Context: Active engagement and participation in professional practices are an important requirement for expertise development in vocational domains. However, not much is known about how work contexts foster or hinder such expertise development. To further fill this research gap, this study investigates two vocational domains, namely sales…

This qualitative case study utilizes the human capital theory to examine the influence of high impact career exploration and career-focused practices in a public, regional four-year institution. Literature shows that graduates who enter well-matched careers earn approximately 30 percent more than graduates who are not closely matched. In addition,…

This paper aims to investigate English target language required in the operation of MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) business in Thailand. Data were gathered from 30 employees and executives who have at least 3-year experiences of working in MICE sectors. The questionnaire, supplemented by a semi-structured interview, was…

Students who take university sales courses are expected to graduate with a better understanding of what contributes to a successful sales career. The current research identifies 33 factors recruiters use in evaluating sales candidates. The top 10 attributes identified by recruiters as most important to the sales candidate's selection are: 1)…

The purpose of this paper is to present a project that builds labor market skills employers are seeking through experiential classroom learning. The sales management training exercise described in this article provides students with an opportunity to think and act like sales managers by working together in teams to collaborate on a training…

Sales education is on the rise and for good reason. Statistics say that sales jobs will continue to grow at a rapid rate over the next few years. Many universities are preparing their students to start their careers in the professional selling function through the inclusion of sales education in their business curriculum. Yet little research…

This article explores the effect that the use of e-portfolios initiated and organized by apprenticeship training offices has had on the learning processes and assessment practices of apprentices in Norwegian vocational education and training. Although these intermediate structures have the potential to bridge the gap between work and education,…

This article explores the effect that the use of e-portfolios initiated and organized by apprenticeship training offices has had on the learning processes and assessment practices of apprentices in Norwegian vocational education and training. Although these intermediate structures have the potential to bridge the gap between work and education,…

This study reports upon the perceptions of a sample of Education Studies undergraduates of their employability within three jobs: teaching, accountancy and marketing/sales management. The concept of employability is framed around two themes analysed through a Bernsteinian conceptual analysis: transferable utility of an Education Studies degree for…

Most learning in the workplace occurs while pursuing working rather than learning goals. The studies at hand aimed to identify task characteristics that foster learning in the workplace. Task characteristics are supposed to exert a major effect on the learning potential. However, the fact that learning is more often than not a rather unconscious…

This report is the successor to "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Demand through 2018," in which researchers examined the connections between educational attainment and educational demand in the labor market. In this report, the authors update the jobs projected to be available through 2020, using a macro-micro modeling…

For recent high school graduates, life is tough. In the past year, one in four young high school graduates was unemployed and over half were underemployed. In the past decade, recent high school graduates' wages have fallen by 12 percent to just $19,400 annually in 2011, below the poverty threshold for a family of four. The downward plight of high…

The recession that began in December of 2007 is already 30 months old, but the U.S. economy will not recover its pre-recession employment levels for at least another two years. From there, it will take an additional three years to make up for lost growth and create a job market strong enough to employ both the casualties of the recession and the…

Over the last decades educational researchers and politicians have shown a growing interest in the concept of learning in practice, i.e. learning in the workplace. Learning in practice plays an important role in connection with lifelong learning, as the workplace is an obvious setting for realizing this aim. Theories about learning in practice…

Discusses career opportunities in the restaurant, service, and retail business for recent college graduates as alternate routes to career success. Often, negative public perceptions of these occupations create unnecessary obstacles to potentially satisfying and long-lasting career options. (JPS)