Sometimes I sits and thinks …

and sometimes I just sits.

And sometimes, as when reading an article in Journal of Intellectual Capital I stop sitting, stop thinking and go for a coffee.

I read the title, “Towards an ontology for the intellectual domain” and thought “hmm, interesting” I marked up my database of journal titles to read that article in full.


I got the journal delivered to a desk in the British Library and discovered, between the abstract and the main article, a quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

I got into the introduction to the article and realised that there are more things in heaven and earth than I had dreamt of and that, although I understand the meaning of most of the individual words I do not understand them in the context of each other!

Presumably I am not an intellectual – coffee it is then.

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I know it is not hard to confuse me but …

Most readers know that I spend time reading (glancing through) the table of contents for a large number of journals that have, in the past, included something which might be useful or interesting for careers information practitioners.

Sometimes it is possible to determine the possibility of inclusion in this blog from the information online but more often I prefer to read more than the abstract to ensure that I’m on the right track.

I duly requested the British Journal of Educational Technology from the British Library’s storage centre, looked up page E25 in Volume 42, Number 2 (March 2011) to discover that (short break while I go out of the reading room and scream):

Colloquia are available online only at www.thebjet.com

OK, come out of writing this and go to the website in question. Are you with me so far?
So pleased because here comes the final insult!

Options for accessing this content:

If you have access to this content through a society membership, please first log in to your society website.

If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.

Login via Athens http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/athens or other institutional login options http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/login-options .

You can purchase online access to this Article for a 24-hour period (price varies by title)

If you already have a Wiley Online Library or Wiley InterScience user account: login above and proceed to purchase the article.

New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.

I have since determined that the journal is available electronically through the BL’s electronic resources (only available whilst you are actually at the BL) so maybe, just maybe …

Or perhaps I won’t bother!

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Lifelong learning through SMEs: exploring workplace learning in the UK

an article by Linda Ahlgren, (University of Edinburgh) and Laura C Engel (The George Washington University, USA) published in Journal of Workplace Learning (Volume 23 Issue 5 (2011))

Abstract

Purpose
The primary objective in this paper is to examine the role of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in promoting and/or hindering educational opportunities to adult employees in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on 12 case studies of SMEs in England and Scotland, which form part of a larger European Sixth Framework Programme research project. Interviews were conducted with employers, line managers and employees participating in formal educational programmes, and were contextualized with policy documents and literature on lifelong learning and workplace education.
Findings
This paper highlights and explores findings related to human resource management (HRM) and the participation of employees in formal education, and the experiences of companies in providing educational opportunities to employees in England and Scotland. The paper argues that employers have a key role to play in driving and investing in employee training and development. However, the current focus of employers on formal educational opportunities appears narrowly focused on job-specific, in-house training.
Originality/value
The paper’s value lies in its illustration of the restricted focus of the lifelong learning policy agenda on the development of human capital, which not only limits the development of portable skills and qualifications for employees, but also undermines the broader aims of lifelong learning.

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A career in financial services

Financial services was the subject of the live Q&A from Guardian Careers during last week. If you follow this series then you may have participated. For those who don’t I found the blurb, posted by Alison White, surrounding the announcement very interesting.

Take the new research from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). If you'll pardon me for glossing over the headline finding that there are now an average of 83 graduates chasing each vacancy, it was actually the sector that graduates favour most which caught my eye.

What do you think it is? Law was my first guess, because it remains a firm favourite among Guardian Careers’ regulars. But I was wrong. If you guessed IT or the third sector, you’d be wrong too. It’s financial services employers which have proved the most popular, with investment banks and fund managers receiving an average of 232 applications for every opening.

These findings aren’t a million miles away from the results of a recent survey by High Fliers Research. They too found investment banks are the most popular destination for grads this year, with 8.5% of early applicants chasing jobs within them.

My surprise that this career choice came out top stems from that, erm, small matter of the recent global financial crisis. And, understandably, applications for investment banking fell by a third during the height of the credit crunch. However there's been rather a turn-around lately, with most of the best-known City names actually back to recruiting at 2006-07 levels, High Fliers MD Martin Birchall recently told the Guardian.

So, there you have it. Financial services is back in favour and paying oodles of money to the lucky ones who actually get the jobs.

