'Pathways for developing a 'Smart' workforce: does the achievement of formal workplace qualifications encourage participation in Higher Education?'

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a public workforce education initiative in the context of State and agency policies designed to enhance employee capabilities to adapt to a volatile and changing environment. In particular, we are concerned with public employees’ experience of a higher educational pathway that resulted in their obtaining a Diploma level qualification. In addition to understanding the employees’ experience of this pathway we were interested in whether the experience contributed to their openness to the prospect of university level education. We conducted telephone interviews with a sample of participants from the program. Employees reported very positive experience of the program; in particular employees reported enhanced efficacy beliefs, a strong sense of achievement, and a feeling of recognition. This experience is explained by four main factors; (1) a program design that was well aligned with the employees learning needs, (2) strong support by organisational staff who delivered and assessed participants on capability criteria, (3) strong management support for employees’ participation, (4) an academic ceremony that provided participants with public recognition of their achievement by valued others. Participants’ motivation to participate was primarily intrinsic rather than extrinsic. Participants in the study reported that their experience in this educational pathway gave them the confidence to consider the possibility of university level education. The paper also discusses the practitioner-academic collaboration that led to the development of this paper

Are wobbegongs social?: social networks of the spotted wobbegong shark (orectolobus maculatus) in a small marine protected area

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 62-76.1. Introduction -- 2. Methods -- 3. Results -- 4. Discussion -- 5. Conclusions -- 6. Supplementary material.Many shark species form groups, however the drivers of this behaviour are not well understood. Previously it was thought that aggregations may be a function of resource availability or phenological behaviours, but recent studies have suggested that sharks display preferences in their associations with conspecifics and that complex social networks may underpin their movement patterns, demographic distribution and fitness. This study used a network approach to investigate patterns of sociality of a demersal predator, the spotted wobbegong shark, in a small marine reserve. Spatial data obtained from fine-scale passive acoustic telemetry were used to show that some sharks display preferences in their associations, many of which persisted after sharks returned to the reserve from their seasonal migration. These relationships were not exclusive, with some sharks forming associations with multiple individuals. Patterns were evident at the dyadic level, but limited evidence was found of a stable community or network structure. It appears that the species is not primarily gregarious but that benefits may be gained by maintaining a level of familiarity with a limited number of conspecifics. The composition of groups in terms of individual attributes (sex, size and familiarity) suggested that non-social aggregative behaviour was not a strong influence on association patterns. Site fidelity and home range overlap were also found to only marginally influence these associations. This suggests that the observed relationships can be explained, at least in part, by genuine social affiliation and that anthropogenic influences on the population may have more complex impacts than previously thought.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (76 pages) colour illustrations, colour map

Are wobbegongs social?: social networks of the spotted wobbegong shark (orectolobus maculatus) in a small marine protected area

Many shark species form groups, however the drivers of this behaviour are not well understood. Previously it was thought that aggregations may be a function of resource availability or phenological behaviours, but recent studies have suggested that sharks display preferences in their associations with conspecifics and that complex social networks may underpin their movement patterns, demographic distribution and fitness. This study used a network approach to investigate patterns of sociality of a demersal predator, the spotted wobbegong shark, in a small marine reserve. Spatial data obtained from fine-scale passive acoustic telemetry were used to show that some sharks display preferences in their associations, many of which persisted after sharks returned to the reserve from their seasonal migration. These relationships were not exclusive, with some sharks forming associations with multiple individuals. Patterns were evident at the dyadic level, but limited evidence was found of a stable community or network structure. It appears that the species is not primarily gregarious but that benefits may be gained by maintaining a level of familiarity with a limited number of conspecifics. The composition of groups in terms of individual attributes (sex, size and familiarity) suggested that non-social aggregative behaviour was not a strong influence on association patterns. Site fidelity and home range overlap were also found to only marginally influence these associations. This suggests that the observed relationships can be explained, at least in part, by genuine social affiliation and that anthropogenic influences on the population may have more complex impacts than previously thought

Integrating social network analysis and fine-scale positioning to characterize the associations of a benthic shark

Many shark species form groups; yet the drivers of this behaviour are not well understood. Aggregations have been presumed to be a function of resource availability or phenology. However, recent studies have suggested that some sharks display preferences in their associations with conspecifics and that complex social networks may underpin their movement patterns, demographic distribution and fitness. This study used a network approach to investigate patterns of sociality of a benthic predator, the spotted wobbegong shark, Orectolobus maculatus (Family Orectolobidae), in a small marine reserve. Spatial data obtained from fine-scale passive acoustic telemetry were used to infer association preferences of 15 tagged sharks over a 15-month period. Thirty-five associating dyads emerged, with permutation tests indicating that these were nonrandomly formed. Many dyads were temporally stable, with some persisting even after sharks returned to the reserve from their seasonal migration. A complete but sparse network was observed and although association patterns were evident at the dyadic level, indication of stable communities or network structure was limited. The population was not found to be gregarious and exclusive pairs were not observed, with 14 sharks associating with more than one individual. Assortative mixing (by sex, size and familiarity) was not present and range overlap did not strongly correlate with association indices. This suggests that these relationships are not a random result of nonsocial grouping behaviours but can be explained, at least in part, by genuine social affiliation. As such, anthropogenic influences on the population may have more complex impacts than previously thought.14 page(s

Social barriers in ecological landscapes: the social resistance hypothesis

Across animal societies, individuals invest time and energy in social interactions. The social landscape that emerges from these interactions can then generate barriers that limit the ability of individuals to disperse to, and reproduce in, groups or populations. Therefore, social barriers can contribute to the difference between the physical capacity for movement through the habitat and subsequent gene flow. We call this contributing effect ‘social resistance’. We propose that social resistance can act as an agent of selection on key life-history strategies and promote the evolution of social strategies that facilitate effective dispersal. By linking landscape genetics and social behaviour, the social resistance hypothesis generates predictions integrating dispersal, connectivity, and life-history evolution.Nicolette C.Armansin, Adam J.Stow, Mauricio Cantor, Stephan T.Leu, James A.Klarevas-Irb