Universities, Employability and Human Development

Universities, Employability and Human Development PDF Author: Melanie Walker
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137584521
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The book makes a significant contribution to critical higher education studies, specifically to graduate employability research and to capabilities and education research. The book moves beyond the simplistic conception of alleged 'gaps' in graduate skills and 'mismatches' between employers and universities, and instead provides an innovative multi-dimensional and intersectional human capabilities conceptualisation of graduate employability. The book challenges an individualised notion of employability, instead locating employability issues in social and economic conditions, and argues that employability choices cannot be divorced from inequality. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple case-study universities in South Africa are used to explore the perceptions and experiences of diverse students, lecturers, support officers and employers, regarding what each university is doing, or should be doing, to enhance graduate economic opportunities and contribute to inclusive development. The book will be highly relevant to students, scholars and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, particularly those with an interest in graduate employability.

Universities, Employability and Human Development

Universities, Employability and Human Development PDF Author: Melanie Walker
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137584521
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book makes a significant contribution to critical higher education studies, specifically to graduate employability research and to capabilities and education research. The book moves beyond the simplistic conception of alleged 'gaps' in graduate skills and 'mismatches' between employers and universities, and instead provides an innovative multi-dimensional and intersectional human capabilities conceptualisation of graduate employability. The book challenges an individualised notion of employability, instead locating employability issues in social and economic conditions, and argues that employability choices cannot be divorced from inequality. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple case-study universities in South Africa are used to explore the perceptions and experiences of diverse students, lecturers, support officers and employers, regarding what each university is doing, or should be doing, to enhance graduate economic opportunities and contribute to inclusive development. The book will be highly relevant to students, scholars and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, particularly those with an interest in graduate employability.

Human Development and the University in Sub-Saharan Africa

Human Development and the University in Sub-Saharan Africa PDF Author: Bertha Kibona
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031383664
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This book utilises a human development and capability approach to examine the role of higher education in the context of Tanzania. The author considers decolonisation debates as they relate to African concerns in order to make a case for systems design and implementation implications for decolonising higher education institutions. The book will be of interest to students, scholars and policymakers in the field of higher education.

Developing and Utilizing Employability Capitals

Developing and Utilizing Employability Capitals PDF Author: Tran Le Huu Nghia
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100003920X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Graduate employability is a significant concern for most higher education institutions worldwide. During the last two decades, universities have attempted to implement their employability agendas to support their students to enhance employment outcomes. However, within today’s globalized labour markets, employability has gone far beyond the notion of obtaining stable and permanent employment. This book explores graduates’ experiences in developing and utilizing employability capitals for career development and success in different labour markets. In the chapters, the graduate contributors narrate and discuss how they negotiated their employability on the transitions across jobs, occupational sectors and labour markets. The chapters address key issues, including how employability is understood by graduates of different disciplines, at different career stages and in different contexts; how they develop and utilise such capitals along with strategies to negotiate their employability; and what can be done to move the higher education employability agenda forward. The book presents international insights and perspectives into transitions from education to work and career development across the labour markets, as well as calls for improving the graduate employability agenda. It is an invaluable resource for researchers and academics, university leaders, policymakers and students who are concerned about graduate employability.

Quality in Higher Education as a Tool for Human Development

Quality in Higher Education as a Tool for Human Development PDF Author: Patience Mukwambo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429956231
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Whilst many studies have explored how quality in higher education is conceptualised in the Global North, less attention has been paid to quality in higher education in Africa and the Global South. This book uses the human development and capabilities approach to demonstrate how quality in teaching and learning contributes to a range of benefits, such as improved wellbeing, economic outcomes, political engagement, and human capital formation amongst graduates. The book interrogates the various dimensions of quality as well as factors that impact on the realisation of quality in universities and society at large. Recognising that measures of quality are context and stakeholder specific, the book uses the Zimbabwean context as a Global South case study. It evaluates how quality is conceptualised and operationalised in Zimbabwean universities, and how that impacts on teaching and learning policy and practice. The book also demonstrates the need for economic resources for individuals and universities, and emphasises the importance of a social and educational environment conducive to critical learning, and post-university opportunities. This book will be of interest to researchers across Education, African and Development Studies, as well as to policymakers and practitioners with an interest in quality assurance and the promotion of teaching and learning in universities in the Global South.

