ABSTRACT This article explores the impact of mass higher education on high skills utilisation in the retailing, computer services and transport and communications industries. In all three industries graduates have been taken on in increasing numbers in recent years, partly in order to meet growing demands for analytical ability, generic skills and technical knowledge, and partly as a result of larger numbers of graduates applying for relatively low-paid, undemanding jobs. There is evidence of graduate substitution for non-graduates having contributed to a job upgrading process in two different ways during the last decade: (1) through a one-off permanent upgrading of clerical and administrative jobs in departments such as customer services and marketing; and (2) through temporary job upgrading as individual graduates in lower level jobs take on additional tasks and responsibilities in the hope of securing internal promotion or moving to better jobs with other employers. However, the scope for further job upgrading of a permanent kind appears to be limited. In general, the burden of adjustment to the increased supply of graduates falls to a greater extent on individual graduates than it does on employers. This contributes to a widening divergence of salaries and career prospects across the graduate labour market.

The data from the research suggest that an effective workforce does not depend on any one factor in isolation. People are attracted to the public library service because the work is seen as having a public service ethos and providing opportunities to work with the public and communities. However the overall picture is that the negative image of the profession has some basis in reality. The research confirmed the view that there is a link between retention and training, and that success in retaining high quality staff derives from a combination of the qualities of the job itself, and a structured approach to training. The development of staff will not be achieved without the development of managers at every level. Issues of succession planning and career leadership development were seen as particularly important areas but relatively few authorities have begun to address these matters. The indications are that the public library service may not only have to identify and cultivate its future leaders but may also need to modify the organisational culture in which they operate. Individual librarians, individual library services, academic institutions and library authorities need to look beyond what is sufficient for their own organizations, and consider what is necessary for the profession and its users as a whole. In reviewing, and reflecting on the data, the research team makes a number of recommendations. This is not a simple list of skills and aptitudes. Rather their suggestions are concerned with what is required if the public library service is to recruit and retain people with the necessary potential, skills and abilities to lead the profession in the twenty-first century. Authors details

Leisure studies graduates seek employment in a highly competitive marketplace. In addition to their degree qualification, graduates need to have a core of generic skills and attributes that are sought by their industry sector employers. As part of a larger study, graduates from Griffith University’s leisure management degree (1997-2000) were surveyed to explore their perceptions of how their generic skills have been develop in three different learning contexts – at university, through university work placements and, in post-graduation employment. It is argued that all three contexts play an important and often complementary part in preparing leisure management graduates with a package of skills that enable them to effectively contribute to the workplace and develop their careers. However, some skills may be better developed in a particular context and in other contexts, improvements might be made in the teaching and learning process. The study findings give strong support for work placements in preparing graduates for employment.

The rapid transition to mass higher education in Britain has led to concerns as to whether or not the skills and knowledge of the increased supply of graduates are being fully utilised in employment. This article argues that assessments of graduate utilisation need to take account of recent changes in the quality-distribution of higher education output. In a study of the labour market for chemistry graduates, a majority of employers reporting graduate recruitment difficulties attributed these problems to quality shortcomings among job applicants rather than any quantitative shortfall. These perceptions were partly based on rising expectations among employers as to the `work-readiness' of new graduates. However, a detailed investigation of university chemistry departments also found that, due to both the growing diversity of student intakes and cuts in government funding per student, many departments are poorly placed to ensure that all graduates possess the skills and knowledge require...

The recent rapid growth in graduate supply in Britain has contributed to a sharp increase in employment of graduates relative to people with intermediate (craft- and technician-level) skills. This substitution process is being driven by changes in demand as well as by supply factors. However, recent evidence of employer difficulties in recruiting graduates suggests that concerns about `quality shortcomings' in some graduate job applicants -- in particular, lack of practical work experience and commercial understanding -- reflect a continuing demand by employers for the skills and knowledge that are most easily acquired through employment-based intermediate skills training. The article considers various ways in which employment-based training could be more closely integrated with higher education courses in order to expand the supply of intermediate skills while still recognising the desire (and ability) of many intermediate-level people to eventually qualify as graduates. 3 1. Introd...

