Giving Miss Marple a makeover : graduate recruitment, systems failure and the Scottish voluntary sector

The voluntary sector in Scotland, as across the globe, is becoming increasingly business like. Resultantly, there is an increasing demand for graduates to work in business and support functions. In Scotland, however, despite an oversupply of graduates in the labor market, the voluntary sector reports skills shortages for graduate-level positions; a leadership deficit was also reported in countries such as the United States. Through exploratory, mainly qualitative, case study and stakeholder research, this article proposes that one reason for this mismatch between the supply of and demand for graduates is a systems failure within the sector. Many graduates and university students remain unaware of potentially suitable paid job opportunities, in part because of the sector's voluntary label. To rectify this systems failure, thought needs to be given to the sector's nomenclature and the manner in which voluntary sector organizations attract graduate recruits, for example, through levering value congruence in potential recruits

The Changing Face of Youth Employment in Europe

This article examines trends in youth employment across the EU-15 countries during 2002-6 and 2007-11. Drawing upon microdata from the EU-Labour Force Survey it examines changes in contract-type, hours worked and occupation by level of education. Although the financial crisis creates a discontinuity in numbers employed, and despite certain country specificities, we observe common structural changes across the two periods. We find an increasing shift from permanent full-time to temporary part-time contracts, the ‘hollowing out’ of traditional mid-skill level occupations and evidence of ‘occupational filtering down’ whereby the higher-educated are substituted for the lower-educated in low-skilled occupations. We observe some growth in ‘professionals’ following the crisis, but little evidence of the rise of a new knowledge economy. This raises questions concerning the most appropriate policy approaches to education and training and labour market regulation if European nations are to provide high-quality employment opportunities for their young people

Structure of the stationary phase survival protein YuiC from B.subtilis

- Background: Stationary phase survival proteins (Sps) were found in Firmicutes as having analogous domain compositions, and in some cases genome context, as the resuscitation promoting factors of Actinobacteria, but with a different putative peptidoglycan cleaving domain. - Results: The first structure of a Firmicute Sps protein YuiC from B. subtilis, is found to be a stripped down version of the cell-wall peptidoglycan hydrolase MltA. The YuiC structures are of a domain swapped dimer, although some monomer is also found in solution. The protein crystallised in the presence of pentasaccharide shows a 1,6-anhydrodisaccharide sugar product, indicating that YuiC cleaves the sugar backbone to form an anhydro product at least on lengthy incubation during crystallisation. - Conclusions: The structural simplification of MltA in Sps proteins is analogous to that of the resuscitation promoting factor domains of Actinobacteria, which are stripped down versions of lysozyme and soluble lytic transglycosylase proteins

Vocational knowledge in motion: rethinking vocational knowledge through vocational teachers' professional development

The paper presents empirical data to consider some of the current debates concerning the nature of vocational knowledge taught in Further Education colleges to students following craft, vocational and occupational courses. The concept of ‘knowledge in motion’ and workplace learning theories are employed as a conceptual framework to examine the continuing professional development (CPD) activities of vocational teachers. This is used to shed light on the ways in which teachers use CPD as a means of accessing and transporting vocational knowledge from occupations to classrooms. Empirical data were gathered through questionnaire, in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings are presented around five themes: (1) the range of CPD engaged with by vocational teachers; (2) the limitations of propositional, explicit knowledge; (3) engaging with and capturing tacit knowledge; (4) managing the temporality of vocational knowledge; and (5) networking within and to the occupation. Findings suggests that vocational knowledge is distributed and networked and this conceptualisation makes visible some of the ways teachers are able, through CPD activity, to transport vocational knowledge from occupations to classrooms

The state of construction training and employment in the local economy of Jersey

There is a crisis in the training and skills provision of the Channel Island of Jersey's construction industry that has similarities with the situation in Britain. The main problems relate to the unavailability, inappropriateness and narrow focus of skills, the demand-driven and task- or job-specific nature of training, the Jersey-born and male focus of recruitment, and the uncoordinated, traditional and short-term approach of the local construction firms towards promotion and financing of training provision. It is argued that a structured training policy incorporating the needs of both education and industry and holding a long-term vision should enable the construction industry of Jersey to reverse the downward spiral

Opportunity knocks? The possibilities and levers for improving job quality

This article focuses on demands and interventions to improve or maintain job quality. There is a need for better understanding of what can be done, by whom, and with what impacts. The article provides a framework for reflection focused on interventions within and outwith the workplace. Drawing on secondary data, it outlines the renewed policy and academic interest in job quality, examines the multilevel reasons for intervention and the factors that shape this intervention, and evaluates the loci of intervention. On the basis of the evidence to date, it argues that there is scope for intervention and that intervention can be effective