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Vocational education and training (VET) programmes are key contributors to skill and talent development for nations worldwide, as aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). The purpose of this paper is to explore gender inclusion in VET programmes from an economic feminist (EF) theoretical perspective.

This integrative literature review identified and analysed relevant empirical studies to create a more comprehensive representation of supports for global gender equity and economic growth through VET.

A gap exists between EF theory, human resource development and VET practices. Consequently, instructor preparation and practice do not adequately contribute to equitable workplaces beyond VET programmes. VET programmes continually struggle to create inclusive environments that support women and challenge masculinized fields and workplace norms.

This paper limits empirical studies addressing gender in VET. Future empirical work should investigate the value to students, instructors and communities when masculine industry norms are reconstructed and redesigned for gender inclusivity.

VET advisors and instructors are influential in contextualizing vocational fields for students and influencing students’ career trajectories. Women need more accessible training and employment in traditional masculine industries.

This comprehensive review of gender in VET can aid in inclusivity efforts of programmes and employers and support nations’ efforts to achieve the UN’s SDGs.

As issues around refugee rights have come to public attention following the surge in asylum application in Europe in 2015, several responses have been developed by universities in England to extend the welcome to refugees in both local communities and on their campuses. While some institutions act on their own, others have created social relationships and collaborations with local and national third-sector organizations, on which they can rely for their experience of working with and access to refugees and other forced migrants, in return offering their expertise and resources. The purpose of this chapter is to describe one such collaboration setup to support refugees residing in the City of York, in the North of England, UK. While not perfect, the York university–community partnership for refugees is a successful one, delivering tangible benefits for all the interested parties – most importantly, for the forced migrants themselves. Within this chapter, the partnership’s origins, its evolving aims and objectives, and the current outcomes of the collaboration are discussed. The chapter concludes by offering perspectives on the reasons why the partnership became successful, as well as acknowledging its challenges and limitations, drawing valuable lessons for both higher education institutions and community organizations in other parts of the world.

Drawing on my own experiences at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a college professor of radical social change for 31 years who has been focused on the climate crisis for the past 10, I explore the crisis of higher education with respect to this most pressing existential challenge of the twenty-first century and propose various approaches, actions, activities, and projects for both classroom teachers and networks of educators.

These include the UC-CSU NXTerra Knowledge Action Network, the UCSB-developed nearly carbon neutral conference, and engaging students in designing and implementing systemic alternatives outside the classroom in their own communities such as Eco Vista in the 23,000-person community of Isla Vista just adjacent to UC Santa Barbara, among others.

The essay will end with a vision of a new type of university, exemplified in the world-spanning Ecoversities Alliance, and dreamed of in Transition U and Eco Vista U, two prototypes that I have been involved in co-creating with students, staff, faculty and community members in Santa Barbara, California, and in the Transition US movement.

THE whole agenda of the recent Conference had as its focus the motion for a reconstruction of the authority side of library service which formed the central and most exciting item of the Annual General Meeting. It is admitted that a new Libraries Act is needed and that such an act will be concerned with public libraries; but it should, we think, have some reference to the whole pattern of libraries, publicly owned, and not only to those of municipalities and counties. A conference in which all were represented could therefore appropriately deal with every branch of our work and did so, excepting only the commercial subscription lending library although distinguished representatives of these listened to the discussions.

Ideally, quality should be, and is, an integral element of education, yet capturing and articulating quality is not simple. Programme quality reviews in third-level education can demonstrate quality and identify areas for improvement, offering many potential benefits. However, details on the process of quality programme review are limited in the literature. This study aims to report on the introduction of a standardised programme review process in one university.

Using a standardised template, the annual programme review (APR) process captured student voice, external examiner reports, statistical data and action/s since the previous review. Following completion of programme reviews across the university, the APR process was itself evaluated using questionnaires and focus groups.

Findings showed that the programme chairs understood the rationale for the review, welcomed the standardised format and felt the information could inform future programme planning. However, in the focus group, issues arose about the timing, ownership and possible alternate use of the data collected in the course of the review.

This case study demonstrates the experience of APR in a single third-level institution, therefore, limiting generalisability.

APR offers a comprehensive record of the programme that can be carried out with efficacy and efficiency. The study illustrates one institution’s experience, and this may assist others in using similar quality evaluation tools. Using APR allows quality to be measured, articulated and improved.

Using APR allows quality, or its lack to be to be measured, articulated and improved in the delivery of education at a third-level institution.

This study demonstrates the experience of the introduction of an APR process in one higher education institute. Programme review is an important and essential part of academia in the 21st century. At third level, quality assurance is, or should be, a central part of academic programmes and delivery. The review of the first implementation has provided valuable information that will inform future programme review processes. Academic programmes grow, evolve and need to be reviewed regularly. It is hoped that the information reported here will aid others developing academic review procedures.