Organisations of the twenty first century are increasingly dependent on knowledge, information- and communication technology (ICT). Due to the changes in modern organisations, a new role and set of expectations have emerged for ICT workers. Academic institutions have a responsibility to determine the needs of the ICT industry and develop the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities in their learners, through relevant instructional offerings and course contents. Companies in the ICT industry regard higher education institutions as important clients. On the other hand, the clientele for higher education institutions include the learners, the ICT industry and the public. This article suggests that higher education institutions should remain informed about the needs of the ICT industry and, at the same time, keep their learners and other clients informed about these needs, career - and training options in the ICT field. It is argued that the management of this "two-way" practical informing science process-to satisfy both stakeholders- is the responsibility of higher education instit utions.

Higher education programs need to prepare their graduates for the practical challenges they can expect to face upon entering the workforce. Students can be better prepared if their academic learning is reinforced through authentic workplace experience, where the link between theory and professional practice can be realized. Increasingly, such learning in the workplace is being seen as an integral part of the university curricula as evidenced through the implementation of the Learning the Workplace & Community (LiWC) Policy at Victoria University, Australia. This policy mandates a minimum of 25 % content and assessment of all academic programs be related to work-integrated learning. Recognizing the need for authentic workplace experience in the IT undergraduate program, a review found that the existing work-related learning component accounted for only half the required 25 % LiWC commitment. Currently, the LiWC component is an industry-based capstone project that spans two semesters in the final year of study. These projects allow students to work on real-life software development tasks where they experience the practical challenges of building software systems whilst appreciating the needs of a business client. In a search of the literature, campus-located industry projects were identified as one of the two most common workrelated

In an ideal world, review and changes to computing curricula should be driven solely by academic concerns for the needs of students. The process should be informed by industry accreditation processes and international best practice (Hurst et al., 2001). However, Australian computing curricular review is often driven by the need for financial viability of programs with declining student numbers as much as concerns for academic merit. Worldwide there remains a strong job market and high demand for computing professionals (Liu, 2007; Melymuka, 2006), which predicates an impending IT workforce shortage. However, computing programs currently do not attract students due to perceived problems of the inadequacy of courses to prepare students sufficiently to cope with the practical challenges in current technologies adoption, to acquire strong communication skills and business aptitude (Taft, 2007), to foster problem solving skills, and to find the relevance of program contents to specific occupations. Therefore, computing curricula wishing to attract students need to have specialized studies that are of industrial strength that are updated regularly to reflect the progress in the discipline (Finkelstein & Hafner, 2002; Lui, 2007). Yet the challenge for universities is to weigh this need against preparing students to be universal and lifelong learners. Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact

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The principal aim of this paper is to report the findings of a BEST supported investigation into the pedagogic challenges faced by business and management educators. It takes as its starting point the keynote address at the BEST 2002 conference, Assessing the pedagogic challenges faced by business and management educators in UK higher education. As intended, the views of those in the ‘front line ’ of business and management education on the challenges they currently face were obtained by means of focus group discussions in 6 higher education institutions. The discussions were initiated using a technique known as pyramiding. From the findings three groups of challenges emerged. These relate to the:-motivation/expectations and diversity of students; nature of the subject matter, with the need to keep up-to-date, balance theory and practice and ensure an integrated learning experience making extensive demands; and surroundings or context within which educators have to teach and provide learner support, at a time of increasing resource constraints and pressure to enhance the quality and effectiveness of delivery methods. None of the challenges on their own can be regarded as unique to business and management. Collectively, however, they do foreground some of the parameters for a distinctive business and management pedagogy. The key principles underlying this pedagogy can be summarised as inspiration, justification, inclusion, application, integration and replication. In this way, business and management can legitimately lay claim to being at the forefront of pedagogic innovation. Key Words: focus group; student motivation; integrated curriculum; learner support