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Over the next 50 years, population aging will contribute to a dramatic decline in the European working age population. One important question for policy makers is to what extent an increase in labour force participation of migrants, their descendants, and women can compensate for the decline in labour supply. Thus it is relevant to know more about the factors which can encourage participation of these groups. In this report [the authors] examine the employment of second generation (children of immigrants) Turkish and young adult women from the majority population. [The authors] focus on the Turkish group since it is the largest single origin country group who also settled in different European countries allowing for examining differences among the second generation across countries of residence by using unique data allowing for this for the first time.

This report covers four European countries (Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden) in which the largest share of the total Turkish population in Europe live. [The authors] give special attention to the effect of motherhood on employment. [The] findings show that policy and institutions matter for the employment of all women in society, irrespective of migrant origin. Still, levels of employment are lower for the Turkish second generation compared to women from the majority group in all countries. Being a mother has a negative impact on employment, but [the authors] do not find this association to vary by origin. Furthermore [the authors] find clear differences across the countries studied but again these differences are similar for women of the majority population and those of Turkish origin. Although [the authors] are unable to pinpoint the exact policies and institutional arrangements it seems to be the case that these are related to policies across the life course starting from educational to family policies. Findings make clear that policymakers must give special attention to the unique economic position and potential of women in general and the growing share of children of immigrants among them, whose employment behaviours will be essential to bolstering the European labour force in the future.

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The proportion of Australian workers who are employed on a part-time basis has almost trebled in the last 30 years to reach its current level of 28 per cent. Part-time work is one type of ‘non-standard’ employment that is viewed with concern for it is alleged that part-time jobs provide a low standard of living for those employed in them. This paper focuses upon an extreme version of that concern: the incidence of poverty among part-time workers. Unit-record data are used to compare the poverty rates of part-time workers with those of full-time workers, the unemployed and people not in the labour force. The incidence of poverty among part-time workers is found to be a little lower than that of the entire adult population. The major reason for the relatively modest poverty rate of part-time workers is that a large proportion of them live in families with a full-time worker.

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Although children of parents with an alcohol or other drug (AOD) issue appear to assume a range of caring responsibilities within their families they have, until recently, been excluded from the growing body of young-carer research, policy and practice. This is problematic, as this group may experience greater levels of social exclusion whilst experiencing similar negative impacts of care as their caring peers. This paper discusses the findings of an exploratory qualitative research project conducted in Canberra, Australia which attempted to further understand these young people's experiences and to consider how they might best be supported. The paper challenges the way that young caring has been conceptualised and suggests that unless a number of conceptual, structural and organisational changes are made, young people caring for a parent with an AOD issue may remain relatively unsupported.

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The primary goal of this article is to examine the impact of credential inflation on educational attainment in twentieth-century United States. To do so, we create a measure of ‘intergenerational credential inflation’ (intergeneration inflation factor) and include it in regression models predicting educational transitions. Using the General Social Surveys of 1972-2000, we find that people are generally less likely to invest in schooling if its value is relatively low. An exception is the final transition to a postgraduate degree, where we find that when its value is low children of parents with postgraduate education are more likely to take it. This finding supports relative risk aversion theory, which assumes that the main goal of children is to avoid downward social class mobility. Perhaps most important, we find that credential inflation is particularly influential on transition probabilities if parents had made the same transition. This pattern is consistent with the information differential thesis that children are more informed about the value of education if their parents acquired it.

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[This] is one of the first pieces of research to focus specifically on the factors which influence Maori students to stay on at school after the school leaving age of 16. While other research has concentrated on the negative factors which cause Maori to so often leave school earlier than their non-Maori counterparts, this study has taken the approach of focusing on those Maori students who have made an active decision to stay at school beyond the legal requirement. The other unique aspect of this survey is that it has asked students to say in their own words how they feel about school, why they have stayed on and how other Maori students could be encouraged to do the same.

What has emerged from this study is that these students, all of whom have stayed at school beyond the age of 16, tend to feel relatively positive about their schools and about education itself. They are well aware of the difficulties young schoolleavers typically experience in finding employment and that without qualifications opportunities are severely limited. However, rather than staying at school because they have nothing better to do, these students tend to focus on the positive things that school has to offer them. Many feel confident that if they stay at school and pass their exams, they will not become one of those with no hope of a job.

Overall, this research indicates a variety of factors may be at work in influencing decisions to stay on at school. Some of these are to do with a student's family background, some are to do with the school itself, some derive from the personal characteristics of the student, and others, such as financial barriers to education, are outside the control of any of these groups. It is clear from this study that it is possible to make school a place that Maori students value and want to be at. Increasing the numbers of Maori students who stay on at school, and improving their level of achievement, will require combined efforts from schools, families and Government. It is hoped that the words of the students who participated in this research will provide ideas and incentives to make these much-needed efforts into a reality.