A broad range of policy evaluations below is begun in Chapter 2 by Kate Johnston, Colette Henry and Simon Gillespie in their evaluation entitled ‘Encouraging Research and Development in Ireland's Biotechnology Enterprises’. This investigation critically evaluates Irish government policy towards biotechnology development over a preceding 10-year period. In Chapter 3, Anthony Ward, Sarah Cooper, Frank Cave and William Lucas examine ‘The Effect of Industrial Experience on Entrepreneurial Intent and Self-Efficacy in UK Engineering Undergraduates’ in a large-scale study that generally produces satisfactory results in terms of raising the profile of entrepreneurship among undergraduates. Deirdre Hunt, in Chapter 4, again focuses on the evolution of strategy in Ireland, this time towards the more general topic of new firm formation with a personal contribution entitled ‘Now You See Them — Now You Don’t: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-Ups’.

Organizational climates reflect employee perceptions of the way organizational culture is actualized and most studies explore one or two climates only. The present study uses a positive organizational behavior approach and conservation of resources theory to explore a global positive climate (GPC) encompassing five climates: perceive organizational support, psychosocial safety climate, organizational mindfulness, worthy work and inclusion climate. The GPC is used to predict employee engagement and job satisfaction, with psychological capital as a mediator. Beyond this, high performance work systems (HPWS) are included as a moderator of GPC to test the potential way HR practices might interact with positive climates to achieve superior outcomes.

A large sample (n = 1,007) of New Zealand workers across a wide range of occupations and industries. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the data was used and moderated mediation tests were conducted.

GPC is significantly related to psychological capital, employee engagement and job satisfaction, and while psychological capital also predicts the outcomes, and has some mediation effects on GPC influence, GPC remains significant. HPWS is significantly related to psychological capital only and interacts with GPC leading to the highest psychological capital and employee engagement. Significant moderated mediation effects are found, with the indirect effect of GPC increasing as HPWS increase.

This research is important because it provides empirical evidence around a GPC and shows how organizations and HRM managers can enhance key employee attitudes through building a strong climate and providing important HR practices.

Beyond unique effects from GPC, the findings provide useful theoretical insights toward conservation of resources theory.

This paper applies concepts from organizational theory as well as physics to elucidate the role of time in the US education system’s efforts to recuperate from the pandemic. This paper contributes to an important body of work focusing on implementation of reform efforts in education that use time in innovative ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted time in educational organizations and, thus, for educators and students. Time has been a vital tool for educational reform, yet many applications of organizational theory and literature on educational change neglect to underscore its importance. The authors explore resources, guidelines and practices related to time employed to recuperate from pandemic-related disruptions to schooling.

The authors discuss three cases in which time has been utilized to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) accelerated learning; (2) extended time; and (3) redeveloped professional learning. For each case, the authors demonstrate how time has been conceptualized and how leaders are stretching the space-time of schooling to provide resources and learning opportunities to students and educators.

This article describes how district and school leaders can draw on their agency to reshape time-use in educational organizations.

This article advances an innovative framework demonstrating the importance of time in educational change. The authors also portray innovative models that provide time for students to receive an array of responsive, equity-centered, academic and SEL opportunities and for educators to collaborate, continuing their own development amid the ever-shifting Covid-context.

The purpose of this research is to assess the removal of oil spills from the seawater surface as well as the antibacterial activity of ZnFe₂O₄-cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, cationic surfactant) magnetic nanoparticles (ZFO-CTAB MNPs).

A CTAB-assisted sol–gel method was used to synthesize ZFO-CTAB MNPs. X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used for ZFO-CTAB MNPs characterization. Also, the magnetic force and apparent density of ZFO-CTAB MNPs were determined. The oil spill cleanup was investigated by using the gravimetric oil removal (GOR) technique, which used ZFO-CTAB MNPs as oil absorbent material and four oil samples (crude, diesel, gasoline and used oil) as oil spill models. The antibacterial activity of ZFO-CTAB MNPs against Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi) was investigated by using the optical density method.

The results revealed that, when the amount of ZFO-CTAB was 0.01 g, gasoline oil had the highest GOR (51.80 ± 0.88 g/g) and crude oil had the lowest (11.29 ± 0.82 g/g). Furthermore, for Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ZFO-CTAB MNPs inhibited bacterial growth with a higher percentage (94.24%–95.63%).

The applications of ZFO-CTAB MNPs in the cleanup of oil spills from aqueous solutions, as well as their antibacterial activity. The results showed that ZFO-CTAB MNPs are a promising material for removing oil spills from bodies of water as well as an antibacterial agent against Gram-negative bacterial strains.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the prediction of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) using X-ray image.

This study proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) approach to predict COVID-19.

Prediction of COVID-19 using CNN.

The work has implemented multiple CNN models to classify chest X-ray of affected patients by using their chest scans. According to three models, the ResNet-50 is advantageous because of its high service reliability.