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As online college courses have become increasingly prevalent, the general public and college presidents offer different assessments of their educational value. Just three-in-ten American adults (29 per cent) say a course taken online provides an equal educational value to one taken in a classroom. By contrast, fully half of college presidents (51 per cent) say online courses provide the same value. This report is based on findings from a pair of Pew Research Center surveys conducted in spring 2011. One is a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other is an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities.

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Enhancing the student experience is now recognised by tertiary institutions as a valuable undertaking. Universities are committed to providing the broadest possible range of student services and activities, to continue to attract and retain a capable, diverse student cohort and to build on the University's commitment to equity, access and participation. In late 2007, the student population at a large Australian university was consulted by means of an electronic questionnaire to gauge their views about student services and a proposal to establish a student 'one stop shop'. Facilitating engagement and collaboration of services and their provision can enable equity across all student populations, ultimately increasing retention and satisfaction of students in higher education. In this paper we report here of focus group discussion which examined and explored the ways in which services could be centralised for students through a one-stop 'student hub'.

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The Workplace Research Centre (WRC) was commissioned by Fair Work Australia to conduct a program of case study research that examines the impact of minimum wages increases on enterprises and their employees. The study was conducted over a nine-month period spanning March to November 2010 and was based on case studies of 20 enterprises across four industries (community services, manufacturing, retail and hospitality). The initial phase of research fieldwork took place during March 2010; a second phase of research was conducted throughout July 2010; and the final round of research interviews occurred during November 2010. Part one of this report, authored by Justine Evesson, Sarah Oxenbridge, Hanna Schutz, Susanna Baldwin, Maja Moensted and John Buchanan, sets out the findings of the first phase of the research. Part two, authored by Justine Evesson, Sarah Oxenbridge and Hanna Schutz, sets out changes occurring at the case study enterprises between phases one and two and phases two and three of the research period. Part three of the report, authored by Justine Evesson and Sarah Oxenbridge, provides a synthesis of research findings over the three research phases. The study has generated an expansive body of information relating to the operation of minimum wage-reliant enterprises and the impact of contextual factors, including minimum wages decisions, on the 20 case study enterprises and their employees. The variation in the array and pattern of pressures that confronted employers and employees was large. However, a relatively clear and consistent research finding was that the 1 July 2010 minimum wages increase had limited impact on enterprises and their business performance within those broader operating contexts; and that many operators regarded minimum wages increases as important for maintaining the living standards of enterprise employees. Employee participants regarded the minimum wages increase as stopping them from falling further behind the cost of living. It was also apparent that statutory wage increases were the only increases to earnings that some employees were likely to experience. However, findings indicated that a smaller vulnerable group of employees may not have been receiving the earnings they were entitled to, most commonly in the area of classification, offsetting the relative value and impact of the minimum wages increase.

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The relationships between higher education and the world of work revived in the late nineties as a major issue of debate in Europe. The world of the professions was confronting with dramatic changes in terms of competences, mainly due to the globalization of the economies, a move towards a knowledge-based society, and technical development. As education providers, the universities were interested in exploring the competence needs of the employers on the labor market. To analyze the way universities prepare the graduates for the requirements of the labor market, in terms of competences and skills, the European Commission funded the REFLEX project, a survey undertaken in 2005 covering working graduates in 13 European countries five years after they had left higher education. Using the data set on 31,800 young European graduates, this chapter looks at the links between higher education and graduate employment, with special emphasis on the transition period from student life to the professional life, the graduates’ views of their preparation for the labor market (competences possessed and required), graduates’ satisfaction with their jobs, earnings, and early career mobility patterns. It also explores the factors influencing the choice of degree course, graduates’ views on their study program (e.g. modes of teaching and learning, and assessment), and what contributes to academic performance.

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The [Scottish Council for Research in Education] SCRE Centre (University of Glasgow) investigated employers' perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates, and the steps which universities take to develop them. The research found that the majority of employers are satisfied with their graduate recruits, but there is a notable minority who are not. Employers expect graduates to demonstrate a range of skills and attributes that include team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking, problem solving and often managerial abilities or potential. Several recommendations are made, including: employability should be at the centre of [higher education institutions'] HEIs' strategic planning, both centrally and at the level of individual faculties and departments; and partnerships between HEIs and employers need to be effective, sustained and equitable.

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The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UK Commission) has as its key aim to advise on policies and delivery, and to report on progress towards the ambition of making the UK a world-class leader in productivity, employment and skills by 2020. Its policy development seeks to be grounded in evidence-based analysis, and this requires high quality, reliable [labour market information] LMI that gives an accurate picture of activity and demand in the labour market. Employer skills surveys provide a key contribution to this evidence base. The aim of the current study was to better understand how employers answer questions asked in the UK Commission's surveys about training and workforce development. This serves two broad purposes: to help understand and contextualise how employers are answering the current 'standard' questions on training, and to help explain how the current findings should be interpreted; [and] to inform thinking as to how questions on training and development should best be asked. A particular focus of the research was to assess how well a key classification of training activity that has been used in most employer skills surveys - namely off-the-job training and on-the-job training - is understood by employers. This study also examined some preliminary questions on the issue of underemployment, where employees are over-qualified and or over-skilled for the role they hold, and the impact this has on both employer and employee. This is with a view to including some questions on this issue in future employer surveys. Finally, the study looked at the issue of apprenticeships to better understand how employers answer skills survey questions on this topic.

