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‘…having people that will help you, that know the ropes and have walked that road before you’: How does first in family status impact graduates in the employment field?
Get PDFIncreasing competitiveness in the graduate employment field combined with growing numbers of degree bearing applicants means that gaining employment after completing university studies can be a lengthy and complex undertaking. This is even more the case for students who do not have ready access to the social or family capital often required for successful employment, such as those who are first in their family to attend university. This article reveals hidden tensions within the post-graduation employment market when this is negotiated without the benefit of necessary capitals required to do so successfully. Drawing on interview and survey data from recent first in family graduates and alumni in Australia, the ways in which they negotiated employment was explored. This exposed an alternative perspective on graduate employment that highlights the somewhat ‘hidden’ inequities and unfair expectations within a hyper competitive job market. Participants’ written and spoken reflections reveal the ways in which the graduate landscape is far from being an ‘even playing field’. The perspectives presented contribute to broader understanding about the difficulties of moving towards desired employment goals or social mobility particularly when intangible relational and personal capitals are needed. Such insights are needed to inform both policy and practice globally, particularly as nation states come to terms with the repercussions of the current health crisis
Connecting experiences to employability through a meaning-making approach to learning
Get PDFA key part of the student experience in the higher education context is employability. There is an expectation that universities will contribute to their students’ employability and indeed they are measured on this contribution and are allocated funding based on it. Despite the importance of employability in higher education, it remains a complex and contested concept, often conflated with employment – graduates in jobs and the roles they occupy – and seen as a quantifiable outcome of the student experience. Where employability is understood as an individual’s knowledge, capabilities, and personal attributes that make them more likely to gain employment and be successful in their professional lives, it is often framed by the discourse of skills. There are some employability models, however, that champion a more holistic view of employability and highlight the role that experiences play in individual employability development. This paper reports on the development of an institutional employability framework and reflective process in an Australian research-intensive university. The paper discusses the experiential learning theories that underpin the reflective process that supports students to understand and articulate employability learning, for framing narratives around the potential to contribute to an organisation for employment, and for the transfer of this potential to professional contexts. The framework and reflective process represent employability as a learning process through which students make meaning from their experiences and learning opportunities. This involves understanding the value of their experiences, how to articulate that value, and how to transfer it to workplace performanc
Relevance of selected Social Science Degree programs on skills development and graduate employability in Zambia
Get PDFA pragmatic approach was used to explore the extent to which four selected social science degree programs were relevant for the skill needs of the job market in Zambia. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 162 participants using interviews and questionnaires. The SPSS version 24 and Atlas. Ti Version 8 were used to analyse and interpret data within the framework of the Capability Approach. The findings reveal that the relevance of each of the four social science degree programs depend on how key stakeholders in higher education and the labour market perceive them and that graduate employability was affected by factors such as the need and importance of social sciences to the labour market; employer and student perceptions of employability skills in the degree programs; demand for the programs; graduate work readiness, and the availability of graduate job prospects. It could be concluded that although all four social science degree programs were important, their relevance to the needs of Zambia’s labour market varied from program to program
Employment, work abroad and bilingual education: Spanish bilinguals graduates’ self-perceived employability, mobility and intercultural competence
Get PDFBilingual programs have become more common in higher education around the world in an attempt to provide learners with the education they need to face today’s world. These programs can provide academic, linguistic, intercultural, and professional benefits to students. Consequently, countries like Spain have developed bilingual education to help students become proficient in foreign languages and develop essential competences for their professional futures. Research has analysed how Spanish bilingual education is implemented, and how teachers are trained. However, few studies examine how bilingual programs impact graduates’ employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness, and how graduates perceive their skill development. Moreover, little has been studied about bilingual graduates’ work situation and whether participating in these programs has helped them find work abroad. This paper analyses whether a combination of participation in Spanish bilingual programs, employment, and experiences working abroad affects bilingual education graduates’ self-perceived employability, mobility, and intercultural awareness. This study adopts a quantitative approach, in which 741 respondents participated. Findings show that bilingual graduates who are currently working have higher self-perceived employability and better perceptions of their mobility and employability competences than those who followed monolingual studies, even when they have not worked abroad