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[The authors] study work hours of Australian couples using a structural labour-supply model. [The authors] introduce model improvements which allow error in wage estimation and unobserved influences on partners' non-market time to be correlated with one another and with own wage. This more realistic model produces wage elasticities-0.26 (men) and 0.50 (women)-twice as large as those found without these innovations. Australian Government changes to the tax and transfer system between 2004 and 2006 are predicted to have little impact on participation and labour supply. Average weekly family income is predicted to increase by 65 dollars per week.

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Although the Saudi education system has provided an opportunity to pursue varying pathways for young people, there is a limited understanding of young people's post-secondary education and employment trajectories in Saudi Arabia. Challenges to implementing educational strategies and reforms include a large youth population, diverse stakeholders, economic diversification and limited education and employment opportunities. With the launch of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, education and labour policy efforts included an expansion to the vocational education and training (TVET) sector to stimulate economic growth and increase the employment of young Saudi citizens in place of foreign employees. However, the relatively low enrolment in vocational education and training (TVET) and its weak status can provide insight into the way young people make decisions about their education to work transitions and highlights a variety of individual and structural challenges young people continuously negotiate in the rapidly changing country.

Quantitative empirical research studies fall short in explaining the motivations behind young people's choices and the extent to which choice is available. This research addresses this gap, employing a qualitative constructivist methodology. Through 18 focus groups and 16 individual interviews, this thesis shares the sentiments of 152 young men and women in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia who were enrolled in initial TVET as well as secondary students at a transition point where TVET became an option. The findings indicate that 'choice' is often illusionary, as youth aspirations are not always in line with opportunities and are influenced by the dominant characteristics of the education pathways and the labour market. Young people are influenced by embedded cultural factors such as social networks, family and gender. In making choices that are socially acceptable, young people minimise potential risks and social sanctions by 'colouring within the lines' of social acceptability rather than re-drawing them.

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This book examines the university experiences of first-in-family university students, and how these students' decisions to return to education impact upon their family members and significant others. While it is well known that parental educational background has a substantial impact on the educational levels of family and dependents, it is unclear how attending university as a first-in-family student translates into the family and community of the learner. With the continuing requirements for higher education institutions to increase the participation of students from a range of diverse backgrounds and educational biographies, this is a major gap in understanding that needs to be addressed. Exploring how this university participation is understood at an individual, familial and community level, this book provides insights into how best to support different student requirements.

Edited abstract from publisher's website.

The contents are as follows: Part one, 'Surveying the first-in-family student terrain', contains the following chapters: Setting the scene (pages 3-31); The lack of what ...?: first-in-family learners and their university experience (pages 33-53); Disrupting the deficit: beyond notions of lack for first-in-family students (pages 55-71); What am I waiting for? (pages 73-93). Part two, 'Narrating the first-in-family experience', contains: Trailblazing: motivations and relationship impacts for first-in-family enabling students (pages 97-117); The online student experience: new challenges for engagement and support (pages 119-135); 'So how was big school today?': family perceptions of HE participation (pages 137-154); Parents managing university and family life (pages 155-176); Motivated men: first-in-family male students (pages 177-201); Concluding thoughts (pages 203-2015). Show less

Objective: To identify organizational barriers to and facilitators for female surgeons' career progression. Design: Systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies relating to organizational barriers to and facilitators for female surgeons' career progression. After the quality assessment of the peer-reviewed journal articles, twelve articles were selected for full review. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes in these selected articles. Setting: The studies solely focused on organizational factors linked to female physicians' career progression in surgical specialties. Participants: Female surgeons. Main outcome measures: Organizational barriers and facilitators.

Results: Twelve peer-reviewed journal articles were included in the study which focused on barriers to female surgeons' career progression, ways of facilitating female surgeons' career progression, and female surgeons' job satisfaction. Conclusion: The major organisational factors contributing to the lack of career progression for female surgeons are (1) organizational culture which promotes rigid career structure that is inclined to support male surgeons than female surgeons and also male domination in which male surgeons feel superior to female surgeons (2) work family conflict whereby women feel that they have to make a family sacrifice by being women; they experience the difficulty in securing a work-life balance in the masculine career structure in surgical specialties. This implies that policy makers and healthcare organizations need to pay significant attention to organizational facilitators for female surgeons' career progression such as flexible career pathways and work patterns, a variety of different viable career progressions, more family-friendly working conditions, and the promotion of female mentors and role models in surgical specialties to support female surgeons in dealing with the organizational barriers in the male-dominated organizational culture and the lifestyle issues as well.

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This chapter synthesises evidence on the effectiveness of employment programs in the United States (US) for adult recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), emphasising particularly the impacts on earnings, employment and welfare receipt. The main goals of most employment programs for welfare recipients are to prepare them for the labour market and to assist them in obtaining regular employment. Investing in skills training to help welfare families become self-sufficient is also a stated aim of many of these programs, but relatively few have emphasised education or occupational skills training, focusing on low cost services and immediate job placement.

The volume of collected papers is indexed at TD/IRD 88.28. Show less