Investigating career intentions of undergraduate paramedic students studying in Queensland, Australia

IntroductionThis study explores the career intentions of undergraduate university paramedic students. Other like studies have been completed before paramedicine registration, and this is the first career intentions study to focus on the Queensland perspective. Methods Second year Queensland University of Technology (QUT) undergraduate paramedic students (n=182) were invited to participate. Ethics approval was gained and consent to participate was implied by the completion of a mixed methods questionnaire developed from the extant literature. Data were coded and analysed using Stata 15.1 and NVIVO 12. ResultsThe response rate was 47.3% (n=86). Findings indicated 82.35% of participants intend to pursue paramedic employment after graduating. Queensland Ambulance Service is the preferred choice of employer (78.05%), however 67.07% intended to apply to multiple services for employment, 62.2% are considering private industry employment and 59.76% are contemplating overseas work. Intended paramedicine career length revealed 39.5% of participants plan to work for 20 years or more, 29% for 6–10 years and 18.4% for 11–15 years. Qualitative findings suggest students are concerned about employment opportunities, dislocation from support networks, and feeling unprepared to work in other paramedic jurisdictions. Furthermore, the employer’s reputation, culture, internship program and career development opportunities impact on employment decisions. ConclusionThe paramedic landscape in Australia appears to be changing. Although the majority of participants intend to work for jurisdictional ambulance services, students are exploring a range of employment opportunities. Understanding the career intentions of undergraduate paramedic students is essential for universities when preparing students for the transition to a globally evolving profession.

Antecedents of work readjustment of professional returnees: evidence from Vietnam

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing work readjustment of Vietnamese returnees who used to study and/or work in a developed country and are currently working in different positions in their home country. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected through a survey of 433 returnees using both paper-based and online surveys. Multiple regression was used to test the relationships in the model. Findings The findings show that while the length of time spent overseas, work expectations and subjective norm significantly affect work readjustment, the influences of age, gender and length of time since return on work readjustment are not supported. Practical implications The findings provide useful insights for home country government and managers of returnees developing repatriation programs that help returnees deal with the issue of poor work readjustment. Originality/value Empirical studies on cross-cultural re-entry adjustment of both self-initiated repatriates and international students are scarcely investigated. Most prior studies focused on individual factors (such as gender, age, duration in overseas and since return), research on the effect of work expectation on work readjustment is still scant. Most prior studies focused on examining the relationship between work expectation and work readjustment of company repatriates, however, this relationship in the context of returnees, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, has not been investigated. Furthermore, this study is the first to examine the influence of subjective norm on work readjustment of returnees.

WIL-Power: Towards a Signature Pedagogy in Journalism

Capstone courses in undergraduate education, especially in professional schools such as journalism, usually try to teach students to think and perform like the future practitioners they intend to become. Internships, practice-based subjects, work experience courses—they all aim to bridge the students’ knowledge from the largely theoretical to the urgently practical; knowledge that will be essential in the workplace, whether it’s a doctor in a hospital, a lawyer in a courtroom or a teacher in a classroom. Shulman’s ground-breaking insight was to articulate these as Signature Pedagogies and to define them clearly in three dimensions—to think, to perform, and to act with integrity—just as experienced practitioners in the field are doing. This article contends that overseas Work Integrated Learning (WIL) courses such as those examined here, conducted by the researcher for the University of Queensland (UQ), are a Signature Pedagogy because the student participants are required to behave, think and perform ethically, just as foreign correspondents must do.

Multinational Expansion of Worker Cooperatives and Their Employment Practices: Markets, Institutions, and Politics in Mondragon

Drawing on qualitative research and longitudinal data on two Mondragon multinational cooperatives, the authors examine the multinational expansion of these co-ops and the diffusion of the cooperative model’s employment practices to their subsidiaries in Brazil, China, Slovakia, France, and Poland. The results show that international expansion can radically transform the organizational architecture of co-ops and exacerbate dilemmas about how to put their hallmark values into practice. Moreover, the findings reveal a fragmented and inconsistent introduction of the cooperative model overseas. Work organization practices are homogeneous across the various sites, whereas job security, training, and pay equity practices are not. Core cooperative practices (i.e., employee participation in ownership, profit sharing, and general management) have not been implemented in any foreign operation. The study illustrates how market influences, institutions, and macro- and micro-politics shape the transfer of employment practices.

Misfit or xenophillia

Purpose Overseas work experiences have played a critical role in venture creation and success, yet the impact of overseas work experience on returnee entrepreneurs’ venture capital funding in the Chinese market remains understudied. This paper aims to explore the impact of returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas experiences on their opportunities of venture capital funding in China to help better understand the potential benefits that overseas work experiences bring to emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors have conducted a two-year inductive field study to explore the impact of overseas experiences on Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ funding in the Chinese market with in-depth interviews with returnee capital seekers (or the venture founders) and capital providers. Findings The results show that returnee entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed in acquiring financial resources for their new ventures if they skillfully present their overseas work experiences and international networks to manage the impression constructed by capital providers. Originality/value This research sheds light on how returnee entrepreneurs use impression management in external resource acquisition. It is clear that overseas experience has been regarded a symbol of personal capability closely associated with advanced knowledge and valuable human and social capital in the Chinese context. Resource holders appreciate such an association. The authors suggest that returnee entrepreneurs concerned about how to effectively acquire external resources should reflect upon the ways of presenting themselves to potential investors and fostering a positive image that encourages investors to commit to their ventures.