The thesis is focused on the issues of employability of Adult education and Personnel Management students of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University on job market. It provides insight into employability of graduates in general; it pays attention to concepts related to employability; it deals with changes of university education system and different approaches to adult education and personnel management; it describes work roles of andragogy graduates and human resources officers. Empiric research which is carried out through questionnaires is dedicated to confirmation of the influence of selected factors on employabilty of Adult education and Personnel Management students. Furthemore, the thesis addresses issues such as monthly income and work positions and roles the graduates take most frequently. Key words graduate, adult education, Personnel Management, work roles, employability, job market

Magister Artium - MA / This study evaluates the extent to which the Environmental Internship Programme has impacted upon graduate employability in the City of Cape Town. Graduate unemployment crisis has been categorized as one of the socio-economic issues affecting the nation of South Africa with graduates struggling to find jobs in the areas which they graduated from. On the other hand, organisations are suffering from a lack of skills in different spheres. In order for this gap to be bridged, human resource development strategies have been put in place for graduates such as; internships, training and learnership programmes. In 2005, the Environmental Resource Management Department (ERMD) launched a programme called the Environmental Internship Programme (EIP) to address the needs of graduates in the environmental management field. The programme is a yearlong internship aimed at bridging the gap between academic learning and the first steps of a professional career. The aim of the ERMD is to create a pool of skilled professionals to be absorbed into the city as well as provincial, national government and the private sector by making the interns better employable by the time they leave the EIP. It is against this background that this study evaluates the impact of the programme on graduate employability. Within the investigation, the researcher looked at the appropriate legislations, and policies that govern a programme of this nature. The study utilizes primary and secondary research information based on interviews and open-ended questionnaires.

Magister Educationis - MEd / In this paper, I focus on the issue of student perceptions and experiences of a 3rd generation academic development programme in higher education. I set out to explore the issue from two perspectives: firstly from the perspective of the higher education institution’s approach to academic development, namely, a learning skills programme and a first year sociology course, and secondly from the perspective of students’ intentions, expectations and experiences of such a programme. The research questions focused on the learning priorities embedded in the curriculum of a learning skills programme at Monash University, South Africa and the learning experiences of students in this programme.The methodology used in this study includes a case study which focused on the responses of six participants from a number of African countries completing their BA degrees. Semistructured interviews held and the content analysis method was used to analyse the data. The study concludes: that the main priority of the learning skills programme is to prepare students for their university learning rather than to prepare students for the world of work i.e. it falls within Street’s (2004) academic socialization model and that the Learning Skills programme can be seen as an example of Boughey’s (2007) 3rd generation academic development programmes.The study also suggests that there is a need to explore Volbrecht’s (2003) argument on the limitations of discipline-based models of academic development, the need to examine how academic literacy is constructed and how identity and power relations intersect in this construction. It further highlights the importance of the idea of multi-literacies as put forward by Street (2004) and suggests that as practitioners we should include a consideration of these literacies in academic development programmes to improve the quality of students’ learning and meaning making.

At the current level of society development, we can talk about the so-called knowledgebased society, which is the result of higher connectivity between people. The development of the knowledgebased society is conditional upon lifelong learning of its members. The master thesis deals with a retraining course as a possibility of further education. Its aim is to evaluate the form of management of the chosen accounting course and to assess the graduate´s chance to participate successfully in the labor market.