Universities and Global Human Development

Universities and Global Human Development PDF Author: Alejandra Boni
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317587197
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This book makes the case for a critical turn in development thinking around universities and their contributions in making a more equal post-2015 world. It puts forward a normative approach based on human development and the capability approach, one which can gain a hearing from policy, scholarship, and practitioners dealing with practical issues of understanding policy, democratising research and knowledge, and fostering student learning - all key university functions. The book argues that such an approach can elucidate development debates drawing on local, national and international issues and examples to show why higher education matters for sustainable development goals both in educational and social terms. It advocates a new arena of engagement with universities as key sites of development and freedoms beyond human capital and challenges development omissions and gaps around university education. The book explores how the human development approach addresses the following core ideas: the meaning of well-being, the idea of agency, participation and democratic citizenship, how to address inequalities, the relation between local and global, and the idea of equitable partnerships. This book is addressed to researchers and postgraduate students in development studies, university education, the capability approach and human development community.

Skills for Human Development

Skills for Human Development PDF Author: Lesley Joy Powell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317328515
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Focusing on reimagining the purpose of vocational education and training (VET) and grounded in the reality of a small cohort of young South Africans and an institution seeking to serve them, Skills for Human Development moves beyond the inadequacies of the dominant human capital orthodoxy to present a rich theoretical and practical alternative for VET. Offering a human development and capability approach, it brings social justice to the forefront of the discussion of VET’s purpose at the national, institutional and individual levels. In doing so, this book insists that VET should be about enlarging peoples’ opportunities to live a flourishing life, rather than simply being about narrow employability and productivity. It argues that human development approaches, while acknowledging the importance of work in its broadest sense, offer a better way of bringing together VET and development than the current human capital-inspired orthodoxy. Offering a transformative vision for skills development, this book: Considers the potential contribution skills development could make to broader human development, as well as to economic development Points to an alternative approach to the current and flawed deficit assumptions of VET learners Presents for the first time an alternative evaluative frame for judging VET purpose and quality Presents a timely account of current vocational and education training that is high on the agenda of international policymakers Taking a broad perspective, Skills for Human Development presents a comprehensive and unique framework which bridges theory, policy and practice to give VET institutions a new way of thinking about their practice, and VET policymakers a new way of engaging with global messages of sustainable human development. It is a vital resource for those working on the human development and skills approach in multiple disciplines and offers a grounding framework for international policymakers interested in this growing area.

Going to University. The Influence of Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans

Going to University. The Influence of Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans PDF Author: Jennifer Case
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 192833170X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in and cares about universities.

Student Activism in the Global South

Student Activism in the Global South PDF Author: Kurauone Masungo
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031629752
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description


The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education PDF Author: tavis d. jules
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350078778
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
This book offers a practical and approachable overview of central theories in comparative and international education (CIE). The chapters focus in depth on specific theoretical perspectives and seek to elucidate the histories, assumptions, and recent developments of these theories. The chapters also situate the theories within CIE, include specific case studies of theoretical application, and outline suggestions for further reading. Written by leading scholars from around the world, this is must-have reference work for anyone teaching, researching, studying, or working in CIE. The handbook includes chapters on a diverse collection of theories, including but not limited to: Structural-functionalism, Colonialism/Imperialism, Marxism, Human Capital Theory, Dependency/World Systems Theory, Post-Colonialism, Post-Socialism, Post-Foundationalism, Neo-liberalism, Neo-Institutionalism, Neo-Marxism, Policy Borrowing and Lending, Peace Theories, Human Rights, Constructivism, Racism, Gender, Queer Theory, Social Network Theory, Capabilities Theory, and Cultural Political Economy.

Higher Education Pathways

Higher Education Pathways PDF Author: Ashwin, Paul
Publisher: African Minds
ISBN: 1928331904
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In what ways does access to undergraduate education have a transformative impact on people and societies? What conditions are required for this impact to occur? What are the pathways from an undergraduate education to the public good, including inclusive economic development? These questions have particular resonance in the South African higher education context, which is attempting to tackle the challenges of widening access and improving completion rates in in a system in which the segregations of the apartheid years are still apparent. Higher education is recognised in core legislation as having a distinctive and crucial role in building post-apartheid society. Undergraduate education is seen as central to addressing skills shortages in South Africa. It is also seen to yield significant social returns, including a consistent positive impact on societal institutions and the development of a range of capabilities that have public, as well as private, benefits. This book offers comprehensive contemporary evidence that allows for a fresh engagement with these pressing issues.