Search Results

To address workforce shortages, the Australian Government funded additional nursing and midwifery places in 2009 pre-registration courses. An existing deficit in midwifery clinical placements, combined with the need to secure additional clinical placements, contributed to a serious shortfall. In response, a unique collaboration between Midwifery Academics of Victoria (MIDAC), rural and metropolitan maternity managers (RMM and MMM) groups and Department of Health (DOH) Victoria was generated, in order to overcome difficulties experienced by maternity services in meeting the increased need. This group identified the large number of different clinical assessment tools required to be completed by midwives supervising students as problematic. It was agreed that the development of a Common Assessment Tool (CAT) for use in clinical assessment across all pre-registration midwifery courses in Victoria had the potential to reduce workload associated with student assessments and, in doing so, release additional placements within each service. The CAT was developed in 2009 and implemented in 2010. The unique collaboration involved in the development of the CAT is a blueprint for future projects. The collaboration on this project provided a range of benefits and challenges, as well as unique opportunities for further collaborations involving industry, government, regulators and the tertiary sector.

Excerpt from published abstract. Show less

The Labour Market Updates are quarterly reports that provide information about issues affecting Australia's current and emerging labour market. This update brings together a range of Jobs and Skills Australia, and Australian Bureau of Statistics data sources to analyse the state of the Australian labour market in the March quarter of 2023. This update highlights: (1) the recent overall strength of the Australian labour market; (2) variations in outcomes across industries, occupations and skill levels - including strong recent employment outcomes for occupations where vocational education and training (VET) qualifications are the primary pathway; (3) a slight easing in recruitment difficulty and an increase in the likelihood of employers filling an advertised role; (4) improved recent results across a number of indicators of wages growth; (5) an expansion of preliminary analysis of the underlying drivers of skills shortage for the top 20 occupations in demand, to assess whether the shortage is primarily driven by a lack of people with the essential technical skills or by other factors - such as non-technical qualities considered important by employers or by willingness to apply for the vacancies under current conditions; and (6) a deep dive into key regional skills needs.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website. Show less

Background: A well-educated, sufficient nursing workforce improves population health and standards of nursing care. Analysing workforce policies assists nurses to learn from the past and develop better future policies. Aim: Describe policy-making processes in the first Thai government plan to increase nursing capacity and improve nursing education quality. Design: A qualitative study employing Longest's model to examine policy-making processes. Methods: Data were obtained from 28 in-depth interviews with key informants, who had been committee members and former deans of nursing involved with the policy processes in the 1990s. Both qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from relevant documents, and content analysis employed with all data.

Findings: Three policy phases were identified. Policy formulation, where three streams of problems, politics and policy resulted in identification of nursing shortage, changes of government incumbents and needing to increase nurse production; Policy implementation included creating methods of implementation, appointing responsible people and committees, creating operational plans, producing more nurses and faculty development projects and Policy modification which incorporated implementing the first Thai international doctoral degree in English, a collaborative programme between universities. Study limitations: Not all key informants could be accessed due to the passage of time. Findings are unique to Thailand but inform internationally of nurses' abilities and need to be involved in policy.

Conclusion: Nurses were involved in all policy phases. While the policy produced positive developments in growing nursing capacity and education in the past, nursing shortages remained and are now acute in Thailand. Implications for Nursing/Health Policy: Lessons learned from this policy analysis help explain why the nursing education and nursing shortage policy was legislated through the government agenda, and the active involvement of Thai nurses in this process. Nurses globally need to be at the policy-making table to try to reduce nursing shortages, and enhance practice and education environments.

Published abstract. Show less

This brief discusses the transitions of rural women in and out of employment since the start of the global pandemic in response to changes in the household due to the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 crisis. We postulate that these household changes, i.e. loss of employment by other household members, increase in household size, and increase in unpaid care work, affected women's exit and entry into employment. The key findings highlight the complex coping strategies at the household level where women's work - paid and unpaid - plays a critical role. This brief summarizes the paper Barcia de Mattos, Fernanda; Dasgupta, Sukti; Esquivel, Valeria; and Ghani, Sajid (2023), 'Push and pull factors and women's rural employment in India since COVID-19,' Review of agrarian studies, vol. 12, no. 2.