<div> <p>Employability skills such as communication, leadership, and critical thinking are in high demand from employers and colleges alike (Crawford, Lang, Fink, Dalton, & Fielitz, 2011; Easterly, Warner, Lamm, & Telg, 2017). In a competitive employment environment, applicants must strive to achieve academic success and proficiency in their field of interest. They also need to possess a command over employability skills that are broadly applicable to all aspects of business (Boahin & Hofman, 2013). A descriptive census of 2018-2019 high school senior members of the National FFA Organization was conducted to provide an updated and focused look into the National FFA student membership. Its goal was to assess the level of employability skills and academic success retained through high school and participation, within the organization, that takes into account the evolution of employability skills desired by the 21^st Century job market. Exploring, defining, and understanding the current National FFA student membership’s achievements and interests in career pathways is important in ensuring the optimal educational experience for today’s youth. The study took place over nine weeks in the fall of 2018 with 2,087 respondents completing the online survey. Informed consent and parental consent were collected completely online. Respondents self-reported their Youth Leadership Life Skills, Critical Thinking Dispositions, Communication Competence, High School GPAs, Standardized Test Scores, FFA Involvement/Enrollment, and their interests in AFNR Career Pathways. Results of the study indicated that respondents self-perceived high employability skill levels and above average academic success compared to National Average Standardized Test Scores. These results could be translated into College and Career Readiness of the study respondents. Significant relationships were found between employability skill levels, academic success, and respondent’s level of FFA Involvement. Recommendations for future research include replicating this study within the next 10 years and using a standardized scale to collect self-reported high school GPAs. It would also be beneficial to review USDE high school transcript studies to uncover why “class scheduling problems” were reported as the most common reason for gaps in FFA enrollment.</p> </div> <br>

[pt] O surdo profundo comumente depara-se com problemas relacionados à comunicação de forma efetiva, em virtude das dificuldades para falar, compreender ou escutar, o que pode restringir o acesso ao mercado de trabalho para esta população. Este estudo buscou conhecer como ocorre a inserção e a empregabilidade de indivíduos com perda auditiva profunda no Pólo Industrial de Manaus/AM. Foi aplicado um questionário sobre questões pessoais, familiares, escolares e de empregabilidade. A amostragem foi composta por 50 indivíduos com surdez profunda, de ambos os gêneros, com idades entre 20 e 53 anos, trabalhadores de empresas do Pólo Industrial de Manaus. Verificou-se maior número de homens (N igual 30; 60 por cento) empregados em comparação às mulheres, sendo as idades de 25 e 36 anos (12 por cento ambas) as mais frequentes. Quanto ao estado civil, encontrou-se a mesma frequência (48 por cento) de surdos solteiros e casados, 18 (36 por cento) deles com filhos, todos normouvintes. A maioria (60 por cento) comunica-se utilizando a Língua Brasileira de Sinais, sendo a escolaridade mais frequente o ensino médio completo (28 por cento). O tempo de trabalho variou de 1 a 22 anos, com maior frequência a duração de 2 anos (24 por cento) de trabalho e início das atividades laborais entre 18 e 22 anos de idade. Todos (100 por cento) atuam no setor de produção, sendo a remuneração compreendida entre 1 e 2 salários mínimos para a maioria (94 por cento) e carteira assinada para todos (100 por cento). Metade (50 por cento) da amostragem ingressou na profissão através da Associação dos Surdos de Manaus, sendo que a maioria (56 por cento) não apresentou treinamento prévio e 48 por cento negaram dificuldades no trabalho. Assim, é possível observar que as restrições que a perda auditiva profunda causa na pessoa portadora desta deficiência se refletem na sua inserção profissional, uma vez que os trabalhadores com deficiência auditiva profunda comumente atuam no setor de produção e apresentam renda fixa entre 1 e 2 salários mínimos. Por outro lado, verifica-se que interfere pouco no desempenho da sua função e comunicação com os colegas de trabalho. / [en] People with deep deafness have to face communication problems because they have difficulties to speak, understand and listen, that can restrict the access to labor market for these population. The aim of this study was to verify the insertion and employability of subjects with deep hearing loss in the Industrial of Manaus/AM. It was applied a questionnaire about personal, family, school and employability questions. The studied group was composed by 50 persons with deep deafness, both gender, aging between 20 and 53 years, who work in the Industrial of Manaus. It was observed more occurrence of male gender employeed (60 percent), being 25 and 36 years most frequent ages (12 percent both). In relation to marital status, 48 percent of subjects are single and 48 percent are married, and 36 percent have children with normal hearing. Most of them (60 percent) use Brazilian Sign Language and the most frequent schooling was complete school (28 percent). The working time ranged between 1 and 22 years, being 2 years the duration more observed and the professional beginning with 18 a 22 years old. All (100 percent) subjects work in production sector, receiving between 1 and 2 minimum salary (94 percent). Half (50 percent) of them initialized in their function helped by Deafness Association of Manaus, being that 56 percent do not receive previous training and denied problems in their job (48 percent). Most part of subjects (92 percent) do not use hearing aid. It is possible to observe that the deep hearing loss impairments interferes on professional insertion of deafness subjects, once that all workers with deep hearing loss acted in production sector and received between 1 and 2 minimum salary. On the other hand, it is verify that does not interfere in the perform and in the communication with mates.

