Informal learning and work engagement among older workers

Purpose Transfer of key skills and knowledge between older and younger workers remains vital for ongoing firm success. The effectiveness of this process can be increased when organizations provide opportunities for informal learning that serve to heighten levels of work engagement among older employees. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Transfer of key skills and knowledge between older and younger workers remains vital for ongoing firm success. The effectiveness of this process can be increased when organizations provide opportunities for informal learning that serve to heighten levels of work engagement among older employees. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers’ hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Qualitative Interviews Exploring the Views of Healthcare Professionals Working in a Mental Health Trust in England on Pharmacists as Future Approved Clinicians

BackgroundThe Mental Health Act 1983 was amended in 2007 introducing the role of the Approved Clinician (AC) which could be assumed by individuals from several professional groups. Although the role of mental health pharmacists have undergone significant transformation over the past few decades, pharmacists remain ineligible to train and practise as an AC. There is a paucity of research on non-medical ACs and there are currently no known studies exploring the potential of mental health pharmacists to be considered for the role of AC in future.AimThis qualitative research explored the views and attitudes of a range of healthcare professionals towards the role of the mental health pharmacist, and whether they could and/or should be enabled, via a legislative change, to become ACs in the future.MethodRecruitment based on systematic purposive sampling principles took place at one mental health trust in England. Six pharmacists, five medical ACs and two experienced mental health nurses participated in digitally audio-recorded semi-structured interviews between June-November 2020. The recordings were transcribed verbatim before being inductively coded and thematically analysed.ResultsNotwithstanding the wide recognition among participants of several key skills possessed by mental health pharmacists, various obstacles were also identified to their becoming ACs in future, including prevalent conventional models of pharmacy services delivery restricting adequate patient access, as well as insufficient training opportunities to acquire advanced clinical skills particularly in diagnosis and assessment. Participants also highlighted wider concerns with current uptake of the non-medical AC role which could influence the success of pharmacists’ involvement, including legislative restrictions and a lack of perceived training support.ConclusionChanges to the skill mix within multidisciplinary mental health teams as well as to the training of staff may be required to equip pharmacists with essential skills to be able to transition towards the AC role. Further research is required to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing the clinical development and enhanced utilisation of highly specialised mental health pharmacists across services.

Impact of design thinking in higher education: a multi-actor perspective on problem solving and creativity

This study investigates the effects of using design thinking on students’ problem solving and creativity skills, applying a constructivist learning theory. A course where students use design thinking for analyzing real problems and proposing a solution, was evaluated. The study involved 910 novice university students from different disciplines who worked in teams throughout the semester. Data were collected at three times during the semester, i.e. at the beginning (t0), in the middle (t1) and at the end (t2), after solving a short case study. Each time the problem solving and creativity skill of each student was rated by three different actors, i.e. the students themselves (self-evaluation), one peer and one teacher (facilitator). The objective of this study is to investigate whether the problem solving skills and creativity skills improved along the course, as rated by the three actors. A repeated measures ANOVA was used for the data analysis of this within-subjects design. Results show a significant improvement on students’ problem solving and creativity skills, according to the three raters. Effect sizes were also calculated; in all cases the effect sizes from t0 to t1 were larger than t1 to t2. The multi-actor perspective of this study, the adoption of reliable and valid measures and the large sample size provide robust evidence that supports the implementation of design thinking in higher education curriculum for promoting key skills such as problem solving and creativity, demanded by labor markets. Finally, a discussion that puts forward an agenda for future research is presented.

