The Skillmax Program was launched by the New South Wales State Government at the end of 1988 as a result of concern about the underutilisation of the skills of overseas qualified and experienced immigrants in the labour force. The program is administered by the NSW Adult Migrant English Service. The aim of this study is to evaluate how well the Skillmax Program is achieving its aim of assisting non-English speaking background immigrants to maximise the use of their overseas experience and skills within the NSW labour market. The main source of data for the evaluation was a questionnaire distributed to all students who had studied in the program from July, 1993 to June, 1994. Those in the final program intake surveyed had just completed courses, those in the first intake surveyed had completed courses nine months previously. The questionnaire was sent to 458 ex-students in August, 1994 and 217 questionnaires were returned. Additional data was obtained from a literature search, a survey distributed to Skillmax program staff and a focus group meeting of the Skillmax Program's teachers, educational and vocational counsellor and program manager. Key research findings are: 71.9% of all respondents had found employment since enrolling in the Skillmax Program and 67.7% were still employed when the study was conducted; 84.9% of those respondents who had completed or partially completed courses ending from six to nine months before the study was conducted had found employment and 78.5% were still employed when the study was conducted; 66.7% of those respondents in employment had found employment at the same occupational level as in their countries of birth; 52% of all respondents were either unemployed (28.1%) or underemployed (23.9%); 85.9% of those respondents in employment considered that the Skillmax Program had contributed significantly to their success in finding employment. The study compares the findings of the current study to those from a previous Skillmax Program evaluation concluded in 1992 (Mograby & Eddie, The Skillmax Program Evaluation Report, 1992). Employment outcomes of participants in the current study are significantly better than those in the previous study. The study argues that improvements in employment outcomes can primarily be attributed to program improvements made since the 1992 evaluation. The study concludes that the Skillmax Program is achieving its aims. Recommendations for program improvement and future directions for the program are made.

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This thesis examines and explains multinational employers' experiences of localized shortages of skilled process workers in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), China. It explains three challenges facing SIP employers in accessing sufficient skilled process workers and their responses within HRM to such challenges. These three challenges are employers' experiences with vocational education and training (VET) deficiencies in students' skill development, employers' experiences of poaching of skilled process workers by other companies, and employers' experiences of provision of workplace training for skilled process workers in their own companies. In response to these challenges, SIP employers have adopted various HRM measures that include differing combination of recruitment and selection, employee retention, training and development, and employment relations management. These policies and practices represent the different ways that SIP employers have attempted to meet the challenges of localized skill shortages in the context of their own business strategies.

The Palestinian information technology (IT) sector is growing, yet an ongoing migration of IT professionals and graduates is taking place – both in shape of student migration and labour migration. Through group, pair and individual interviews, this thesis investigates highly skilled IT students’ intentions to stay in or to leave Palestine after graduation. The study puts the individual in the center of the analysis focusing on a micro-level perspective while examining professional outlooks and factors affecting migratory and stay decisions. The findings highlight the impact of the university, the IT sector, the Israeli occupation and gender norms. Moreover, the study reveals a clash between aspirations and reality in professional outlooks, a lack of freedoms, and show significant support for the impact of macro-level factors in migratory decision-making. This thesis also addresses the call for a human face in skilled migration, and provides insights to an under-researched region in the skilled-migration literature.

