe recruitment and selection process in companies is becoming more complicated as employers place more emphasis on ‘intangible personal qualities’ rather than specialised skills. Employers also require graduates to adapt to the workplace on completion of their education. In particular, following the Bologna Declaration in 1999, the expansion of higher education across Europe has resulted in the questioning of the quality of the graduate labour market. To gain further insight into the mismatch between the employability skills of graduates on the one hand and labour market demands on the other, this paper examines the case of Azerbaijan, a country that is slowly entering the global network. The study synthesised and analysed 24 ‘transferable’ soft skills and competences critical for improved graduate employability, resulting in a shortlist of the top five competences as ranked by Azerbaijani employers and graduates. More than 2,500 students from six major universities participated in the study which found that there is a huge discrepancy between the skills needed by students and the job market when compared with what is taught at university. Furthermore, it revealed that the absence of these necessary skills is a major factor preventing students from finding jobs
The power to lead
Get PDFThe staff in local organisations are taking on the largest proportion of risk in a humanitarian response by being on the frontlines and endangering their physical and mental well-being. This paper reflects on how local organisations are taking leadership over the responses within their countries despite the challenges of bringing the localisation agenda and commitments into reality. Further, it recommends how international actors can reflect on their localisation efforts to reach a more tangible change that aligns with the Grand Bargain commitments. In addition to advocating for more access to direct funding, the paper also provides examples of how to shift leadership to a more community-driven response aligned with the concept of the triple nexus, and shares firsthand experience from the work of a local organisation that is active in the Syria response and driven by the commitment to create youth-led change
Exploring the use of self-assessment to facilitate health students’ generic skills development
Get PDFEmployability skills for health graduates, and many disciplines within higher education, are considered vital to maximising their capacity to cope with the rapidly changing, uncertain and highly competitive labour market. Despite the increasing importance of developing generic skills for employability, there is a dearth of knowledge about how to support health students to develop generic skills as part of their formal education. The main objective of this two-phase study was to engage health students in the process of self-assessment of their generic skills and explore the potential of this process to facilitate their generic skills development. The first phase of this study engaged students in completing a self- assessment questionnaire, incorporating a validated set of industry-demanded skills with associated behaviours. In the second phase a subsection of respondents participated in focus group interviews that explored their perception of the self-assessment process in generic skills development. Students viewed themselves as having some capabilities to perform the generic skills, as well as their university studies contributing to the development of these skills. The qualitative data found that the self-assessment process prompted students to reflect on their abilities and further engage with developing these skills. This study supports the evidence for contextualising and embedding a process of self-assessment of generic skills into the formal curricula to help better prepare health students for their future work