Flexible approach to apprenticeship education

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Tharindu R. Liyanagunawardena ◽  
Nicholas Moore
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Senior Leadership ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Compliance Requirements ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Apprenticeship Education ◽  
Delivery Approach

Purpose Apprenticeship education in England has undergone dramatic change following the “Richard Review” (Richard, 2012), trailblazer apprenticeship standards development and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy. University College of Estate Management’s (UCEM) new Level 3 Surveying Technician Apprenticeship programme was developed using a novel approach of flipped-blended learning, with assessment by e-portfolio and computer-marked assessments. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges faced by UCEM as it moved into Level 3 provision with a new delivery approach and explains the lessons learned. Design/methodology/approach A wide range of programme stakeholders – including UCEM’s senior leadership team, apprentice-management team, academic delivery team, surveying apprenticeship trailblazer group and learning designers – were interviewed to gather data for the study. Findings A considerable volume of work was needed to implement the envisioned flipped-blended approach in the first phase of delivery. This was due to time constraints, unforeseen challenges of the new approach and compliance requirements. In addition, difficulties around communicating learning expectations with the apprentices regarding the flipped-blended model added an extra level of pressure in the delivery phase. Originality/value UCEM has undergone several internal reorganisations to adapt to the uncertain political and educational landscape surrounding apprenticeship education. UCEM was the first provider of the new standard-based surveying apprenticeship and has the largest number of apprenticeship students on its programmes. The journey UCEM has taken and the problems it has overcome will be valuable to individuals and institutions looking to enter this market segment.

Encouraging millennials to collaborate and learn on the job

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Trees
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Outcomes ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present enterprise social networking and gamification as two potential tools to help organizations engage Millennial employees in collaboration and learning. Design/methodology/approach – The research provides general descriptions of enterprise social networking and gamification approaches, shares data on adoption of these approaches from APQC’s “2015 Knowledge Management Priorities Data Report” (based on a January 2015 survey of 524 knowledge management professionals) and includes four company examples adapted from APQC’s Connecting People to Content and Transferring and Applying Critical Knowledge best practices studies. The methodology for APQC’s best practices studies involves screening 50 or more organizations with potential best practices in a given research scope area and identifying five or six with proven best practices. APQC then conducts detailed site visits with the selected organizations and publishes case studies based on those site visits. Findings – Enterprise social networking platforms are in place at 50 per cent of organizations, with another 25 per cent planning to implement them by the end of 2015. By providing near-immediate access to information and answers, enterprise social networking helps Millennials learn the ropes at their new workplaces, gives them direct access to more knowledgeable colleagues who can assist and mentor them, and helps them improve their business outcomes by reusing knowledge and lessons learned across projects. Younger workers can also harness the power of social networking to create a sense of belonging and build their reputations in large, dispersed firms, where it is particularly difficult for them to gain visibility. A recent APQC survey indicates that 54 per cent of organizations either currently employ gamification to encourage collaboration or expect to implement it within the next three years. The rush to gamify the enterprise is, at least in part, a reflection of employers’ desire to satisfy Millennials and make them feel connected to a community of co-workers. Although games appeal to a wide range of age groups, Millennials grew up with digital interaction and tend to prefer environments that emphasize teamwork, social learning and frequent feedback – all of which can be delivered through gamification. Originality/value – The value of this paper is to introduce the value of and relationship between enterprise social networking and gamification platforms to human resource (HR) professionals looking to increase engagement and retention rates for Millennial employees.

Post-crisis bank behavior: lessons from Mercosur

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montfort Mlachila ◽  
Sarah Sanya
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Macroeconomic Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Credit Supply ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Bank Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer one important question: in the aftermath of a systemic banking crisis, can the expected deviations in credit supply, liquidity, and other bank characteristics become entrenched in that they do not converge back to “normal”? Design/methodology/approach Using a panel data set of commercial banks in the Mercosur during the period 1990-2006, the authors analyze the impact of crises on four sets of financial indicators of bank behavior and outcomes – profitability, maturity preference, credit supply, and risk taking. The authors employ convergence methodology – which is often used in the growth literature – to identify the evolution of bank behavior in the region after crises. Findings A key finding of the paper is that bank risk-taking behavior is significantly modified leading to prolonged reduction of intermediation to the private sector in favor of less risky government securities and preference for high levels excess liquidity well after the crisis. This can be attributed to the role played by macroeconomic and institutional volatility that has nurtured a relatively high level of risk aversion in banks in the Mercosur. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, using convergence methodology is a relatively novel approach in this area. An added advantage of using this approach over others currently used in the literature is that the authors can empirically quantify the rate of convergence and the institutional and macroeconomic factors that condition the convergence. Moreover, the methodology allows one to identify – in some hierarchical order – factors that condition persistent deviation from “normality.” The lessons learned from the Mercosur case study are useful for countries that suffered systemic banking crises in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

