Skills Outlook 2019: How does the United Kingdom Compare?

via OECD

The Skills Outlook Scoreboard assesses the extent to which the United Kingdom is able to make the most of digitalisation. The United Kingdom’s performance is measured along 3 main dimensions:

1. Skills for the digitalisation,
2. Digital exposure and
3. Skills-related policy effort.

The Scoreboard shows that while the share of young people lacking basic skills is relatively high, the share of older people with low skills is below the OECD average. British workers are using ICTs and performing non-routine tasks in their jobs quite intensively.

In the United Kingdom, according to OECD estimates, 13.7% of workers are in occupations at high risk of automation and would need moderate training efforts (up to 1 year) to transit to safer occupations with low or medium risk of automation.

An additional 2.6% would need important training (up to 3 years) to avoid the risk of automation.

Teachers in the United Kingdom are well prepared: more than 60% of them are top performers in problem solving in technology-rich environment and only 32% (the lowest value among OECD countries), report to be in need of training in ICT for teaching.

See the OECD website for options

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Trainers in continuing VET: emerging competence profile

a publication in Cedefop’s information series (number 4126)

Cedefop has long tracked the changing roles and professional development of teachers and trainers in vocational education and training. In this publication, it analyses nineteen Member State initiatives which aim to set out competence requirements for trainers in adult learning and continuing training. The analysis, which also covers validation of non-formal and informal learning, forms the basis of a proposed emerging competence profile for trainers.

The publication contributes to the work of the thematic working group on the professional development of trainers in vocational education and training, which the European Commission set up in 2012 and jointly coordinates with Cedefop.

Full text (PDF 114pp)

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Racial Mismatch in the Classroom Beyond Black-white Differences

an article by Patrick B. McGrady and John R. Reynolds (Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA) published in Sociology of Education Volume 86 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that students taught by teachers of the same race and ethnicity receive more positive behavioural evaluations than students taught by teachers of a different race/ethnicity.

Many researchers view these findings as evidence that teachers, mainly white teachers, are racially biased due to preferences stemming from racial stereotypes that depict some groups as more academically oriented than others. Most of this research has been based on comparisons of only black and white students and teachers and does not directly test if other non-white students fare better when taught by non-white teachers.

Analyses of Asian, black, Hispanic, and white 10th graders in the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study confirm that the effects of mismatch often depend on the racial/ethnic statuses of both the teacher and the student, controlling for a variety of school and student characteristics.

Among students with white teachers, Asian students are usually viewed more positively than white students, while black students are perceived more negatively. White teachers’ perceptions of Hispanic students do not typically differ from those of white students.

Post-estimation comparisons of slopes indicate that Asian students benefit (perception-wise) from having white teachers, but they reveal surprisingly few instances when black students would benefit (again, perception-wise) from having more non-white teachers.

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Do you want me to be perfect? Two longitudinal studies on socially prescribed perfectionism, stress and burnout in the workplace

an article by Julian H. Childs and Joachim Stoeber ( University of Kent, Canterbury, UK) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 26 Issue 4 (November 2012)

Abstract

Stress and burnout in the workplace have a negative impact not only on individuals but also on organisations, clients and customers and are estimated to be of high cost to a country’s economy. To help identify employees at high risk, it is important to know what individual differences contribute to stress and burnout.

Two longitudinal studies were conducted to examine whether individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism (individuals’ perceptions that others have perfectionistic expectations of them) contribute to employees’ role stress and predict increases in burnout symptoms (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy).

Study 1 investigated 69 healthcare service provision employees in the UK over a six-month interval, and Study 2 investigated 195 school teachers in the UK over a three-month interval.

In both studies, socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in role stress and inefficacy over time.

Moreover, in Study 2, socially prescribed perfectionism also predicted increases in exhaustion and cynicism over time.

The findings indicate that individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism may be a contributing factor to stress and burnout in the workplace.

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Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale

an article by Helen M.G. Watt and Paul W. Richardson (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia), Uta Klusmann (Christian Albrechts University at Kiel, Germany), Mareike Kunter (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Beate Beyer and Ulrich Trautwein (University of Tübingen, Germany) and Jürgen Baumert (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany) published by Teaching and Teacher Education Volume 28 Issue 6 (August 2012)

Abstract

Motivations for preservice teachers’ choice of teaching as a career were investigated using the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale (FIT-Choice scale; Watt & Richardson, 2007 further information here).

This scale was initially developed and validated in the Australian context; our study applied it across international samples from Australia, the United States, Germany, and Norway.

Support for strong factorial invariance implied the scale functioned similarly, and could fruitfully be employed in different contexts. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching were more similar than they were different across these samples; whereas, perceptions about the teaching profession tended to reflect country differences.

Highlights

► First cross-cultural examination of teaching motivations using the FIT-Choice scale.
► Teaching motivations were similar in samples from Australia, US, Germany and Norway.
► Perceptions about the teaching profession tended to reflect country differences.

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