Hospitality education in New Zealand prisons

New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates per capita when compared to the rest of the developed world. People who offend in New Zealand have a 43% chance of reoffending within the first 24 months of their release [1]. It is estimated that approximately 60% of people who offend have literacy and numeracy skills lower than the NCEA Level 1 competency, and 66% of adults have no formal qualifications [2, 3]. A focus on literacy and numeracy, support through baseline education, and specific trades like hospitality, can start to refine the options of a person who offends, further enabling them to start developing goals that will support their futures [4]. Since 2014, the Department of Corrections/Ara Poutama Aotearoa has been upgrading the prison-based educational programmes available to people who offend to achieve this. Goals have been set to integrate the in-prison education with the nationally recognised level of education along with practical elements such as kitchen work, housekeeping and other service-based vocations such as hairdressing and customer service. The courses are relatively short, ranging from six to 12 weeks, and provide key skills and the foundations for further study. Evidence from overseas has found that hospitality and, specifically, catering programmes are a tool that positively impacts the way people who offend engage with their rehabilitation; creating an experience through the sharing and giving of food is seen as a way to reintegrate and regain a sense of achievement and being of service through meaningful social connections and employment. Our study carried out a systematic literature review of the effectiveness of hospitality training and education in correctional facilities. Evidence was found of the effectiveness of educational programmes within prisons and their positive impact on recidivism. It was also found that hospitality training initiatives, such as those provided in prison training restaurants open to the public for dining, could offer a unique opportunity that allows people who offend to change the negative public perceptions held about them. In New Zealand, we have unique tikanga-based initiatives that support people who offend to reintegrate back into the public environment and their families, with reduced reoffending [5]. The literature showed, convincingly, that education leads to opportunities for post-release employment and the ability to manage work-life balance, reintegration into society, and gain skills that support long-term prosperity [3]. Czerniawski [6] sees education as a key step in making a positive change in the lives of people who offend, especially if followed by a period of post-release support. Our study also revealed the challenges of providing hospitality education in prisons. Prison security risks, risk of lockdowns, student mental health, lack of educational resources and support services, and lack of set-up and sustainable funding for educational programmes were seen as hindrances to the success of prison education programmes. Lack of post-release support and the negative stigma of people who offend perceived by the public and employers were further noted issues of concern. Likewise, prison culture, staff retention, general misconduct and mistrust were also cited as aspects of concern [7]. Giousmpasoglou and colleagues [8] suggested that people who offend would prefer education programmes that were carried out by external facilitators over in-prison programmes. The importance of networks between educators, support workers and employers are important in this regard. With the hospitality industry facing a skills shortage and with its low barriers to entry, there is potential to build upon the success of existing hospitality education programmes to build skills, pride and a second chance for those who are engaging in rehabilitation. There is also an opportunity to consider tertiary pathways for these hospitality graduates and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the Department of Corrections/Ara Poutama Aotearoa could consider the success of initiatives such as The Clink Charity training restaurants in the UK in supporting rehabilitation through hospitality training and work. Corresponding author Madz Crouth can be contacted at: [email protected] References (1) Boomen, M. Where New Zealand Stands Internationally: A Comparison of Offence Profiles and Recidivism Rates. Practice: The New Zealand Corrections Journal 2018, 6 (1), 87–96. https://www.corrections.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/33449/Practice_Journal_Vol6_Iss1_July_2018_WEB.pdf (accessed Dec 1, 2021). (2) Corrections. Prison Facts and statistics – December 2020, 2020. https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_december_2020 (accessed Dec 1, 2021). (3) Corrections. Prison Facts and Statistics – March 2020, 2020. https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_march_2020 (accessed Dec 1, 2021). (4) Harkison, T.; McIntosh, A. Hospitality Training for Prisoners. Hospitality Insights 2019, 3 (1), 5–6. https://doi.org/10.24135/hi.v3i1.52 (5) Hamer, P.; Paul, J.; Hunia, M. Hōkai Rangi: Context and Background to the Development of Ara Poutama Aotearoa Strategy 2019–2024. Practice: The New Zealand Corrections Journal 2021, 8 (1), 18–22. https://www.corrections.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/43208/Practice_Journal_2021_Final_Web_Version.pdf (accessed Dec 1, 2021). (6) Czerniawski, G. A. Race to the Bottom – Prison Education and the English and Welsh Policy Context. Journal of Education Policy 2016, 31 (2), 198–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1062146 (7) Chui, W. H.; Cheng, K. K.-Y. The Mark of an Ex-Prisoner: Perceived Discrimination and Self-Stigma of Young Men after Prison in Hong Kong. Deviant Behavior 2013, 34 (8), 671–684. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2013.766532 (8) Giousmpasoglou, C.; Brown, L.; Marinakou, E. Training Prisoners as Hospitality Workers: The Case of the CLINK Charity; Paper presented at the Travel & Tourism Research Association (TTRA) 2019: European Chapter Conference, 2019. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/31827/1/Giousmpasoglou-Brown-Marinakou_TTRA19_conference_Final.pdf (accessed Dec 1, 2021).