A grid model to address the behaviour of the nodes in the dissemination of information

Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 1953-1967
Author(s):  
María Teresa Signes-Pont ◽  
Higinio Mora ◽  
Antonio Cortés-Castillo ◽  
Rafael Mollá-Sirvent
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Data Dissemination ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Grid Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dissemination Process ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Human Awareness

Purpose This paper aims to present a framework to address the impact of people’s behaviour in the dissemination of information through mobile social networks. Design/methodology/approach This approach follows the epidemical compartmental models and uses a grid to model the nodes’ (people) behaviour in the dissemination process. The nodes’ status is determined by binary rules that update and define the flow of information between neighbour nodes. An improved stacked-layer grid model is used to implement modulations in the application of the rules and neighbourhoods to model the impact of people’s attitude, which may improve or jeopardize the efficiency of the process. Findings This proposal shows how grid architecture is a valuable tool to model different causes of malfunction of data dissemination. Combining different grids with different neighbourhoods and different local rules provides a wide range of possibilities to depict the impact of human awareness and decision on the dissemination of data. Originality/value This works develops a new approach for the analysis of dissemination of information which add new features to traditional methods for modelling local interactions and describing the dynamics of the communication patterns in the population.

scholarly journals An integrated three-layered foresight framework

foresight ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelis van Dorsser ◽  
Poonam Taneja
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Uncertainty ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Changing World

Purpose The paper aims to present an integrated foresight framework and method to support decision-makers who are confronted with today’s complex and rapidly changing world. The method aims at reducing the degree of uncertainty by addressing the inertia or duration of unfolding trends and by placing individual trends in a broader context. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a three-layered framework and method for assessing megatrends based on their inertia or duration. It suggests that if long-term trends and key future uncertainties are studied in conjunction at a meta-level and placed in a broader multi-layered framework of trends, it can result in new insights. Findings The application of the proposed foresight method helps to systematically place a wide range of unrelated trends and key uncertainties in the context of a broader framework of trends, thereby improving the ability to understand the inertia, direction and mutual interaction of these trends. Research limitations/implications The elaboration of identified trends and key uncertainties is partly case-specific and subject to interpretation. It is aimed at illustrating the potential use of the framework. Practical implications The paper presents a new approach that may, by itself or in combination with existing foresight methods, offer new means for anticipating future developments. Social implications The use of the proposed framework has potential to provide better insight in the complexity of today’s rapid-changing world and the major transitions taking place. It aims to result in sharper foresight by reducing epistemic uncertainty for decision-makers. Originality/value The paper demonstrates how megatrends, Kondratieff waves and century-long trends can be placed in an integrated framework and analysed in conjunction.

scholarly journals FM and clinical employees' involvement in the design of eight Norwegian hospital projects