Today Sweden is facing a significant shortage of highly educated labour force, which is recognized by various companies and which can have adverse consequences on the firms as well as the country as a whole. One of the solutions to this problem is identified to be highly skilled migrants (HSMs). Thus the purpose of this thesis is to research the impact that HSMs have on Swedish companies. By carrying out a qualitative research approach, a deeper understanding of the influences of HSMs on the internationalisation and the organisational innovation is gained, while the chosen abductive method allows exploring the subject by taking into consideration the real life issue as well as the related theories at the same time. The theoretical framework aids to build a foundation for this thesis regarding the relevant theories, including the bottom-up organisational design, the brain gain, RBV theory, internationalisation models and organisational innovation processes. This helps to construct a theoretical model which presents a theoretical answer to the research questions of the thesis. Thus the theoretical model helps to analyse the empirical data gathered from the interviews with five representatives of different Swedish companies. The cross-referencing of the cases helps to find the similarities and differences of the impact of HSMs in these companies. This is followed by the conclusions based on the analysis chapter. The main theoretical implications include the findings that the market and cultural knowledge seem to be the most important assets that HSMs bring, which, together with different educational backgrounds, technological competencies and networks, aid the internationalisation of the companies that can be understood through the Network and Born Global models. Furthermore, it is found that the new perspectives of HSMs encourage the organisational innovation through the increased tacit knowledge inside the organisations. Moreover, the managerial implications include recognising of the importance of HSMs for the Swedish companies and thus seeking a more international workforce, empowering the employees and being able to exploit the resources that they bring, while at the same time managing the cultural clashes that might occur. Therefore, this thesis helps to build a foundation for viewing HSMs a solution to Sweden’s problem of the lack of highly skilled workers.

This thesis project examined underemployment at the state and national levels. Underemployment is the inability of highly skilled migrants with degrees from their home countries to enter the workforce in the receiving country. Pending and enacted legislation was analyzed at the state level to determine in which ways the state of Oregon can implement similar policies to effectively incorporate underemployed immigrants into the state workforce. This project utilized primary data sources at the state and federal level, migrant interviews were used as illustrations of the barriers that exist for underemployed migrants, and secondary data sources from the fields of economics, social sciences, political sciences, and population studies were utilized to provide an understanding of how underemployment is addressed at the national level. Overall, my research found underemployed professional migrants are greatly underutilized, which translates into missed economic opportunities for individual migrants and for the United States as a whole.

As propriedades rurais brasileiras evoluíram muito nas últimas décadas, obrigando os agricultores a melhorarem sua gestão. Se em diversas áreas da empresa os proprietários rurais conseguiram desenvolver seu negócio, na gestão de pessoas esses ainda possuem vasto espaço para melhorias. Isso tem causado graves problemas, tais como: dificuldade de retenção de pessoas qualificadas, prejuízos na produção e custo elevado de manutenção de máquinas e equipamentos. Tendo isso em vista, o presente estudo visa a identificar os fatores relevantes para retenção de mão de obra rural qualificada nas empresas agrícolas patronais e que utilizam tecnologias avançadas de modo que essas possam melhorar sua gestão de pessoas. Para atingir o objetivo proposto foram aplicados questionários quantitativos com produtores rurais patronais que possuem tecnologias avançadas e com técnicos agrícolas do Rio Grande do Sul. Enquanto os primeiros expressam a perspectiva dos gestores rurais, os segundos representam o tipo de mão de obra demandado pelas empresas rurais. Constatou-se que, segundo os agricultores, para um funcionário ser bem sucedido e permanecer na empresa ele deve, principalmente, ser honesto, ter comprometimento, ter responsabilidade, buscar conhecimento e ser proativo. Esse sujeito da pesquisa considera também que os técnicos agrícolas são mais aptos para trabalhar no meio rural do que os demais funcionários rurais. A grande maioria dos técnicos agrícolas está mais satisfeita trabalhando no meio rural e prefere trabalhar nesse ambiente, contudo quase metade deles prefere residir no urbano. Verificou-se que os agricultores possuem perspectivas muito diferentes dos técnicos agrícolas quanto a maioria dos fatores que podem ou não reter funcionários rurais, principalmente, ao avaliar sua propriedade, já que os agricultores avaliaram essas de forma mais positiva em quase todos os fatores em relação aos técnicos agrícolas. Os