This research contributes to debates on intern labour, particularly preparing young workers for careers in the culture industries and exploitative experiences that may hinder their success. The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the skillsets required by young practitioners and how creative autonomy can be a fruitful…

'Employers know that they can hire worldwide now … so, there is limitless supply of people … who can do the job … . they're all qualified, most of them are actually over-qualified … . I'm a wage slave basically, I don't think we have very much social status … . we are replaceable workers … I mean, the employer holds all the cards really. We are…

Higher education is based on a disciplinary system and science-specific educational programmes, but multi/interdisciplinarity (MD/ID) knowledge, working methods and collaboration are becoming common in the workplace with complex tasks and digital work environments. This article will provide an insight into these issues by presenting a study of the…

Burnout complaints among young workers in The Netherlands are high and increasing. Our research question is whether and how the high burn-out complaints of young workers in the Netherlands are associated with the employment relationships in the flexible labour market. We argue that especially an insecure career perspective contributes to burn-out…

The benefits of growth in university enrolments are contingent on the articulation of university expansion with changes in other areas, particularly the economy. The costs of a mismatch are felt at the societal level, but especially by individual graduates. This article describes problems faced by professionals in one country that has experienced…

Recent literature on education and work well recognises the 'crowding-out perspective' of how higher education expansion impacts the labour market experience of young people with different educational levels. However, the relationship between the labour market experience and young people's self-reported happiness remains less well understood. This…

Ageing populations and accelerating economic change make it increasingly important to update the skill levels of populations over the whole life course. Adult education is believed to allow adults' skills to adapt continuously to constantly changing economic requirements. Both research into adult education, and discussions on lifelong learning…

This study examines the relevance of doctoral training (thesis, coursework and generic skills) for a career in three types of labour market: academia, applied research institutes and industrial laboratories, and non-research workplaces. Data are drawn from a mail survey among PhD holders in Norway. In total, more than 40% of the respondents had…

This article examines the current high-skills discourse against the backdrop of labor process theory. It draws on the theoretical debate between Harry Braverman and Michael Foucault, supplementing the traditional treatment of the labor process with Foucauldian insights. The primary argument is that especially in the market-led economies, current…

It is the aim of this paper to provide a better understanding of how university students in Australia are preparing for their future work in the labour market through their work orientations. It draws upon a survey of over 300 final-year undergraduates to present their rationales for engaging in paid work, and their preferences for different job…

Against the backdrop of training provision in the apartheid era and a description of the promulgation of a new skills development regime post-1994, this article considers the status and distribution of enterprise training in contemporary South Africa. It is found that reasonable progress is being made with training in large and medium-sized firms…