Background and Aim The South African higher education sector has undergone numerous changes over the past years due to external factors such as globalisation, managerialism and neo-liberalism (Ntshoe, Higgs, Higgs&Wolhuter, 2008). Furthermore De Villiers and Steyn (2009) add that state funding of higher education in South Africa has been decreased to such an extent that higher education institutions (HEI’s) have been unable to parallel the increase in the number of students enrolled per year. As mentioned by Mouton (2010) universities in sub-Saharan Africa continue to operate under conditions which are seriously under-resourced, which poses significant challenges for the scholars concerned. The changes in the Higher Education Institutional environment have forced HEI’s to increase their level of output in terms of: enrollments, qualifications awarded, research output and institution size and number of disadvantaged students (De Villiers&Steyn, 2009) in order to remain competitive. The number of changes in performance outputs as well as the growing market for competitive higher education (HE) has greatly impacted the job demands of academics in South Africa. The environment in which academics in South Africa function now demands more of them than in previous years. For example the employment relationship has changed (i.e. teacher-driven to student-driven), altering the type of work that people do, when they work and how much they do (Barkhuizen, Rothmann&Van de Vijver, in press). Accordingly, it appears that the job demands of academics have escalated, whilst the levels of support and other resources have declined. The objective of this study was to investigate whether job demands and resources are significant predictors of dispositional employability of academics in South Africa. Method A cross–sectional research design was followed. The Job Characteristics Scale developed by Barkhuizen and Rothman (2005) and the Dispositional Measure of Employability (Fugate&Kinicki, 2008) were used as measures in this study. A total of 360 questionnaires were sent out to the sample, of which 158 completed questionnaires were received, but only 146 of these responses could be used for data analyses. This represents a 40.55% response rate. Results The results showed that there is a significant relationship between job demands and the change identity of the academics and that job demands do act as a predictor of the dispositional employability of academics in terms of their change identity. No significant relationship between the job resources and the dispositional employability of the academics were found, however all of the dimensions of DE had a positive relationship with job resources. A significant relationship between job demands and the ethnicity, home language, age, the respondent’s job level and the number of hours they work was found. However, no statistically significant differences were found within gender, qualifications, job categories, years in service and the number of years in current positions. According to the results the white ethnic group experiences higher job demands than the black ethic group. Furthermore respondents speaking either Afrikaans or English experience higher job demands then respondents speaking indigenous languages. In relation to this, the age group 50 to 59 experience higher job demands compared to that of the age group 20-29. Associate professors experience higher job demands than junior lecturers. No significant relationship between the academics’ perception of their job resources and their demographic characteristics was found. There are significant differences between the DE of the academics and their ethnicity, home language, job category, years in service and hours of work. No statistically significant differences were found within gender, age, qualifications, job level or years in the current position. The Black ethnic group indicates higher levels of resilience and motivation compared to the other ethnic groups, and indigenous languages have higher levels of resilience compared to the other two language groups. Academics that function as both researchers and lecturers have higher levels of career proactivity compared to the academics that function only as a researcher or lecturer. Respondents that have been in the industry for between zero to 10 years have a higher level of resilience compared to the respondents who have served for longer. The working hours of group four (between 31 to 40 hours) show higher levels of resilience compared to the other groups. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management