três fatores com maior diferença foram valor de o salário recebido ser condizente com a qualificação de cada funcionário, superiores serem capazes de gerir a empresa e funcionários receberem recompensas por desempenho individual; esses representam fatores os quais foram muito bem avaliados pelos produtores rurais e mal avaliados pelos técnicos agrícolas. Com base nos resultados, os produtores não somente sabem que precisam melhorar sua gestão de pessoas, mas também estão cientes de quais são exatamente os fatores que precisam ser repensados e melhorados para que consigam reter a nova mão de obra que tanto necessitam. / Brazilian rural properties’ have evolved significantly in recent decades, forcing farmers to improve their management. Landowners have developed its business in many areas but still have a large room for improvement regarding people management. This has caused serious problems, such as difficulty in retaining qualified people, losses in production and high maintenance costs of machinery and equipment. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the relevant factors for retaining skilled rural labor in unfamiliar agricultural business that uses advanced Technologies so they can improve the workforce management. To achieve this purpose, quantitative questionnaires were applied with rural producers that use advanced Technologies and agricultural technicians from Rio Grande do Sul. As the first express the perspective of rural managers, the latter represent the type of labour demanded by rural businesses. It was found that according to the farmers, for an employee to be successful and stay in business, he should mainly be honest, have commitment, take responsibility, seek knowledge and be proactive. They also believe that agricultural technicians are more suitable to work in rural areas than other rural workers. The vast majority of agricultural technicians are more satisfied working in rural areas and prefer to work in that environment, yet almost half of them prefer to live in urban areas. It was also found out that farmers and agricultural technicians have a very different perspective regarding what may or may not retain rural workers, mainly when assessing property, as farmers evaluated these more positively in almost all factors than the agricultural technicians. As an example, the three factors with the greatest difference were if the wage received is consistent with the qualifications of each employee, if the superior is able to manage the company and if employees receive rewards for individual performance; these represent factors which were very well evaluated by farmers and poorly assessed by agricultural technicians. The main conclusion is that after this research producers not only know they need to improve their people management, but are also aware of exactly which factors need to be rethought and improved so that they can hold the workforce they need.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4204961 bytes, checksum: 04b03cee1fd917ea7d3352dc63e749b2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation aims to investigate the characteristics and trends of internal migration of people with high education in Brazil, trying specifically to identify regional patterns of skilled migration, its main determinants and the behavior of the "hourly wage" earned by migrants and non-migrants. Using the Census IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) population for the years 2000 and 2010, the present research was divided in two trials. The first one evaluates routes performed by skilled migrants amid different territorial areas (regional, state, and meso-regional micro-regional) between the five-year periods 1995-2000 and 2005-2010. From it, the evidence shows that, in all areas analyzed, the South and Southeast regions have a higher amount of qualified people among its residents, as well as recorded the highest reception and issuing qualified in Brazil in both periods considered. Regarding the routes investigated, it has been established that most of the skilled returnees to their places of origin left the Northeast and Southeast regions, having as main target the Southeast. Also noteworthy agglomerations type high-high amid the North and Northeast to conduct a spatial analysis of Brazilian micro-regions during 2010, as agglomerations of type low-low are observed between the South and Southeast regions. The second essay, in turn, aims to analyze the joint determination of the decision to migrate and wages earned by workers with high education in Brazil. In this regard, it was noted that the skilled migrant is positively selected in unobserved productive attributes. Furthermore, when analyzing the group of migrants, it appears that men earn, on average, more than women (omitted category), those who declared themselves to black and brown have lower income compared to those reported color white (omitted category), the worker with a post-graduate degree has a higher "hourly wage" than the worker with a graduate degree and that unregistered workers as well as those of their own, have a lower yield than that acquired by the employee with formal contract. As variables considered location, one can ascertain that those living in urban areas earn an average "hourly wage" higher than those living in rural areas (omitted category). Just as those who reside