Facilities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Støre-Valen
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
Technical Solution ◽  
Design Phase ◽  
Hospital Organization ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose This paper aims to gain insight in how the involvement of facilities management (FM) and clinical employees are practiced in new Norwegian hospital projects and to study the benefits and lessons learned from the involvement. Design/methodology/approach This study is conducted by cross-sectional case studies of eight hospital projects by using a literature review, interviews and document studies of FM and clinical employees and project leaders (PLs) among Sykehusbygg. Findings The service design approach with a structured interaction between the PL’s of Sykehusbygg, and the different disciplines of clinical employees and FM specialist was rewarding and efficient. The facilitator role of Sykehusbygg is essential to manage such a broad and complex involvement process using a wide range of various techniques at the different stages of the projects (dialogue meetings, review meetings, workshops, post-it notes, 2-D drawings, mock-up and 3-D models, as well as virtual reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling technology). The clinical employees’ framework is stronger and much more structured than the involvement of FM competences through the different stages of the projects. The property management competences were involved at the early concept phase and design phase, whereas the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) competences were getting involved through the construction and commissioning phase. The value of FM involvement in all stages of the project is seen beneficial, particularly when the FM specialist become a part of the design team and located physically at the same place. The main reported benefits of early FM involvement are cost-effective technical solutions and installations, less design flaws and improved functionality, as well as a stronger ownership and mutual respect between the clinical and FM disciplines. However, not all hospital organizations see the benefits of the FM involvement of all stages, as they are driven by reducing capital cost. In one of the new projects, other ways of involving the FM competences were tested. Additionally, particularly for the O&M competences, a dialogue meeting with a clear focus of sharing experiences with different technical solution was found rewarding in terms of cost benefits. Research limitations/implications This study does not consider the social impact of the choices made in the design phase. The findings also indicated a certain development of the FM involvement. This is not studied in two of the newest projects where they are still in the design phase and the FM role was not interviewed. Practical implications The PL role is important as a facilitator role of the involvement process. Social implications A dialogue meeting with a group of O&M people was found rewarding and valuable for knowledge sharing. This methodology can be further developed and tested, as this group of stakeholders is not always available for giving input in the project. Originality/value The value of this study is the description of the interaction between the PLs and the hospital organization in the eight projects and lessons learned by the involvement of FM competences and clinical employees.

scholarly journals Exploring the Chemical Space of Antiparasitic Peptides and Discovery of New Promising Leads through a Novel Approach based on Network Science and Similarity Searching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastián Ayala-Ruano ◽  
Yovani Marrero-Ponce ◽  
Longendri Aguilera‑Mendoza ◽  
Noel Pérez ◽  
Guillermin Agüero-Chapin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Science ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Similarity Searching ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small bioactive chemicals that have appeared as promising compounds to treat a wide range of diseases. The effectiveness of AMPs resides in the wide range of mechanisms they can use for both killing microbes and modulating immune responses. However, the AMPs’ chemical space (AMPCS) is huge, it is estimated that there exist more than 1065 unique sequences of peptides with 50 residues or fewer, which represent a big challenge for the discovery of new promising sequences and the identification of common features, motifs, or relevant biological functions shared by these peptides. Therefore, we present a new approach based on network science and similarity searching to discover new potential AMPs, specifically antiparasitic peptides (APPs). We have taken advantage of network-based representation of APPs’ chemical space (APPCS) to retrieve valuable information, using three types of networks: chemical space (CSN), half-space proximal (HSPN), and metadata (METN). Some centrality measures were applied to identify the most important and non-redundant nodes, and these peptides were taken as queries (Qs) against the graph database starPepDB to discover new potential APPs with similarity searching by group fusion (MAX-SIM rule) models. We evaluated the multi-query similarity searching models (mQSSMs) performance with five benchmarking data sets of APP/non-APPs. It can be stated that the predictions performed by the best mQSSMs present a strong-to-very strong predictive agreement since their external Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) values ranged from 0.834 to 0.965. Outstanding outcomes were attained by the mQSSM with 219 Qs from both networks CSN and HSPN (219Q_0.5_HB-HC-Singletons_CSN-HSPN) and by using 0.5 as similarity threshold, with MCC values greater than 0.85 in external datasets. Then, we compared the performance metrics of our mQSSMs with APPs prediction servers AMPDiscover and AMPFun. The model proposed in this report outperformed the machine learning approaches with statistically significant differences, showing the enormous potential of this method. After applying our method and additional filters, we proposed 95 repurposed leads as potential APPs, which have not been associated with this activity until now. In addition, we explored sequence similarities and motifs shared by these peptides, which can serve as templates for searching and designing new promising APPs. The analyses show that the similarity models proposed in this study could contribute to identifying APPs with high effectivity and reliability. Our models and pipeline are freely available through the starPep toolbox software at http://mobiosd-hub.com/starpep.

scholarly journals Heroic ecologies: embodied heroic leadership and sustainable futures

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Efthimiou
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Century ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Construction Company ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mental Trauma ◽  
Sustainable Futures ◽  
Immense Potential