Exploring medical students’ perceptions of the challenges and benefits of volunteering in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

ObjectivesIn March 2020, the WHO declared SARS-CoV-2 a pandemic. Hospitals across the world faced staff, bed and supply shortages, with some European hospitals calling on medical students to fill the staffing gaps. This study aimed to document the impact of volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ professional development, resilience and future perceived career choices.DesignThis is a retrospective, qualitative study of student reflections, using purposive sampling.The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences recruited 26 medical student volunteers to assist in pronation and supination of ventilated patients affected by SARS-CoV-2. These students were invited to complete an anonymous survey based on their experiences as volunteers. Thematic analysis was performed on these written reflections.ResultsThe results showed that volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic developed key skills from RCSI’s medical curriculum, significantly fostered medical students’ resilience and guided their career choices. Major areas of development included communication, teamwork, compassion and altruism, which are not easily developed through the formal curriculum. A further area that was highlighted was the importance of evidence-based health in a pandemic. Finally, our respondents were early stage medical students with limited clinical exposure. Some found the experience difficult to cope with and therefore supports should be established for students volunteering in such a crisis.ConclusionThese results suggest that clinical exposure is an important driver in developing students’ resilience and that volunteering during a pandemic has multiple benefits to students’ professional development and professional identity formation.

Experiential Learning Through the Eyes of Emirati Students

General Studies courses are core to the whole education philosophy espoused in the United Arab Emirates. These courses provide a wider breadth of knowledge for students by fostering skills such as critical thinking, global awareness, research and communication. This paves the way for building the UAE’s knowledge base and delivering graduates who can compete globally through research and innovation. The research explores the role of experiential learning within General Studies to cultivate these key skills, and seeks to capture students’ responses to this type of learning. This is a mixed methods study that includes ethnographic data collection, uncovering the complexities of a lived classroom learning experience from the perspective of the students. Data was collected from interviews with students, written reflections and a Likert scale survey. Results suggest that Emirati female students respond favourably to experiential learning, thus countering previous findings about their preferred learning style. This study contributes significantly to a field with scant knowledge of experiential learning as a vehicle for instruction in a tertiary Emirati context. Key words: Experiential Learning, General Studies, Intercultural Learning,

The lapbook as an innovative way to organize learning activities in elementary schools

The article analyzes the views of scientists on the use of lapbooking in elementary schools. It is found that the methodology of lapbooking allows you to unlock the potential of each student in the process of creating individual or more often collective work. In particular, the lapbook forms key skills and abilities, which are required by the educational vector of the New Ukrainian School. In addition, it takes into account cross-curricular learning and social competencies, which help each individual to become successful and adapt in society. The article proves that the use of Lapbooks is reasonable not only when studying a single topic, but also as a complex, systemic type of work, as close to the project and research activities as possible. It was found out that the introduction of lapbooking at different stages of studying subjects is effective, as it covers different types of activity: pair and group work; search methods and work with information (ability to work with sources, generalize and systematize, draw conclusions, formulate own statements concisely and informatively). It is noted that the technique of lapbooking can be applied as early as preschool age with a gradual complication of high school. Consequently, the general essence of lapbooking is systematized with the help of integrative diagrams and charts. It is determined that the educational industry must be flexible to timely respond to changes in society and provide the professional market with specialists, successful and active citizens who are able not only to adapt, but also to realize themselves. The innovativeness of the lapbooking method is that it combines different areas of activity simultaneously: informational, research, design, communicative, creative, technological, aesthetic. The results of the study allow us to recommend lapbooking as the main method of work in elementary school (when studying any topic or academic subject).