in the metropolitan area and the North region states have higher income than those who live in non-metropolitan area (omitted category) and the state of São Paulo (omitted category), respectively. Now regarding the probability to migrate, it was observed that a man who holds graduate, live in the North and Southeast of the country and which has got a social networks, increase the chances of effecting skilled migration. In addition, there was a counterfactual exercise on income earned by migrants and non-migrants qualified in order to verify the rationality of the decisions of both groups. Thus, the results indicate that conferred the migrant has positive selectivity, since skilled workers who migrated recorded a higher hourly wage than those who did not migrate. Moreover, based on counterfactual exercise performed, ascertained that the choices made by both groups were rational, given that the income received was larger when considering the factual decisions (migrants - migrant and not migrated - not migrated) than observed when the counterfactual analysis (migrant - not migrated and non-migrant - migrated). Finally, one can still see that skilled workers who decided to migrate typically have the following characteristics: male, white, 36-years-old (on average), employed with contract, who lives in metropolitan urban areas and in the Southeast. / Esta dissertação tem por finalidade investigar as características e tendências das migrações internas de pessoas com alta instrução no Brasil, buscando-se especificamente identificar os padrões regionais da migração qualificada, seus principais determinantes e o comportamento do salário-hora auferido pelos migrantes e não migrantes. Utilizando o Censo Demográfico do IBGE para os anos de 2000 e 2010, a pesquisa em questão foi distribuída em dois ensaios. O primeiro avalia as rotas realizadas pelos migrantes qualificados em meio a diferentes âmbitos territoriais (regional, estadual, mesorregional e microrregional) entre os quinquênios de 1995-2000 e 2005-2010. A partir dele, as evidências mostram que, em todos os âmbitos analisados, as regiões Sul e Sudeste apresentam maior quantidade de qualificados em meio aos seus residentes, assim como também registraram maior recepção e emissão de qualificados no território brasileiro em ambos os períodos considerados. No tocante as rotas averiguadas, ainda foi possível apurar que grande parte dos qualificados que retornaram aos seus locais de origem saíram das regiões Nordeste e Sudeste e teve como principal destino a região Sudeste. Destacam-se também aglomerações do tipo alto-alto em meio às regiões Norte e Nordeste ao realizar uma análise espacial das microrregiões brasileiras no período de 2010, à medida que aglomerações do tipo baixo-baixo são observadas entre as regiões Sul e Sudeste. O segundo ensaio, por sua vez, tem por objetivo analisar a determinação conjunta da decisão de migrar e dos salários auferidos por trabalhadores de alta instrução no Brasil. Nesse sentido, notou-se que o migrante qualificado é positivamente selecionado em atributos produtivos não observados. Ademais, ao analisar o grupo de migrantes, verifica-se que homens ganham, em média, mais que as mulheres (categoria omitida), que aqueles que se declararam de cor preta e parda possuem rendimento inferior quando comparado com os que se declararam de cor branca (categoria omitida), que o trabalhador com pós-graduação possui um salário-hora maior quando confrontado ao trabalhador graduado e que os empregados sem carteira assinada, assim como os de conta própria, possui um rendimento inferior ao que é adquirido pelo empregado com carteira assinada. Quanto as variáveis de localização consideradas, pode-se averiguar que aqueles que residem na zona urbana ganham, em média, um salário-hora maior que os que residem na zona rural (categoria omitida). Assim como os que residem na zona metropolitana e nos estados da região Norte possuem um rendimento maior que os que moram em zona não metropolitana (categoria omitida) e no estado de São Paulo (categoria omitida), respectivamente. Já no que tange a probabilidade de migrar, observou-se que ser homem, detentor de pós-graduação, residentes nos estados do Norte e Sudeste do país e possuidor de redes sociais aumentam as chances de trabalhadores qualificados efetuarem a migração. Além disso, realizou-se um exercício contrafatual sobre o rendimento auferido pelos migrantes e não migrantes qualificados, de modo a averiguar a racionalidade das decisões de ambos os grupos. Com isso, os resultados conferidos apontam que o migrante possui seletividade positiva, uma vez que os trabalhadores qualificados que migraram registraram um salário-hora maior do que aqueles que não migraram. Ainda com base no exercício contrafatual realizado, averiguou-se que as escolhas tomadas por ambos os grupos foram racionais, haja vista que o rendimento auferido se mostrou maior ao considerar as decisões fatuais (migrante migrou e não migrante não migrou) do que quando observado as análises contrafatuais (migrante não migrou e não migrante migrou). Por fim, ainda se pode verificar que os trabalhadores qualificados que decidiram migrar possuem tipicamente as seguintes características: homens, branco, com 36 anos de idade (em média), empregado com carteira assinada, residente na zona urbana, em área metropolitana e na região sudeste.

