Increasingly, contemporary work means graduates will operate in multiple workplace settings during their careers, catalysing the need for successful transfer of capabilities across diverse contexts. The transfer of skills and knowledge, however, is a complex area of learning theory which is often assumed and lacks empirical analysis. Facilitating…

Employability has become one of the most important outcomes of higher education despite it being weakly conceptualised for the sector. The lack of an accepted conceptualisation to address students' and graduates' employability results in difficulties when comparing research findings and therefore in assessing quality in higher education provision.…

Extensive studies have been done on employability and the factors that lead to employability. Previous studies have focused on career development programs, internships, work experience programs, soft-skill development programs, and even university admission criteria which can be considered external factors to university student learning…

The Year Abroad (YA) is arguably the most valued feature of any languages degree, according to employers (British Academy & UCML, 2012). The resilience and problem-solving capacities developed by students who undertake a period of residence abroad are sought-after characteristics in the job market. Thus, most languages degrees in the UK…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on research carried out with employers to determine demand for business and management skills in the Scottish workforce. Design/methodology/approach: The research used a questionnaire in which employers were interviewed (either telephone or face to face), completed themselves and returned by e-mail,…

"There is no difference between academic skills and employment skills," (Jackson, 2011, p.1). This paper argues that there is often a false dichotomy in the minds of academics between employability, and the so-called "skills agenda", and the teaching of academic disciplines. And even in professional courses, the view of…

The need for effective knowledge transfer has been well documented; however, few narratives reflect on postgraduates as brokers of knowledge when participating in collaborative studentships. This paper reports on the authors' experiences of undertaking Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Scottish Government (SG) collaborative PhD…

The importance of employability in higher education and increasing numbers of students working while studying led leaders on a social science degree to introduce work experience modules. This paper reports on an in-depth case study based on the analysis of staff and student interviews, the students' reflective assignments, and a focus group…

Interviews with teachers in 13 British schools in which students participated in the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative showed that learning from work experience is not valued in the formal curriculum. Teachers did consider that it enriched the social development of students of average or below average ability. (SK)

Interviews with 14 Australian students and 6 graduates of a vocational college showed that, although 5 of the graduates felt their learning transferred to the workplace, there was a distinction between school-based and workplace learning. Transfer was enhanced when they were given meaningful tasks and encouraged to use learning at work. (SK)

Experiential or work-based learning has been touted as imperative for the development of students and their preparation for the workplace. However, work-based learning does not always occur or occur to a significant extent merely because a student is in the workplace. What matters is the nature of the student's participation in workplace…

Questions some of the assumptions and practices defining most work experience programs in geography. Maintains that most workplaces operate within such a specific function that they limit the acquisition of generic skills. Notes that the very notion of transferable skills has never really been tested. (MJP)

This book contains 14 articles on learning and work that focus on the following: (1) expectations about learning at work into the next century; (2) learning theories, practice, and performance implications; (3) the relationship between workplace learning and other forms of life-long education; (4) international developments in competency-based…

The claim that work-based experience improves students' academic performance was examined through a study of the academic progress of 25 high school and community college student interns employed in various health care workplaces. Data were collected from the following activities: (1) review of the literature on academic reinforcement and academic…

This guide provides ideas and recommendations from the business and education communities of Wisconsin to help provide an opportunity for all students to reach their fullest career potential. The first part deals with the need to restructure the educational system in order to concentrate on education for employment and on the procedures entailed…