Education Commons^™

Business Undergraduates' Perceptions Of Their Capabilities In Employability Skills : Implications For Industry And Higher Education, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2012

In response to the continuing disparity between industry expectations and higher education provision, this study examines the self-assessed capabilities of 1,024 business undergraduates in employability skills typically considered important by industry in developed economies. The findings indicate relative perceived strengths in 'social responsibility and accountability', 'developing professionalism' and 'working effectively with others', and weaknesses in 'critical thinking', 'developing initiative and enterprise' and 'self-awareness'. Although these findings align with those of recent employer-based studies, undergraduates rate themselves considerably higher than their industry counterparts. The implications of this overconfidence in personal ability, commonly associated with so-called Generation Y graduates, for persistent graduate …

Student Enfranchisement In Business Undergraduate Studies, Gary Marchioro, Maria Ryan, Helen Cripps

Research outputs 2011

Aligning business undergraduate programs with industry skill and work requirements is reshaping higher education. This approach is now an acknowledged and strategic initiative to react to business demands in the education sphere. The framework for learning generic skills has been well developed and documented in reference to employer groups and articulated through many university programs. However, the development, monitoring and evaluation of the uptake of these skills using student views are not well documented. This paper presents university students’ perceptions of their personal generic skills capabilities. The literature addresses the need for these skills to be inclusive of personal attributes …

Decision Making Regarding Employee Access To Training And Development In Medium-Sized Enterprises, Alan Coetzer, Janice Redmond, Jalleh Sharafizad

Research outputs 2011

Employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) form part of a ‘disadvantaged’ group within the workforce that receives less access to formal training and development than employees in large firms. The manager’s decisional role is critical when considering employee access to training and development. Unfortunately, there is scant research into factors affecting managers’ decisions regarding employee access to a requested development opportunity in SMEs. To address this research gap, semi-structured interviews incorporating critical incidents were conducted with a purposive sample of 12 managers of medium-sized enterprises based in Perth. We report key findings of the interviews and assess the effectiveness …

A Participatory Teaching Strategy Developing A Timeline Of The Global Financial Crisis, Margaret J. Giles

Research outputs 2011

The rapid pace of change of ideas and events in economics places pressure on teachers of university economics to stay abreast of developments in their field and to reflect these developments appropriately in their classes. The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was an excellent example of this phenomenon with a great deal of material written on this subject over a relatively short space of time. Under certain circumstances, one way of coping with such developments may be for teachers and students to acquire emerging knowledge and information jointly rather than sequentially. This paper describes a teaching strategy where students constructed a …

Personal Knowledge Management And Student Learning, Stuart Garner

Research outputs pre 2011

Students who undertake courses of study at colleges and universities are generally more successful in their learning outcomes if they are able to manage their personal knowledge well and effectively. This paper begins by discussing the meaning of personal knowledge management (PKM) and how it relates to teaching and learning, particularly to a commonly used instructional design framework. Some of the electronic tools that students might utilise are then discussed. Finally several electronic tools that might prove useful to students to aid their PKM are suggested

Information Systems Teaching And Research In West Australian Universities, Janice Burn, Craig Standing, Chad Lin

Research outputs pre 2011

The authors of this chapter examine the current state of the development of information systems (IS) teaching and research within Western Australia (WA). A brief overview of the WA environment is followed by an exploration of teaching and research in the four main universities. This is examined against the framework for the study and, in particular, the impact of social processes (Ariav et al. 1987; Klein et al. 1991) and local contingencies (Culnan et al. 1993; Checkland and Holwell 1998), which are found to be of relevance to historical developments.

Small Business Owners: Too Busy To Train?, Elizabeth Walker, Janice Redmond, Beverley Webster, Megan Le Clus

Research outputs pre 2011

Purpose – The reason often cited for the poor relationship between small businesses and their uptake of vocational education and training is that small business owner-managers claim that they are too busy to engage in training or any type of learning activity and that most training is of little value to them. The aim of the research is to examine the relationship between these factors.

Design/methodology/approach – Using qualitative research methods the study collected data of the knowledge, attitudes and needs of small business owner-managers, both before and after participation in a training program.

Findings – This study has indicated …

Developing A Positive Experience Of Introductory Information Systems For Women At Two Australasian Universities, Rosemary Stockdale, Susan Stoney

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper examines how academics can contribute to encouraging greater uptake of IS majors by women. Using a qualitative reflective approach we identify the perceptions and experiences of female undergraduates taking introductory IS courses in two universities, one in Australia and one in New Zealand, and discuss ways in which to improve their learning experience. We examine ways to improve the delivery of introductory IS courses in order to make information systems more relevant and less dreary to women undergraduates. The paper concludes with some recommendations for marketing courses and areas of further research.

Information Systems In Western Australian Universities, Craig Standing, Janice Burn, Chad Lin

Research outputs pre 2011

Systems (IS) teaching and research within Western Australia (WA). A brief overview of the WA environment is followed by an exploration of teaching and research in the four main Universities. This is examined against the framework for the study and, in particular, the impact of social processes (Ariav et al, 1987; Klein et al, 1991) and local contingencies (Culnan et al, 1993; Checkland and Howell, 1998), which are found to be of relevance to historic developments.

On-Line Training For Smes: Final Report, Beth Walker, Beverley Webster, Sue Stoney

Research outputs pre 2011

This research aimed to explore the appropriateness of on-line training delivery methods for small business owner/managers.

It is widely recognised that training and education are effective ways to reduce small business failure. In Australia, small business accounts for 96 percent of Australian private sector, non-agricultural businesses and they employ 47 percent of the private sector, non-agricultural workforce. Not surprisingly then, encouraging the development of the skills of the workforce has emerged as a major priority for government policy. However, what is also recognised is that many small business owner/managers (SBOs) have limited e-competencies.

Results of this research confirmed this and …

Employment Status Of 1978 Graduates From Churchlands College Of Advanced Education, Frank Wilson

Research outputs pre 2011

In 1979, Churchlands College graduates participated for the second time in the Graduate Career Council's graduate employment survey.

Detailed results of the 1979 survey have now been published and appear in the report: First Destinations of 1978 University and College Graduates as at April 30, 1979. Complementary copies of this report have been distributed to all Heads of Department.

In addition to the standard eleven item G.C.C.A. questionnaire, Churchlands graduates also received a supplementary set of questions. This collected additional employment information from graduates.

To be reported in this memo are:

1. The major G.C.C.A. findings of relevance to Churchlands; …