Transformative curricula and teaching practices to meet labour market needs in tertiary agricultural education in Africa.

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-134
Author(s):  
Keba Hulela ◽  
Joseph Mukuni ◽  
Might Kojo Abreh ◽  
Joseph Amooti Kasozi ◽  
David Kraybill

Abstract This chapter describes and analyzes labour market conditions and policy, as well as programme options for improving the economic and social relevance of agricultural training in African higher education institutions. The intended audience is teachers and administrators of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) who have little or no training in curriculum development or pedagogy. The aim is to present practical steps for reforming curricula and pedagogical approaches to enable TAE institutions to meet the needs of communities more effectively and to address the demands of dynamic labour, information and technology markets. The discussion also describes how tertiary education teachers and administrators can develop the vision, methods and institutional culture required to prepare students for employability and life-long learning.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-198
Author(s):  
Csilla Czeglédi ◽  
Tímea Juhász

There is an increased demand for education in our society. The expectations of employers and the economy in general have also changed; knowledge is fast becoming the driving force behind labour market competitiveness. Seeing these tendencies, we had to ask ourselves how the most involved group, the students see their situation. How do they see the role of educa-tion in their career paths as well as in life-long learning? We conducted our research in this fi eld in the second half of last year. In this essay, we are publishing some partial results of that research in order to prove the hypothesis made during our studies.


Author(s):  
Derick R. C. Almeida ◽  
João A. S. Andrade ◽  
Adelaide Duarte ◽  
Marta Simões

AbstractThis paper examines human capital inequality and how it relates to earnings inequality in Portugal using data from Quadros de Pessoal for the period 1986–2017. The objective is threefold: (i) show how the distribution of human capital has evolved over time; (ii) investigate the association between human capital inequality and earnings inequality; and (iii) analyse the role of returns to schooling, together with human capital inequality, in the explanation of earnings inequality. Our findings suggest that human capital inequality, computed based on the distribution of average years of schooling of employees working in the Portuguese private labour market, records a positive trend until 2007 and decreases from this year onwards, suggesting the existence of a Kuznets curve of education relating educational attainment levels and education inequality. Based on the decomposition of a Generalized Entropy index (Theil N) for earnings inequality, we observe that inequality in the distribution of human capital plays an important role in the explanation of earnings inequality, although this role has become less important over the last decade. Using Mincerian earnings regressions to estimate the returns to schooling together with the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of real hourly earnings we confirm that there are two important forces associated with the observed decrease in earnings inequality: a reduction in education inequality and compressed returns to schooling, mainly in tertiary education.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Olo ◽  
Leonida Correia ◽  
Maria da Conceição Rego

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse whether there is an adjustment between the Portuguese higher education supply and the needs of the labour market.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study is performed, using a quantitative approach, relating the job offers for graduates registered at the employment centres and the number of graduates by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal, at an aggregate level and NUT II regions, by areas of education and training, over the 2003–2018 period. To understand how job offers and graduates are correlated, bilateral Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated.FindingsThe results show that, in large groups of educational areas, exists a match between the higher education supply and the labour market needs, with an emphasis on the fields of “social sciences, business and law”, “engineering, manufacturing and construction” and “health and welfare”. However, at a more disaggregated level, a mismatch in the sub-areas of “teacher training and education science” and “computing” was found since labour market needs are much greater than graduates by HEIs and the two variables are moving in opposite directions.Practical implicationsThe study has revealed important aspects that the educational policy should take into account in order to create the conditions for a gradual adjustment to the labour market needs. Also, the results demonstrate that some measures should be taken in short/medium term to avoid problems in the medium/long term.Originality/valueOne implication of this empirical study was the elaboration of a correspondence table to standardise the data analysis units from two different sources. As this correspondence did not exist prior to this study, this output is a relevant contribution to the research field. Another important contribution is the demonstration of a mismatch in some educational sub-areas that deserves special attention from educational policymakers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Jose López-Ruiz ◽  
Pablo Lara-Navarra ◽  
Enric Serradell-Lopez ◽  
Josep Antoni Martínez-Aceituno

Competency design stands out among the methodological and educational model changes introduced by the EHEA (European Higher Education Area). This concept is a key factor when developing programs based on academic and professional profiles that respond to social and labour market needs. The UOC eLearning GPS is based on competences and is meant to reduce the gap between formal training and the reality of the labour market and social needs that traditionally has characterized the university. These aspects are the basis of this application. Using a language of competences, the application helps the students identify their main skills and capacities, as well as areas of improvement. Following the model of competency design, this tool helps the user detect and reduce the gap between a starting position of competence and his or her learning and training expectations. UOC eLearning GPS application offers solutions and learning itineraries closer to the user’s real learning needs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Nienke Beintema ◽  
John Lynam ◽  
Florence Nakayiwa

Abstract This chapter provides an assessment of trends in institutional and human-resource capacity in Africa's tertiary education sector and, specifically, in its tertiary agricultural education (TAE) sector. Sections 5.2 and 5.3 focus on the changing institutional landscape since the 1970s, including an analysis of whether more recent TAE expansion mirrors overall growth in the tertiary education sector. Sections 5.4 and 5.5 present an overview of growth in enrolments within Africa's tertiary education sector, along with information on student populations for sample countries and institutions for which TAE data are available. Section 5.6 provides an overview of developments in TAE teaching capacity across these sample countries, both over time and by various demographic indicators. The chapter concludes with an analysis of estimated future demand for PhD graduates in TAE compared with the potential supply, followed by a discussion of implications and recommendations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
NICCOLO DURAZZI

Abstract The article investigates the causes and consequences of the increased engagement of British universities with employability and skills initiatives. By employing case studies of six universities based in England, it asks whether the increased engagement between higher education and the labour market is driven by universities or business and whether such engagement has increased the diversity of the higher education sector. Findings suggest that the alignment between labour market needs and educational provision in universities is strongly mediated by the competitive environment within which higher education institutions have been operating since the late 1990s: the higher education market – not the labour market – is the key driver for universities to engage in employability and skills initiatives. The article also questions the assumption that ‘competition’ leads to ‘differentiation’ in higher education. Rather, isomorphic tendencies seem to prevail over differentiation in the context of a highly competitive higher education market.


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