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This paper reviews changing government policy on adult education in England over the past 20 years and the funding regimes affecting adult and community learning and union-led learning, which play a major role in learning opportunities for socially excluded adults.

A review and analysis of extant literature, informed by previous involvement in the sector and ongoing collaborations.

Two decades ago, adult education in England provided a variety of learning opportunities for people who either had limited qualifications or who needed to reskill for whatever reason. Access to those opportunities has been reduced just when it is most needed.

This is a review and viewpoint paper based on experience in England, the limitations of which are discussed in the concluding section. Notwithstanding the institutional specificities of adult education in England, many of the implications are generic and have wider relevance beyond this country context.

Economic recovery post-coronavirus (COVID) and Brexit will require more access to adult education so people can prepare for labour market re-integration. The practical implication of extending provision in adult education to support labour market integration of vulnerable workers is relevant to most countries.

This paper takes a holistic view of adult education, with particular attention to adult and community learning and union-led learning.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight systemic factors of competence-based integration of retired military officers into the civilian labour market in terms of the perspective of the institutions and institutional settings of competence involved in the formation and deployment.

This study is based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 25 retired military officers in Lithuania.

The main institutional problems and challenges of the competence-based labour market integration of retired military officers involve are concentrated in the fields of deployment of skills in the military service, and as well as in the adjustment of acquired skills to the requirements of the civilian labour market.

The main limitation of the research is the absence of perspectives and attitudes of other stakeholders such as policy makers, employers and providers of education and training.

Research identified expectations of retired military officers concerning improvement of training and labour market integration services.

The paper is focused on the institutional aspects of competence-based labour market integration of the retired military officers from their perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of remittances on human development in developing countries using panel data from 1980 to 2014 and to address the critical question of whether the increasing trend of remittances has any impact on human development in a broad range of developing countries.

Usual panel estimates, such as pooled OLS, fixed or random effects model, possess specification issues such as endogeneity, heterogeneity and measurement errors. In this paper, we, therefore, apply dynamic panel estimates – System generalised method of moment (Sys-GMM) developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995). This estimator is able to control for the endogeneity of all the explanatory variables, account for unobserved country-specific effects that cannot be done using country dummies due to the dynamic structure of the model (Azman-Saini et al., 2010).

The effect of remittances is statistically significant with positive coefficients in developing countries. The significant coefficient of remittances means that, holding other variables constant, a rise in remittance inflows is associated with improvements in human development. A 10 per cent increase in remittances will lead to an increase of approximately 0.016 per cent in human development. These findings are consistent with Üstubuci and Irdam (2012) and Adenutsi (2010), who found evidence that remittances are positively correlated with human development.

The paper considers implications for policymakers to justify the need for more effective approaches. Policymakers need to consider indicators of human development and to devise public policies that promote income, health and education, to enhance human development.

The question of whether remittances affect human development has rarely been subject to systematic empirical study. Extant research does not resolve the endogeneity problem, whereas the present study provides empirical evidence by utilising dynamic panel estimators such as Sys-GMM to tackle the specification issues of endogeneity, measurement errors and heterogeneity. The present study provides a benchmark for future research on the effect of remittances on human development.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the concept of graduate work readiness (GWR) from a stakeholder perspective. The research attempts to pull together the various multidisciplinary themes from the literature into a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between graduates and the labour market, considering the international dimension of what is a global phenomenon.

The critical review is divided into four distinct sections, the first is to contextualise the concept of GWR and graduate employability taking into account recent academic discussion, particularly in the EU and ASEAN; second, to explore the different perspectives of stakeholders in the “triple helix” of universities, governments and the corporate world; third, critically to assess the arguments that educational provision is poorly aligned with labour market needs; and finally, to investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution for graduate jobs and skills and propose an agenda for future research.

Despite the apparent consensus between stakeholders over the central importance of graduate employability, there is considerable diversity in how each imagines GWR is best assured.