Tornando da uno studio all’estero, gli studenti fanno spesso riferimento all'esperienza usando aggettivi superlativi e potenti: "fantastico", "la migliore", "che cambia la vita". Tuttavia, quando si tratta di parlare con potenziali datori di lavoro, in genere non sono in grado di articolare le conoscenze e le competenze che hanno acquisito, in modi che abbiano rilevanza per il posto di lavoro o che i datori di lavoro possano apprezzare appieno. Questo studio ha valutato l'impatto di una sessione di riflessione facilitata da educatori sulla capacità degli studenti di migliorare la qualità del modo in cui parlano dello sviluppo individuale di competenze all'estero. E’ stato utilizzato un disegno di ricerca con misurazioni ripetute; un sondaggio pre e post sessione ha valutato l’effetto di una sessione di intervento facilitata di un'ora a cui hanno partecipato studenti universitari statunitensi ed europei che avevano studiato all'estero per almeno un semestre accademico; un gruppo di controllo ha completato i due sondaggi a distanza di una settimana senza partecipare alla sessione. In entrambi i sondaggi, è stato chiesto agli studenti di riflettere sulla propria esperienza per identificare le competenze dimostrate all'estero e di fornire un esempio (creando un racconto basato sulla formula STAR). La previsione era che la capacità auto-percepita degli studenti di (1) riflettere e (2) identificare le competenze, e di (3) acquisire fiducia e (4) mostrare preparazione in previsione di colloqui di lavoro sarebbe aumentata post-intervento (sessione). Questi quattro fattori costituiscono la misura di valutazione, basata sulle risposte a quattro dichiarazioni valutate su una scala Likert a 7 passi. Una seconda previsione anticipava un aumento della qualità delle storie dei soggetti post-intervento (usando una rubrica di 5 livelli per la valutazione), a seguito cioè dell’apprendimento di una migliore pratica per rispondere alle domande del colloquio di lavoro (la formula STAR). In linea con le previsioni, i risultati hanno supportato un miglioramento post-intervento della percezione degli studenti rispetto alla propria capacità di riflettere e identificare competenze, sulla propria fiducia e sul livello percepito di preparazione in previsione dei colloqui di lavoro post- laurea. Per il gruppo di controllo non si è osservato alcun cambiamento dalla condizione PRE a quella POST, mentre si è osservato un significativo aumento dei punteggi PRE-POST per il gruppo sperimentale. Nel confronto tra gruppi, non sono state osservate differenze tra il gruppo di controllo e sperimentale pre-intervento (sostenendo così omogeneità tra gruppi). Tuttavia, sono state trovate differenze significative tra i gruppi post-intervento, con un sostanziale aumento dei punteggi di valutazione per il gruppo sperimentale sulle quattro dimensioni della Misura di Valutazione (Assessment Measure) rispetto al gruppo di controllo. I risultati hanno inoltre confermato la seconda ipotesi secondo la quale il gruppo sperimentale avrebbe mostrato un aumento significativo della qualità delle storie a seguito dell'intervento rispetto al gruppo di controllo, il quale ha mostrato una leggera diminuzione dei punteggi dal pre al post sondaggio. Questo studio fornisce evidenza a sostegno degli sforzi di coloro che nell’educazione terziaria gestiscono programmi simili alla sessione di riflessione (intervento) valutata in questa ricerca e che stimolano gli studenti a riflettere sullo sviluppo delle competenze acquisite durante periodi di studio o lavoro all’estero e ad imparare a parlarne in un modo che verrà apprezzato dai potenziali datori di lavoro durante i colloqui. Questo studio evidenzia inoltre il contributo della mobilità studentesca internazionale rispetto all’incremento dell’employability dei partecipanti. / Students returned from studying abroad often refer to the experience in superlatives and powerful adjectives – “awesome” “the greatest”, “life-changing.” However, when it comes to talking with potential employers, they typically cannot articulate the knowledge and skills they gained in ways that have relevance to the workplace, or that employers can fully appreciate. This study assessed the impact of a facilitated reflection session on students’ ability to increase the quality in how they speak about having developed skills abroad. Using a repeated measures design, a pre- and post-session survey was tied to a one-hour facilitated intervention session attended by U.S. and European undergraduates who had studied abroad at least one academic semester; a control group completed the two surveys a week apart without attending a session. In both surveys, students were asked to reflect upon their experience to identify skill(s) demonstrated abroad and to offer an example (by crafting a short story based on the STAR formula). The prediction was that students’ self-perceived ability to (1) reflect upon and (2) identify skills, and to (3) gain confidence and (4) show preparedness in anticipation of job interviews would increase post-intervention. These four factors make up the Assessment Measure, based on the 7- point Likert responses to four statements in the pre- and post-survey. There was a second prediction that there would be in increase in the quality of experimental subjects’ stories at post- intervention (using a 5-level rubric for rating), after having learned a best practice for answering job interview questions (i.e., the STAR formula). The findings supported the predicted increase in the students’ perceived measures of reflecting and identifying skills and of their confidence and preparedness in anticipation of interviewing for jobs upon graduating. Within groups, there was no change in the Control mean from PRE to POST while there was a significant increase for Experiment. Between these two groups, there were no differences observed pre-intervention (thus supporting the homogeneity of groups). Critically, the differences found post-intervention support the significant effect of intervention – with the experiment group’s POST score on the four dimensions of the Assessment Measure greater than the POST score of the control group. The findings supported the second hypothesis as well – that the experiment group would show an increase in the quality of their stories after the intervention compared to the control group (which showed a slight decrease in scores from pre- to post-survey) and resulted in a between-group comparison that was significant. This study provides support for the efforts of those in higher education who conduct programming such as the reflection session (intervention) in this research which prompts students to consider their skill development from studying or interning abroad and to learn to speak about it in ways that employers will value, especially in the interview process. This study also supports the contribution that international student mobility makes in increasing participants’ employability.