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Rich Internet Publications: “Show What You Tell”

an article by Leen Breure and Hans Voorbij (Utrecht University, Netherlands) and Maarten Hoogerwerf (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) published in Journal of Digital Information (Volume 12 Number 1 (2011))

Abstract (first paragraph only)

The journal article is still the basis of scholarly communication. This genre, however, largely adheres to the rules of the printed publication and does not meet the requirements of this age of digital Web publishing. Today we do not need to restrict ourselves any longer to communicating the results of the research process only. We can also allow readers to inspect the underlying data online, to publish their own comments and, using a variety of multimedia content, to be witness to intermediary stages of the scientific discovery process. This development has stimulated the transformation of the conventional article: when published in a digital format, it is more and more enhanced with data sets, photos, videos, interactive maps and animations; these enhancements affect its structure and layout. A variety of new publication formats is appearing, some of which can be no longer adequately described as simply “enhanced” publications. They are rather to be conceived as a new genre, for which we propose the term Rich Internet Publication (RIP), analogue to the well-known concept of Rich Internet Application. Both share features of information integration, visualization and exploration (i.e. non-linear reading), typical for hypermedia products.

The full article is available (HTML) at http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/view/1606/1738 and is well worth reading (and great fun at the same time)

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Consultation on potential early repayment mechanisms for student loans

This consultation opened on 28 June 2011 and will close on 20 September 2011

BIS (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) is consulting on potential early repayment mechanisms for student loans – similar to those paid by people who pre-pay their mortgages.

BIS is committed to the progressive nature of the repayment mechanism. It is therefore important that those on the highest incomes after graduation are not able unfairly to buy themselves out of this progressive mechanism by paying off their loans early. That is why BIS is consulting on potential early repayment mechanisms – similar to those paid by people who pre-pay their mortgages.

Further information can be found on the Higher Education Reform website.

Input is sought on the following three questions:

1. Should BIS introduce a more progressive mechanism for early repayment of student loans?
2. If BIS should introduce a more progressive mechanism, which model best delivers BIS’ stated aims of ensuring the progressiveness and sustainability of the student finance system?
3. How would a more progressive early repayment mechanism affect you or your organisation’s perception of, and relationship with, the student finance system?

Download the consultation (PDF 10pp)

See also the Higher Education White Paper (URN 11/944) and related publications URNs 11/1046, 11/1048, 11/1049 and 11/1050

Hazel’s comment:
Please be grateful that I found the links to the related publications!! It was not the easiest task in the world and I gave up after 10 minutes on the “higher education reform website”.
Answers to the problem in the comments, please.

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Working but Losing …

Why the tax credit changes from April 2011 will reduce work incentives for single parents

This report from Gingerbread (published in April 2011) is worrying. Tax credits are supposed to be an incentive not a deterrent. Yes, I know it’s more than a bit after the event but I hope better late than never rules.

Executive Summary¹

The government has clear plans to encourage more single parents into the workplace, with a proposal to extend the requirement to seek work to single parents of five-year-olds from early 2012 included in the Welfare Reform Bill 2011. However, the findings in this report illustrate that, despite these plans, the package of tax credit reforms coming into force at the start of the tax year in April 2011 will actually result in a reduction in the gains to work for all single parents. For single parents using childcare, this will mean an average cash value loss of £492 a year in gains to work.

This report looks at the work incentives for single parents who are currently working and claiming Working Tax Credit (WTC)² and Child Tax Credit (CTC). Changes to tax credits will impact on all WTC claimants, but because single parents have a higher take up of the childcare element they will feel the
effects more severely. As sole carers, they also face more stark decisions about how best to balance work and home life.

36% of all single parents receive an award of WTC, compared to just 15% of couples with children, meaning that single parents are twice as likely to be in the WTC group as couples with children³; 64% of the 488,000 families who currently receive the childcare element of WTC are single parents⁴.

In his Conservative party conference address in October 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Let us support the real routes out of poverty: a strong family; a good education; a job. So we'll … most of all, make sure that work really pays for every single person in our country. The injustice of some low paid single mothers going out to work and losing 96p for every extra pound they earned … Iain Duncan Smith has found a way to end that system … So, to that single mother struggling and working her heart out for her children we can now say: ‘We’re on your side; we’ll help you work; we will bring that injustice to an end’”.

However, this report shows that from 6 April 2011 all single parents will be worse off in terms of the gains they get from work; forcing many into the tough decision of whether to remain in work.

¹Gingerbread is grateful to Landman Economics for providing the analysis used in this report.
²Parents are only eligible for the childcare element of tax credits if they are working 16 hours or more a week and using registered childcare
³Source: Landman Economics calculations using 2008-09 Family Resources Survey
⁴Child and Working Tax Credit Statistics Finalised Annual Awards 2008-09, HMRC 2010

Full report (PDF 10pp)

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