Any review is limited by the extant literature and whilst it is not uncommon that most research has been done in North America, Western Europe and Australasia, this is a serious limitation. GWR is a global concern and this review shows the need for more research that extends beyond the dominant geographical focus and its attendant paradigms. The implication is that geography is important and local research is needed to develop solutions that fit specific cultural, economic and institutional contexts.

The paper highlights the need to reconcile different stakeholder perspectives on GWR and ensure that they work together on shared agendas to improve graduate transition to the labour market. At the same time, the profound changes being brought about by the fourth industrial revolution suggest that more attention should be paid to the employability of existing employees.

This review should prove useful to both academics and practitioners because it emphasises the need to treat GWR as a concept that varies according to context and stakeholder interests, rather than a homogeneous phenomenon.

This paper aims to examine the effect of high-involvement work systems (HIWSs) on completing work and avoiding distraction as two dimensions of presenteeism. It also investigates competence as a mediator of the effect of HIWS on presenteeism.

Data were collected from 343 Bangladeshi bank employees using an online survey. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess the abovementioned linkages.

The findings demonstrate HIWS directly avoid distraction but do not significantly impact the completing work dimension of presenteeism. The findings also indicate that competence mediates the effect of HIWS on completing work but not on avoiding distraction.

Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study empirically demonstrates the contrasting role of HIWS in completing work and avoiding distraction related to presenteeism. It also provides a novel perspective on the unexplored mediating mechanism of competence on the relationship between HIWS and presenteeism and offers new directions for HIWS and presenteeism research.

This paper aims to investigate issues affecting the integration of retired military officers into civilian work using a competence model as an analytical framework.

The paper combines literature review with empirical study. The primary method of data collection was a series of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 25 retired army officers in Lithuania.

Despite evidence that a career as an officer in the military develops valuable competencies that have obvious potential in the civilian labour market, the integration of retired army officers into the civilian labour market is fraught with difficulties. Apart from the obvious inappropriateness of specific competencies associated with armed combat for civilian occupations, even competencies acquired in military service that align closely with those required in civilian jobs do not necessarily translate because of different contexts and different value systems.

The empirical basis is limited to army officers in Lithuania, and the authors urge caution in extrapolating to other military personnel and other countries. To the extent that the approach has generic value, there are clearly implications for demobilisation after major conflicts or return to civilian life of personnel involved in international peace-keeping.

This exploratory research suggests that a competence framework can identify limits and possibilities of aligning competencies acquired in military service with those required in civilian occupations, provided context and values are incorporated as part of the analysis. The approach piloted in this paper could be useful more widely for facilitating mobility between sectors and occupations arising from the adoption of disruptive technologies.

The paper demonstrates the value of a structured approach to comparing competencies in context and the mediating role of values in moving from military to civilian occupations.

The purpose of this article is to explore diversity in competence models across Europe and consider the extent to which there is sufficient common ground for a common European approach to underpin the European Qualifications Framework.

The paper uses a literature review and interviews with policy makers.

Despite the central role of competence in policy initiatives, conceptual approaches to competence vary not only between but also within different member states. This diversity embodies not only language issues but also fundamental cultural differences in approaches to skill formation. Whether the models have sufficient common ground to permit a “best‐fit” European‐wide approach is open to question, although this is clearly an essential prerequisite for removing barriers to labour mobility. Despite initiatives like the European Qualifications Framework there is still no consensus for adopting a common competence model and policy discussions continue to reveal confusion.

The focus on policy discussions at the European level may be a limitation, and readers should see this as the introductory scene setting to more detailed discussions in the following papers of important developments within member states. Beyond this, much is happening at the level of sectors and occupations that is the focus for practical implementation.

The paper highlights the urgent need to develop a coherent conceptual underpinning for competence descriptors in qualifications frameworks that will work as a best‐fit approach across Europe. Without this, occupational and inter‐sector mobility will be hindered.

The paper offers the most comprehensive assessment of European approaches to competence to date.