Employee satisfaction has been found to have a strong relationship with perceived job security. This study explored job insecurity in an unstable global economy. Specifically, it examined internal attributes of employees, hypothesizing that such attributes would enable employees to better cope with work-related stressors such as job insecurity. Specific attributes of personality and employability were assessed as potential moderators of job satisfaction and security, utilizing the theory of work adjustment and person-environment correspondence as theoretical frameworks. The specific attributes included facets of conscientiousness and neuroticism as well as dispositions of employability including openness to change at work, work and career resilience, work and career proactivity, career motivation, and work identity. Multiple regression tests analyzed the relationship between these internal attributes and both job insecurity and satisfaction on a convenience sample of 100 participants from 2 companies. Participants completed online assessments of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire; the NEO Personality Inventory, 3rd edition (NEO-PI-3); and the Dispositional Measure of Employability. The findings of this study showed significant relationships between both work and career resiliency and vulnerability and both job satisfaction and perceived job security. Employees, employers, and future researchers may benefit from the findings. Results suggest options for improving the work environment by enabling employees to derive greater satisfaction and security and by providing employers areas for training opportunities. Additionally, future research could explore methodologies, such as mindfulness and cognitive appraisal, which may further increase resiliency and decreasing vulnerability.

Health care administration programs have transitioned to using the competency approach to better prepare graduates for workplace success. The responsibility of preparing graduates lies with the program faculty, yet little is known about faculty perceptions of the competency approach. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess the perceptions of graduate-level health care administration faculty about the competency approach, the approach's effect on graduate preparedness, and employer expectations. Adult learning theory and the theory of self-efficacy were used as the theoretical foundations for the study. Faculty demographics related to personal information, workplace/teaching experience, and program information served as the independent variables, while survey item perception ratings were the dependent variables. Nonprobability sampling of graduate-level health care administration faculty (n = 151) was used and data were collected using an online survey developed by the author. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t tests, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regressions were used to examine and describe faculty perceptions. Findings indicated that faculty generally support the use of the competency approach and that it effectively prepares graduates. Teaching in a CAHME-accredited program predicted perceptions about the approach adequately addressing employer expectations (β = .343, p < .05). Issues including need for standardization and use for accreditation versus educational purposes were identified. Social change implications include contributing to professional development efforts for faculty and improving the quality of health care administration graduates and the future leadership of the industry.