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The purpose of this article is to describe graduated nurses and midwives' opinions on their professional competence that they have acquired from nursing education at the university of applied sciences in Finland. The data was collected in three phases through inquiries and theme interviews. The research approach was phenomenographic. The results show how working nurses' and midwives' opinions on their professional competences acquired from education could be divided into three categories: 1) strengthening the professional identity, 2) developing the functional professional qualifications, and 3) developing the outer functional qualifications. They also expressed their opinions on how to develop the contents of education, teachers' instruction, and connections with working life. [The authors] created a model of the development of professional competence in nursing to help developing nursing education at the universities of applied sciences, curriculum work, and cooperation with working life.

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The police play an important role in society and their growth is in accordance with social development. They also act as guardians in the public domain with the civil commitment and the legal authorization from the government and the nation, bearing the heavy responsibilities of maintaining social order and the delivery of public services. In fact, vocational education and training often has mutual influence toward job performance. However, the previous domestic studies pay less attention to the related research. In view of this motivation, this study explores the impact of the education and training for the domestic police toward their job performance. Based on 109 valid questionnaires, research findings are as follows: (1) the majority of participants believe the knowledge and skills learned from the vocational education and training can be completely applied to their job; (2) the participants also consider that the curriculum of education and training system could apply to their job as well as self-ability enhancing; (3) in the aspects of achievement evaluations of job performance, it is the unexpected incidents that would come upon the police while carrying out the duty so that they have less identification with the service performance achievements; and (4) this research suggests that the police institution should implement the education and training consecutively to strengthen the job performance. In addition, the management of any job interruption or unexpected incidents should be attended to invigorate job performance.

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This chapter surveys state directors and professors in community college leadership programs, as well as the writings of key analysts of higher education, for the challenges, opportunities, and central concerns they identify in the present and future of community colleges.

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This survey was undertaken in February 2011 of Head Teachers and Special Program Coordinators in TAFE NSW, and those who either aspired to be Head Teachers or managers who had once been Head Teachers. The survey was sent out to some 1200 respondents across TAFE NSW, and when closed on 18 February, there were 420 responses, around a third of the number of Head Teachers in TAFE NSW. Given it was a busy time of year, we may have been able to gather more responses a little later in the term. Eight-five per cent of respondents said that they were currently Head Teachers or Special Program Co-ordinators, and an additional 30 respondents said they were currently acting in Head Teacher positions. The aim of the survey was to provide a basis for a paper entitled 'Paths to promotion' which focused mainly on the current skills and capabilities of Head Teachers, their current and future challenges and the qualifications they would need. It is a follow-up to the work we undertook during 2010 on 'Raising the bar on VET teacher education qualifications', where over 500 TAFE teachers responded and overwhelmingly said that they needed tertiary level teaching qualifications to do their jobs effectively. TAFE Head Teachers have been identified as holding possibly the most critical positions in TAFE NSW, in which they undertake both leadership and management roles. This frontline role has been described as 'where the rubber hits the road as far as doing business is concerned' (Mulcahy 2003, p.57). In his 2009 research 'Head Teacher voices', funded by the TAFE Teachers Association, Stephen Black detailed the concern of Head Teachers that they were not recognised and appreciated in their roles. As one of the respondents to his survey said, 'I love my job but am frustrated constantly by unrealistic expectations'. We wondered whether anything had changed in almost three years, but in the main we wanted to focus not on the jobs but whether Head Teachers believed they had the skills and capabilities to effectively undertake the jobs as they saw them, and what skills and qualifications they might need in the future. It is about the future of the Head Teacher role, and as such the data collected may provide some useful advice to TAFE management and the State Government. It is not however about the current industrial agreement that operates in TAFE NSW and is under review. Consequently we hope to be able to ask similar questions of frontline managers in some relevant private [registered training organisations] RTOs in [New South Wales] NSW, to consider any possible similarities or differences. The survey is separated into four sections: (1) general information; (2) qualifications; (3) skills and capabilities; and (4) issues for Head Teachers. We wanted to know which aspects of the job they saw as being most important, what they saw were the challenges for the future, the qualifications they currently had, and what skills and capabilities they thought they might need to continue developing in their roles. The survey and this report are also very timely in also picking up on the work of John Mitchell and John Ward on advanced VET practitioners, and the Productivity Commission's report on the vocational education and training workforce.

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