A dissertation submitted to the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology Construction Management / This study investigated the causes and impact of the effects of shortages of skilled artisans on contractor productivity. The objectives of the study were as follows: (i) to identify causes of shortages of skills during the construction production phases; (ii) to define the effects of shortages of skills during the production phase of a project; (iii) to examine how to deal with shortages of skills when they happen; (iv) to determine ways in which the shortage of skills may be reduced; (v) to determine whether shortages of skills cause poor contractor performance. The study was inspired by many international and local studies demonstrating a lack of concern for the impact of shortages of skilled artisans on project performance, and their effects on project time. The research method adopted for study was a survey of construction sites and staff within the NMC group in the Cape Peninsula metropolitan area of the Western Cape Province. The study collected data from 65 participants from 10 different NMC sites. The participants in the survey included Project managers, site managers, quantity surveyors and artisans on sites. The findings of the study revealed that there is lack of formal training of artisans; performance of artisans is not highly regarded and there is lack of motivation, these factors contribute to the shortages of skilled artisans. It is also evident that shortage of skills causes’ poor contractor performance and leads to poor quality of work. The researchers also found that, setting out errors occur due to lack of coordination between the main contractor and subcontractors and the lack of skills on the part of the artisans. In addition, inexperience on the side of the leading hand and / or supervisor and trades foremen and their inability to interpret the drawings contributed to rework during construction phase. A reason also given for shortage of artisans is that young people are afraid to get their hands dirty. Young people would rather work with computers than for engineering and its associated professions. It is recommended that to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be implemented to encourage young people to become artisans.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister of Technologiae: Human Resource Management In the Faculty of Business At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2012 / This research focused on investigating perceptions of the socio economic impact of skills shortage on the community of Khayelitsha, Western Cape. The objectives of this study were to critically investigate the causes of skills shortage in the community of Khayelitsha; to assess the perceived social impacts that it has on the community; and to critically investigate whether skills shortage is one of the causes of unemployment. The research also went as far as examining measures, which were taken by government and other stakeholders to address skills shortage. Chapter One of the study provides information related to a background of the research under study. Chapter Two briefly considers skills shortage, globally, prior to looking thoroughly at the causes for skills shortage in Khayelitsha. It further presents evidence of skills shortage in South Africa by considering different sectors. Furthermore, the research details the social and the economic impact of skills shortage, the state of poverty and inequality, as well as the state of unemployment. Chapter Two also details the role of government and other stakeholders to address skill shortage. Chapter Three introduces the research design and methodologies that were used, while Chapter Four presents an analysis and assessment of data that was collected. Chapter Five concludes the research by making recommendations. Two types of methodologies were employed by the researcher, namely qualitative and quantitative research methodology. The researcher employed two types of data analysis, namely content analysis and descriptive statistics. These techniques were helpful for the study because they explored perceptions and evidence of skills shortage in South Africa and Khayelitsha, in particular. The study further explores the impact of skills shortage on the economic development of the country, unemployment poverty and the society at large. Finally, the research shows that respondents perceive that skills shortage does indeed have a negative impact on South Africa by being one of the causes of unemployment and poverty, and hence economic growth. While socially, respondents believe that skills shortage is the main driver of issues such as crime, violence, teenage pregnancy, prostitution, HIV/AIDS poverty and other social issues, which are prevalent nationwide.