Published abstract. Show less

Green growth aims to foster economic growth and development while coping with the concerns over lack of natural resources, environmental depredation, and climate change. Green growth aims to catalyze investment and innovation, which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities and change for enhanced well-being. These green growth initiatives and stimulus packages inevitably lead to restructuring of economy and industries, which in turn bring about changes in employment and jobs. Green jobs have been identified and emerged across different sectors. Green jobs require adequate skills and call for education and training strategies to reduce skill gaps that may exist during the transition to a sustainable green economy. Labor market shifts will occur due to the restructuring of industries in response to green growth. This research was conducted to find out the level of demand for skill and manpower required in specific areas for career development of integrated growth and green jobs. The scope of survey includes green energy companies nationwide and the study focused on 100 sample companies in 15 industry areas. The survey results show that the shortage of professional technical manpower should be addressed by establishing formal curricula such as at universities, while short-term programs should be expanded for skilled technical manpower. As for the qualitative aspect, training courses should be established for professional technical manpower, while alternatives such as in-house transfers and training should be considered for skilled technical manpower close to the field.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

This study contributes to the labour market research into nurse shortage in an Australian regional context. It indicates that supply decisions are influenced by family circumstances, attachment to regional life and characteristics of the profession, particularly the emphasis on caring. Aspects of nursing work, particularly workloads and working with competent people (as opposed to autonomy and career prospects), and conditions of work, particularly wages, protection from violence and flexibility of working time are more able to be affected by government and management. The study also suggests that a 'strict' approach to employment and work organisation tends to follow traditional medical treatment assumptions and lead to unnecessary cultural and systemic inflexibility. Generational conflict ('older' and 'younger' nurses) overlaid by opposition to the current system of nurse education (hospital-based and university-based) emerge as additional problems impacting on the participation of nurses.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The movement to make American cities more sustainable, efficient and livable is perhaps the greatest new engine for urban economic growth, innovation and job creation in many decades. The American Solar Energy Society estimates that in 2006 alone, renewable energy and energy efficiency were responsible for $970 billion in industry revenues and 8.5 million jobs. This number will grow exponentially if our nation commits itself in earnest to reducing carbon emissions and making economy-wide improvements in energy efficiency. Unfortunately, America’s growing green economy faces a looming labor shortage in sectors like manufacturing, construction and installation. In a 2005 survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, 90 per cent of respondents indicated a moderate to severe shortage of qualified, skilled production employees like machinists and technicians. Similarly, the National Renewable Energy Lab has identified a shortage of skills and training as a leading barrier to renewable energy and energy efficiency growth. This labor shortage is only likely to get more severe as baby-boomers skilled in current energy technologies retire; in the power sector, for example, nearly one-quarter of the current workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next five to seven years.

Published abstract. Show less

Career and technical education (CTE) continues to face an annual shortage of qualified teachers in the profession. This shortage has caused an increase in the use of alternative certification/licensure pathways across the United States. These alternative pathways are highly divergent from state to state. Limited research has investigated CTE teacher shortage and the alternative certification/licensure requirements that contribute. Using archival data, this correlational study looked to determine if CTE alternative certification/licensure requirements can predict CTE teacher shortages. Logistic regression analysis was used to review all 50 states and the District of Columbia and determine if any of the criterion variables predicted CTE teacher shortage. After analysis, it was determined that none of the criterion variables of academic degree, work experience, mandatory testing, and program length was statistically significant in predicting CTE teacher shortage.

Published abstract. Show less

This report evaluates factors contributing to healthcare labour shortages in Canada and investigates the inter-relationships between access to health services, the number of healthcare providers, compensation rates and migration patterns. Nurses and other care providers can increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery through expanding scopes of practice or filling gaps when there is a shortage of family or specialist physicians. Increasing wages would also help mitigate shortages in the field of nursing. However, there are, as well, shortages of nurses and other healthcare providers. The report also proposes an increase in the number of places in medical schools, currently so low that a significant number of Canadians go abroad for medical school, incurring higher personal expenses and a lower likelihood of securing a residency position if they return to Canada to complete their training. Other recommendations are to increase the number of residency positions, both for Canadian medical graduates and internationally trained ones, particularly in disciplines projected to be in short supply, along with encouraging immigration of physicians and medical students.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less

Labour shortages in health care professions have become a pressing issue across many Canadian jurisdictions and were especially exacerbated by the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. To help address these shortages, federal, provincial and territorial governments have implemented measures to facilitate the entry of skilled immigrants with health care qualifications into their respective professions, among other government actions to strengthen the health workforce. However, comprehensive data on the numbers, sociodemographic characteristics and labour market outcomes of internationally educated health care professionals (IEHPs) remain scarce.

This article provides estimates of the number of IEHPs in Canada based on 2021 Census data, shedding light on their distribution across provinces and territories. It further examines the sociodemographic characteristics of IEHPs and explores their occupational distribution across major fields of study. This article serves as a snapshot of a comprehensive report, which will be released later, offering detailed descriptive and multivariate analyses of the labour market outcomes of IEHPs. In this article, IEHPs were defined as landed immigrants who held a postsecondary certificate, diploma or degree from outside Canada in a health field of study and who reported it as their highest certificate, diploma or degree. Temporary residents and Canadian-born people who received their highest certificate, diploma or degree in health in a foreign country were excluded.

Excerpt from publication. Show less