Understanding Matchmakers’ Experiences, Principles and Practices of Assembling Innovation Teams

The team composition of a project team is an essential determinant of the success of innovation projects that aim to produce novel solution ideas. Team assembly is essentially complex and sensitive decision-making, yet little supported by information technology (IT). In order to design appropriate digital tools for team assembly, and team formation more broadly, we call for profoundly understanding the practices and principles of matchmakers who manually assemble teams in specific contexts. This paper reports interviews with 13 expert matchmakers who are regularly assembling multidisciplinary innovation teams in various organizational environments in Finland. Based on qualitative analysis of their experiences, we provide insights into their established practices and principles in team assembly. We conceptualize and describe common tactical approaches on different typical levels of team assembly, including arranging approaches like “key-skills-first”, “generalist-first” and “topic-interest-first”, and balancing approaches like “equally-skilled-teams” and “high-expertise-teams”. The reported empirical insights can help to design IT systems that support team assembly according to different tactics.

Key skills and competencies of LIS professionals in the digital library environment: a content analysis of job advertisements

PurposeThe main purpose of this research study is to identify the essential skills and competencies sought by prospective employers for library and information science (LIS) positions in India. The research study aims to find out various designated positions in job advertisements.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from a major weekly job journal “Employment News” in India over five years from 2016 to 2020. The Employment News provides the latest job vacancies of central/state governments, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies in India. Each issue of Employment News was carefully scanned and searched for job advertisements in the field of LIS. The researcher analyzed various posts on permanent, deputation and short-term contracts to gain insights into the job’s skills.FindingsThe findings highlight that public sector academic and school libraries are the top employers of LIS professionals. One of the most frequent demands of employers is profession-related work experience. Results show that employers place the strongest emphasis on library administration, computer knowledge, technical skills, managerial skills and soft skills. Library management, library supervision and procurement of journals and books are the primary job responsibilities for top-level positions.Research limitations/implicationsThe weekly job journal, Employment News, is the largest source of LIS jobs in publicly funded organizations and institutions in India. It does not cover private educational institutes, industries and corporates. Job-related data were collected solely from this journal for the duration of 2016–2020. Therefore, this research study does not fully represent the LIS job market with regard to private educational institutes and corporate organizations.Practical implicationsThe research findings can help LIS professionals prepare themselves according to market needs and demands. The LIS school should integrate these required skills and competencies into the course curriculum for preparing professionals in the digital age.Originality/valueThe results are benchmarked to guide and evaluate LIS course curricula in India. LIS schools may emphasize soft skills in future curriculum design, which employers frequently seek.

The Roles of Social-Emotional Skills in Students’ Academic and Life Success: A Multi-Informant, Multi-Cohort Perspective

Although social-emotional skills are more malleable than cognitive skills and have potential benefits for a range of academic and life outcomes, previous studies on the topic have suffered from many issues (e.g., consideration of only a small subset of skills, single-informant and single-cohort design). To address these limitations, this study used a multi-informant (self, teacher, and parent) and multi-cohort (ages 10 and 15 from Finland, N = 5,533) perspective to study the association between social-emotional skills and 20 educational (e.g., school grades and engagement), psychological (e.g., life satisfaction, social relationships), and health outcomes (e.g., eating habits, sleep trouble). Results showed that (a) there was a modest level of inter-rater agreement on social-emotional skills, with the highest agreement between students and parents (mean r = .41); (b) inclusion of multi-informant ratings substantially enhanced the ability of social-emotional skills in predicting outcome variables, with parent- and self-rated skills playing important, unique roles; (c) by modeling skills at the facet-level rather than at the domain-level, we identified the key skills for different outcomes and found significant variation in facets’ predictive utility even within the same domain; (d) although the old cohort showed lower levels of most social-emotional skills (9/15), there were only very minor changes in the inter-rater agreement and predictive utility on outcomes. Overall, Self-Control, Optimism, Trust, and Energy were found among the four most important skills for academic and life success. We further identifed unique contribution of each skill for certain outcomes, which points the way to effective and precise interventions.