This study aims to examine the project efforts and activities that are being carried out as a part of a larger integration project in Sweden. Furthermore, the study discusses the contributions of these project efforts and activities in relation to creating better conditions for newly arrived participants, and also how the group of participants describe the projects and activities. The empirical data has been collected through the use of four project evaluations from selected integration projects. The empirical data was analysed using a qualitative text analysis. Previous research relevant to this study, the human capital theory and the signal and filter theory have formed my theoretical framework. The two theories are used to increase understanding of the mechanisms behind immigrants 'problems in the labor market and immigrants' integration into Swedish society as well as the opportunity to improve the situation. The result of my study shows that the project efforts and activities have created better conditions for the newly arrived participants in the integration projects. The group of participants feel that the integration efforts they have participated correspond to their needs, circumstances, as well as increasing their competence when entering the labor market. The result of my study shows that integration should not be defined only by the entrance into the labor market, but also through other forms of participation in the Swedish society.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are recognised across the world as having the ability to drive the economy and greatly contribute towards its growth, more so in emerging economies. However, the growth and performance of firms has further been directly linked to the critical development and investment towards its human capital. Even though there is a known importance of human capital development for business growth and competence, little is known about how much SMEs themselves attribute it to the success of their own firm’s performance. As such, this study responds to this gap by exploring the perceptions that SMEs hold regarding human capital as a concept and its developmental role in their business success. Establishing which component of human capital is perceived to be important in the founding of the businesses, during its emergent years and for future growth will enable SMEs to better understand the key human capital components and features to harness at the different stages of their business and in the pursuit for competitive advantage. The study will better equip policy makers in their development of interventions they embark on to promote SME competitiveness. The study followed a qualitative research methodology which used in-depth one-on-one interviews with participants in the petroleum industry of South Africa. The study focused on one segment of the petroleum value chain, while still using several subgroups for data triangulation. The results of the study indicated that SMEs perceive knowledge as the most important factor of human capital and rely on it in the founding of their businesses. The study further revealed that SMEs rely predominantly on intangible resources to gain competitive advantage, but are negative affected by institutional constraints to effectively compete. The study generated a framework that can be used by both SMEs and policy makers to enable the development of human capital and promote SME competitiveness. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / The study investigates a Western Cape Technical Vocational and Education and Training (TVET) college internship programmes and how the curriculum prepare students for the workplace. The research utilizes and applies the Human Capital Theory (HCT) to student employability and college internships to generate new theoretical insights into the possibilities and limitations of an internship in preparing college students for the workplace. The study is motivated by observations of students in the workplaces who had completed the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) course with regard to hospitality and office administration who were participating in its associated internships. The research question underlines the relationship between the NCV qualification, HCT and internships.