Informational interviews help undergraduate students at the mid-point of non-vocational STEM degrees confirm their career aspirations
Get PDFHigher education institutions are expected to produce career-ready graduates who are equipped for the challenges of the 21st century. Employability experts argue that this can be achieved by integrating career development learning (CDL) into the curriculum. The informational interview helps students learn more about a career by interviewing a professional working in a field of interest, and helps students to make decisions regarding their career plans. The aims of the study were to determine students’: 1) preferred career paths and career identity at the midpoint of their non-vocational degree; 2) experiences and perceptions of an informational interview module. An informational interview module was embedded into a second-year human biosciences subject taken by students in undergraduate non-specialist health-related STEM degrees. Students indicated their preferred career, learned about informational interviews, and conducted an interview with a professional working in the field they wished to enter. After the interview, students completed reflection activities, responding to open-ended and Likert-scale questions. 91 student reflections were analysed to determine students’ career identity, and their experiences and perceptions of the module. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on Likert-scale answers and inductive thematic analysis was conducted on open-ended answers. Students’ career preferences were wide-ranging, with allied health the most popular. Career identity was reasonably well established in this cohort. The student experience was overall positive, and students’ thought the module was useful in supporting their career planning and career development. In conclusion, an informational interview assignment is an effective career development tool for human biosciences students
Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers and Writers
Get PDFROOTED IN STRENGTH: USING TRANSLANGUAGING TO GROW MULTILINGUAL READERS AND WRITERS
Cecilia M. Espinosa & Laura Ascenzi-MorenoNew York: Scholastic, 202
‘Change the Story, Change the World’: Witches/Crones as Heroes in Novels by Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones
Get PDFRepresentations of the witch in the western European fairy tale have been stereotypically negative: the witch was depicted generally as an ugly crone and always as malevolent. The black cloak and pointed hat associated with the witch continue to be linked with a menacing expression and bad intentions. Although there have been some attempts to rehabilitate the witch in children's literature, until recently most of these have been superficial. In various picture books, for example, witches feature as central characters, but the stories generally play, usually to comic effect as in Freeman's 'Tilly Witch' (1969), on associations of the witch with mischief and ill-temper. Even where the witch is positively represented, her goodness is frequently contrasted with more traditionally malign witches, as in Preussler's 'The Little Witch' (1961), and Stevenson's similar though more light-hearted 'Yuck!' (1985). Nevertheless, there have been some advances: Stephens has observed the consciously revisory stance of some recent novels, which substitute for the crone-witch a conception of the witch as wise woman. As he notes, such fictions provide social critique (Stephens 2003, p.201). In many cases, however (notably in Furlong's 'Wise Child' [1989]), the wise witch is still portrayed as rejected by her society, underlining her role as outsider and emphasizing that she remains a problematic figure
Are Data-Driven Personas Considered Harmful? : Diversifying User Understandings With More Than Algorithms
Get PDF In this work, we build on research on data-driven personas to present what might be “wrong with them”. From wrong assumptions by the client and wrong applications of methods to imbalanced, messy, or superficial data; a lack of communication regarding how these personas are created; and issues with usability, there are a plethora of issues that plague data-driven personas. We conclude by contemplating whether data-driven personas are even worthwhile and, if they are, then what are some of the immediate remedies required from the human-computer interaction community to make data-driven personas a viable tool for user understanding
Portrayal by Inappropriate Interaction: Persona meets persona in journalistic profiling
Get PDFA close reading of three different profiles of Danish-Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan (1995-2020) showcases how interactions between journalists and subjects may become a mutual performative challenge and how, on such occasions, the personas of both parties may serve as a multi-layered journalistic resource in both an ethical and aesthetic sense. Applying the concept of “rhetorical maneuvers” (Phillips 2006) to describe reporters’ uses of an understated ‘first-person minor’ versus a demonstratively responsive ‘first-person major’ perspective (Phillips 2019), we highlight a principle that may reorient interview situations that are tense or out of control. The principle entails continuous shifts of subject form that are potentially inappropriate but enable both contextual transparency and a distinct textual structure or narrative style. By considering the mutual constitution and reconstitution of personas as rhetorical maneuvering we hope first to expand the analytical perspective of persona studies at the level of form while also, secondly, motivating journalists to explore the relational and interactive aspects of persona performances as a resource for occasional, productive disruption of their professional practice