Thomas Bolli, Johanna Kemper, Mahesh Nath Parajuli, Ursula Renold and Binayak Krishna Thapa
The authors analyse drivers and barriers of implementing and scaling-up a pilot project of a dual vocational and education programme in Nepal.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors analyse drivers and barriers of implementing and scaling-up a pilot project of a dual vocational and education programme in Nepal.
Design/methodology/approach
The 5C protocol distinguishes five categories of drivers and barriers of education reforms: commitment, capacity, clients, content and context. The authors build on the 5C protocol to develop a qualitative empirical framework based on semi-structured interviews amongst stakeholders.
Findings
The results show that involved actors are committed. Capacity in terms of available resources also represents an implementation driver, but companies lack information about the programme. Consequently, industry associations should receive a more prominent role in the motivation of companies to provide training places. The content category is the most challenging implementation barrier because the programme represents a substantial change, compared to the current vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Nepal.
Originality/value
First, the authors propose a framework for a qualitative content analysis to analyse the drivers and barriers of implementing and scaling-up education reforms. Second, the authors provide novel information about drivers and barriers of an education reform in Nepal.
Details
Keywords
Thomas Bolli and Ursula Renold
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the questions as to how important skills are; which skills can best be learned at school, and which skills can be acquired better in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the questions as to how important skills are; which skills can best be learned at school, and which skills can be acquired better in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors exploit data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland.
Findings
The authors find that skills used in the business processes strategic management, human resource management, organizational design, and project management are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational soft skills, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable.
Practical implications
The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.
Originality/value
Little evidence regarding the optimal learning place exists.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
In cold psychology, the “nature versus nurture” debate has raged for decades, or perhaps even longer under different guises. Do children learn and develop behaviors because of how they were brought up or is it down to genes, pure and simple? As usual, the right answer includes aspects of both theories, but it is more than that. It is immeasurable – and that always presents a problem for scientists seeking the truth and only finding mystery and unknowns.
Practical implications
The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.
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.
Details
Keywords
Prakash Kumar Paudel and Mahesh Nath Parajuli
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the formal workplace learning situation in Nepal and argue that workplace learning is not in priority in Nepali Technical and Vocational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the formal workplace learning situation in Nepal and argue that workplace learning is not in priority in Nepali Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) despite a regular policy emphasis.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered using both desk-based review of pre-diploma and diploma-level curricula and semi-structured interviews with eight employers and six technical school principals. Coded themes were interpreted in the meaning-making process.
Findings
Workplace skills learning in Nepal has remained a neglected agenda. Despite some successful implementation practices and policy recognition, it is stagnated. Employers expect skills in graduates relevant to their demands. However, unfortunately, there needs to be more trust for a culture of shared responsibilities among employers and TVET providers for arranging the provisions so that the learners can acquire the skills that the employers need. There is a blaming game between them, which has ultimately resulted in the poor arrangement of workplace learning.
Practical implications
TVET providers’ and employers’ engaged participation in recognizing and developing workplace learning for making the learning as per the needs of the world of work could benefit them and also support students to upgrade and acquire employability skills.
Originality/value
This paper is based on empirical data and contributes new knowledge in academia which is still rare in the context of Nepal.
Details
Keywords
Guillaume Morlet and Katherine Caves
We investigate whether women are more likely than men to choose to pursue a competency-based labour market integration programme, rather than the time-based labour market…
Abstract
Purpose
We investigate whether women are more likely than men to choose to pursue a competency-based labour market integration programme, rather than the time-based labour market integration programme. We further investigate whether women with existing but uncertified skills are even more likely to pursue a competency-based labour market integration programme.
Design/methodology/approach
We test our hypotheses using ordinary least squares applied to linear probability models. We discuss the relative advantages of this methodology. We show the robustness of our results through multiple specifications and estimation methods. Finally, we discuss the reasons preventing us from granting our results a causal interpretation and discuss how they are surmountable in future research.
Findings
Women are significantly more likely to enrol into competency-based programmes, relative to time-based. Women with existing but uncertified skills are significantly more likely to enrol into competency-based programmes, whereas women without skills or with college degrees are not significantly different from the baseline. Our findings are robust to various specifications, and we include a comprehensive set of fixed-effect vectors, addressing industrial, occupational and time-varying state specificities.
Research limitations/implications
First, our empirical test of hypothesis H2 is hindered by the construction of the “some college or associate’s degree” variable in RAPIDS data. “Some college” is very different from an associate’s degree. Second we had to choose between omitted variable bias and selection bias. Because of the demonstrated importance of the occupation and industry variables in existing literature, we included those variables at the risk of selection bias. Occupation and industry fixed effects reduce, but do not eliminate, omitted variable bias. Finally, the third limitation of this paper is external validity. Registered Apprenticeship programmes are quite idiosyncratic to the United States.
Social implications
The rollout and expansion of CBRA may thus be an avenue through policymakers may reduce the gender training gap. This may in turn give more women access to the labour market and allow more women to benefit from the “wage premia” of Registered Apprenticeship completion on the labour market (Lou and Hawley, 2019).
Originality/value
This article is the first that applies econometric methods to investigate women’s choices of labour market integration programmes, using Registered Apprenticeship as a case study. We discuss the implications of our findings, highlighting how competency-based programmes may be an approach to better serving more diverse populations in Registered Apprenticeship.
Details
Keywords
Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).
The purpose of this paper is to develop understanding of the ways in which actors may resolve the contradictions between the social and private aspects of accounting. It pursues…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop understanding of the ways in which actors may resolve the contradictions between the social and private aspects of accounting. It pursues this aim by developing theory and knowledge of the roles of belonging in the politics of budgeting.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the paper develops a Latourian anthropological theory of belonging as a social practice. It shows how this makes a significant departure from actor-network Latourian studies, shifting the focus onto the emotional and cognitive capacities that may enable actors to work through and gradually overcome the socio-political conflicts that budgeting can provoke. Second, to identify such a practice, it studies a Spanish cooperative involved in collective responses to socio-economic and political instability.
Findings
The study finds that the emotional and cognitive work by which the actors assembled their collective practice of belonging was influenced by their interactions with budgets, and, in turn, mediated the way they dealt with budgets, giving rise to more enabling roles and effects. It traces, for example, how planning and cost reduction supported abilities to relate the actors’ problems and anxieties to broader social problems, fostering more positive emotions including empathy, enthusiasm, and respect.
Research limitations/implications
The findings offer a complementary, but alternative view of the socio-political character of budgeting techniques to prior studies, which advances understanding of how actors could shape more enabling roles and effects.
Practical implications
Involving budgets in discussions and meetings can increase the scope for work that leads to greater freedom, social cohesion, and wellbeing.
Originality/value
This is the first study to demonstrate how belonging can be actively assembled through budgeting. It has particular value for understanding how alternative organizations can use accounting to avoid fragmenting and degeneration.