Introduction: In the current rapidly changing world of work, organisations are investing increasingly in workforce planning. Throughout times, recruiting and retaining talented employees have been one of the most complex problems facing employers. Human Resource (HR) metrics and analytics is still a relatively untouched tool used by HR managers. However, HR practitioners are engaging in an era where recruitment and talent retention processes are becoming predictive and provide several benefits to both the employer and employee. By understanding how data can be used for insightful decisions that generate business results, HR professionals need to exploit the gap. Currently, they have the opportunity to utilise their extensive data sets by providing the organisation with the relevant and strategic analytics for informed decision-making. Research purpose: The purpose of the systematic literature review was to investigate the nature and value that metrics and analytics on recruitment and talent management add to organisations. Motivation for the study: Throughout history, people were considered as the most valuable assets in which an organisation can invest. However, HR failed to take responsibility for the programmes and initiatives which they developed and implemented. By developing a means to measure HR programmes and initiatives and assess the performance and development of employees, HR professionals will be able to demonstrate its effect on the business's 'bottom line'. Consequently, top management would then be more willing to invest money and time in HR-related activities. HR metrics and analytics will allow top management to make informed decisions on HR initiatives and programmes such as recruitment and talent management. In a volatile business environment HR departments need to prove the monetary value of the HR functions to top management. For HR analytics to be effective, it is vital that the organisation applies the correct metrics that is aligned with the overall business strategy and objectives. Research design, approach and method: For the purpose of the present study, a systematic literature review was conducted to determine the nature and value-add of recruitment and talent management analytics in an organisation. Main findings: The first objective was to determine the importance of recruitment and talent retention metrics and analytics. Results show that organisations currently struggle to recruit and retain talented employees, a factor that ultimately impacts the success of the organisation. The review provided evidence of organisations that realised the importance of recruitment and talent retention analytics by also using it to inform their human capital planning. The second objective assessed the use of metrics and analytics to manage recruitment and talent. The research indicated that organisations apply various recruitment and talent retention metrics in different ways and for diverse purposes. A possible reason may be that organisations have different data sets and also use these sets differently to develop HR-related metrics suited for the specific company. The third objective was to identify standards for metrics on recruitment and talent management. The research indicates that there is no systematic approach to evaluate recruitment and talent management. This is a topic for future research. The fourth and final objective investigated the role of recruitment and talent retention analytics in management's decision-making. Here the literature indicates that organisations have invested highly in HR analytics, and even appoint an analytics team within the company with the sole purpose of evaluating the organisation's data sets. This attest to the value management attaches to HR analytics as important contribution to the business's decision-making process, and ultimately the success of the organisation as a whole. Limitations/future research: The present research had to factor in several delimitations related to the context, constructs and theoretical perspectives of the study. The researcher firstly identified that the research context was limited to the Human Resources (HR) segment of organisations and business sector. Secondly, only HR-related analytics were used for the purpose of this study. The researcher searched, analysed and made assumptions about this research topic by consulting mainly recent (over the past 10 years) and authentic resources. Lastly, the assumptions made in the study are based on data the researcher incorporated from selected literature. Conclusion: It is evident from the findings that HR professionals began understanding the impact of recruitment and talent retention analytics on validating HR contributions to the organisation. Furthermore, it is clear that, on the other hand, management does acknowledge the importance and value that recruitment and talent retention analytics add to the organisation's 'bottom line'. This allows management to make insightful decisions, and ultimately retain a competitive edge in the market. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

This study re-examines a theoretical scenario introduced by Kelly Bedard in which increased university access leads to an increase in high school dropouts due to the decreased wage premium of a high school diploma caused by talent departing to higher education. The goal for this empirical study is to expand upon the theoretical framework introduced by Bedard in order to determine whether job market signalling is present in the European labour market. In line with Bedard, we theorise that if signalling holds true, secondary education graduates will decrease when access to tertiary education increases. To test this we construct 3 linear regression models to analyse a panel data set constructed of data gathered by Eurostat. Our research question is: Does increased enrolment in tertiary education have a negative effect on participation in secondary education? Our results differ from earlier studies as they indicate that increased enrolment in European tertiary education correlates with increased participation in secondary education. Ergo, we do not prove the presence of signalling in the European labour market. Our results support continued policy efforts with the aim of increasing participation at all levels of education as we find no evidence of a trade-off between university access and secondary schooling graduate rates.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-141). / The focus of this dissertation is on colonisation and decolonisation as cornerstones in the development of sub-Saharan Africa's current institutions and how these historical institutions affect current economic growth outcomes. The dissertation consists of three main chapters besides the introductory and concluding chapters. The rst main chapter considers conditions of optimality in a co-optive strategy of colonial rule. It proposes a simple model of elite formation emanating from a coloniser's quest to maximise extracted rents from its colonies... In the second main chapter, I argue that the pattern of decolonisation in West Africa was a function of the nature of human capital transfers from the colonisers to the indigenous elites of the former colonies. Underpinning the nature of these human capital transfers is the colonial educational ideology... The third main chapter investigates the channels through which colonial origin affects economic outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It focuses on four key channels of transmission namely, human capital, trade openness, market distortion and selection bias.

Earnout as a method of payment in an M&A allows for a number of advantages over the traditional choices of exchange medium, such as cash and stock. This study seeks to validate some of the conclusions drawn by existing literature, in the South African context and add value by investigating two specific attributes, namely the size of the earnout as well as the period over which an earnout may be evaluated; and their impact on the acquirer stock return. The investigation is conducted based on the analysis of event period abnormal gains for the acquirer over the event periods of ±10 days; ±5 days and ±1 day around the announcement of the merger or acquisition.Over the period 2003 – 2009, the data lends significant support to the view that earnout ratio larger than 51% leads to higher abnormal gains than those less than 51% of the total transaction value. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The formation of human capital is the main issue in this dissertation. More specifically, this dissertation discusses two alternative types of transferring human capital, in contrast to the transfer of human capital from parents to their children's education. These two types of transfer are sibling effect and neighborhood effect on children's education. Chapter 1 discusses the sibling effect on children's education, "Household Models and Formations of Human Capital with Sibling Effect in Iran." The neighborhood effect on children's education will be discussed in Chapter 2, "Intergenerational Transfer of Human Capital from Parents to Children: Does Neighborhood Matter?" Chapter 3 measures and describes the rate of return on human capital in Taiwan, "Rate of Return on Education by Using Sibling Data from Taiwan." My empirical results show the following findings. First, the presence of older sisters increases younger sisters' and brothers' education. After controlling the resource contribution factor, the empirical result suggests that a role model effect exists between daughters -- the education of older sisters benefits younger sisters in Iran. Second, assuming that the unobserved parent's preference on children's education is not correlated to the unobserved parent's preference on neighborhood, our results suggest that choosing a "good" neighborhood is important for children's education in Iran. Third, the results suggest that in 1990 data from Taiwan, upward bias in the rate of return on schooling due to the omission of family background factors is significant. / Ph. D.