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate heroism as an embodied system of leadership and well-being. Heroic leadership is presented as a baseline for sustainable futures and global health. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an embodied reading of heroic leadership and its sustainable development across five stages. It outlines its core functions, its grounding in self-leadership through physical and mental trauma and its holistic benefits, resulting in the development of the Heroic Leadership Embodiment and Sustainable Development (HLESD) model. The efficacy of HLESD is demonstrated in an empirical case study of heroism promotion and education: the Hero Construction Company and the Heroic Imagination Project. Findings Heroic leadership is revealed as an emergent, dynamic and distributed form of sustainable development. Research limitations/implications This paper demonstrates the critical connections between heroism, sustainability, embodied leadership and well-being and how they stand to benefit from each other, individuals and communities at large. Social implications The implementation of HLESD in educational, counselling and broader contexts in consultation with a wide range of professionals stands to offer significant benefits to pedagogies, clinical practice, holistic therapies and twenty-first-century societies, at both the community and policy level. Originality/value The emerging field of heroism science and the use of heroic leadership as an interdisciplinary tool is a novel approach to well-being, which holds immense potential for the imagining and fostering of sustainable personal and collective futures.

Culture, desire and consumer culture in America in the new age of social media

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph Maschio
Keyword(s):  
Significant Finding ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Culture Creation ◽  
Consumer Desire

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that consumer desire plays in the creation of new culture forms. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an opinion piece based on the author’s reflections on hundreds of in-depth ethnographic interviews, each generally of three to four hours length, carried out over the past 20 years, concerning a range of product categories and services, on behalf of a wide range of business clients. Findings The most significant finding is that a desire for new forms of sociality is driving the creation of new forms of commercial culture and of communication in culture. Originality/value This paper takes the novel approach of considering consumer desire as an engine of culture creation and of culture change.

scholarly journals Identifying groups of entrepreneurial activities at universities

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fuller ◽  
David Pickernell
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Third Stream ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
Uk Higher Education ◽  
Education Business

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the entrepreneurial activities of universities in the UK can be statistically grouped together. Design/methodology/approach This paper is performing a principal component analysis (PCA) of the 2009/2010 UK Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCIS) data for the third stream activities of universities in the UK. Findings The PCA of the 144 included institutions identified four groups of entrepreneurial activities being engaged in by universities in the UK. Three of the four groups were related to spin-offs, labelled as “Staff Spin-off Activity”, “Non-HEI Owned Spin-Off Activity” and “Graduate Start-up Activity”. The remaining factor has been named “University Knowledge Exploitation Activity (UKEA)” and encompasses a wide range of university knowledge creation, exchange and exploitation activities. Research limitations/implications The research indicates, through a ranking system for each university for the various groups of entrepreneurial activities, that universities are often entrepreneurial in just one or two of the groups of entrepreneurial activities identified by the PCA. Identifying what is causing those differences is required to further understand why we see this variation across the HE sector. Originality/value The use of a PCA to identify groups of entrepreneurial activities is a novel approach. Typically studies use a select few indicators, such as spin-offs or patents to analyse the entrepreneurial activities of universities. This study uses PCA to group together statistically related activities which can then be used to identify what is driving these groups of activities in future studies.

Who owns the past? The politics of religious heritage in contemporary India

2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranjan Bandyopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Image ◽  
The Past ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Political Dimensions

Purpose This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the growing literature around the “politics of heritage” by focusing on India which has a multifaceted society with several layers of religious culture and history. Design/methodology/approach The work is based on an extensive review of the literature and philosophical discussions relating to the politics of heritage tourism and the political dimensions of nationalism and ethnicity from an interdisciplinary perspective. Findings The main purpose of this conceptual paper is to develop hypotheses. Hence, the study asks: How does postcolonial India reconstruct its past and how are religions represented as part of the national image and for the purpose of tourism promotion? How tourism and religious heritage support a broader secular dreamscape of harmonious cultural nationalism in India? Considering all allegations for supporting the Hindutva movement (who considers Hinduism to be the source of India’s “essential” identity and believes it alone can provide national cohesiveness) by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India, it is worth examining if there are any subtle changes to the tourism agenda created by the new government and the ambivalence surrounding it. Is there any place for the “foreigners” (Muslims and Christians) in Hindutva political ideology? Future scholars can analyze how tourism promotional material represents three major religions in the country by the current Indian Government (i.e. BJP) in its official tourism website: www.incredibleindia.org. This will take “politics of heritage” studies to a different trajectory, as analysis of web media has emerged as a critical medium in understanding numerous social processes. Research limitations/implications The paper draws on a wide range of seminal work by scholars of nationalism and ethnicity over the past few decades, but it cannot be comprehensive. Originality/value The paper’s originality lies in its novel approach to an understudied aspect in tourism studies (i.e. politics of heritage) and providing suggestions for future research.

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