One of the family's responsibilities is to conduct activities of early childhood education and child care which prepare children for further education and human capital development. This study focused on family behavior in allocation of time and income for investment in children. This study used a pre-existing database with a total sample of 301 rural families with one child aged 2-5 years from three villages of Agam (West Sumatera) and two villages of Wonogiri (Central Java). Interviews and testing were conducted at each sample's home. The data were analyzed using descriptive and statistical analyses. Rich and small families invested significantly more time and money in children than poor and large families. Mother's working time, child's age, and family type had negative and significant influence on the amount of time spent on children. The families that devote more time in children spend and invest less money in children. Javanese families in the study invested less money but more time in children, while Minangese families invested more money but less time. The amount of time spent for children had a positive and significant influence on the child's nutritional status, and an insignificant impact on the child's IQ score. Besides the amount of time devoted to children, the child's nutritional status also was influenced by the child's age and gender. Also, the child's IQ score was significantly and positively influenced by the father's education and negatively by family size, family type, and the child's age. Based on the findings, it was apparent that poor families may be continuously trapped in poverty, because of less ability to invest in children. Parental investment in children may lead to better child quality. This study provides evidence that mother's time spent outside the home may lead to less time investment, and less time investment may negatively influence the child's nutritional status. As policy is formulated, non-economic as well as economic aspects should be considered. Additional research is needed to further explore the most appropriate measure of child quality and the variables which influence child quality. / Ph. D.

Se analizan los efectos de los determinantes de la remuneración laboral en el Perú durante los años 2014 al 2017. Para ello, se enfoca esta relación desde la perspectiva del capital humano. De acuerdo a estudios previos, la educación presenta efectos heterogéneos que dependen tanto de las características del individuo, así como su contexto; dicha relación suele ser modelada con una ecuación tipo Mincer (1974), la misma que será empleada para efectos de la presente investigación, aplicada al caso peruano. Los datos son obtenidos de la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (ENAHO) y se recurre a un modelo de regresión de Efectos Fijos. Se encontró que, en el Perú, la educación puede tener un efecto heterogéneo sobre la remuneración laboral dependiendo en que sector económico se desempeñe el individuo (ceteris paribus): para un individuo que pasa de no tener nivel educativo a tener educación técnica completa se espera que este efecto sea de, aproximadamente, 97% si labora en el sector agropecuario-pesquero; alrededor de 177% si se desempeña en el sector manufacturas y 116% en el sector servicios. Este resultado apoya la idea de que el sector económico en el que desempeña el individuo es una fuente de heterogeneidad para los efectos de la educación sobre la remuneración laboral. / The effects of the determinants of salary in Peru are analyzed for the period 2014 – 2017. In this sense, this relationship is approached from the perspective of human capital. According to previous studies, education presents heterogeneous effects that depend both on the characteristics of the individual as well as their context. This relationship is usually modeled with an equation developed by Mincer (1974), the same one that will be used for the purposes of this investigation applied to the Peruvian case. The data employed in the econometric analysis was obtained from the National Household Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Hogares in spanish) and a regression model of Fixed Effects is used. It was found that, in Peru, education can have a heterogeneous effect on labor remuneration depending on which economic sector the individual performs (ceteris paribus): for an individual who goes from not having an educational level to having a complete technical education, the expected effect should be approximately 97% if he or she works in the agricultural-fishing sector, around 177% if he or she works in the manufacturing sector and around 116% if he or she works in the service sector. This result supports the idea that the economic sector in which the individual works is a source of heterogeneity for the effects of education on labor remuneration. / Trabajo de investigación