Preparing Aston Business School students for placement

Aston Business School (ABS) has offered four-year sandwich degrees (including a year long placement) for over 30 years, and ABS has often been ranked top for graduate employability. This report outlines the activities ABS uses to meet its ever increasing placement targets. ABS builds relationships in students’ thinking between theory and practice, and this has implications for their study, the placement period and beyond. Developing the links has certainly been a factor in the enhanced employabilility of ABS graduates, resulting in ABS having been ranked top for graduate employability for many years. The eight employability skills used as the basis for the placement preparation objectives originate from Smith at al’s (2002) work on employability. We were encouraged to find that these employability skills overlap with the benchmark of the ‘Profile summary for Business and Management’ outlined by Hawkridge (2005). In this case study we provide a rationale and then the objectives of the placement preparation period, followed by specific details of the preparation process. The evaluation highlights key achievements and areas for development, and the discussion is future-focused. Readers should note that the ABS Undergraduate curriculum is aimed at preparing students for employment but this case study focuses on the role of the Placements Team.

Academic performance of college students in financial management and related prerequisite courses: A comparison of senior high school and commercial high school graduates attending Tamsui Oxford University College in Taiwan

In Taiwan, the college freshmen are recruited graduates of both senior high school and senior vocational school. The Ministry of Education (MOE) of the Republic of China prescribes the standards of curriculum and equipment for schools at all levels and categories. There exists a considerably different curriculum arrangement for senior high schools and vocational high schools in Taiwan at the present time. The present study used a causal-comparative research design to identify the influences of different post-secondary educational background on specialized course performance of college business majors. ^ The students involved in this study were limited to the students of four business-related departments at Tamsui Oxford University College in Taiwan. Students were assigned to comparison groups based on their post-secondary educational background as senior high school graduates and commercial high school graduates. The analysis of this study included a comparison of students' performance on lower level courses and a comparison of students' performance in financial management. The analysis also considered the relationship between the students' performance in financial management and its related prerequisite courses. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) survey was administered to categorize subjects' learning styles and to compare the learning styles between the two groups in this study. The applied statistical methods included t-test, correlation, multiple regression, and Chi-square. ^ The findings of this study indicated that there were significant differences between the commercial high school graduates and the senior high school graduates on academic performances in specialized courses but not in general courses. There were no significant differences in learning styles between the two groups. These findings lead to the conclusion that business majors' academic performance in specialized courses were influenced by their post-secondary educational background. ^

A aprendizagem como o processo de aquisição e construção do conhecimento. O Caso da utilização dos Simuladores no ISCEE Cabo Verde Business School

O objectivo desta comunicação é demonstrar a importância da relação entre modelos de aprendizagem dinâmicos e a criação do conhecimento como mecanismo de transferência e disseminação na sociedade em Cabo Verde, através de práticas pedagógicas utlizadas no ISCEE, como demonstra a utilização dos simuladores. Esta nova abordagem, com a utilização de simuladores em contexto de sala de aula, potencia a interacção entre os estudantes e permite uma rápida troca de informação entre as partes e ao mesmo tempo melhora o processo de tomada de decisão. O processo de aprendizagem através dos simuladores potencia a aquisição e construção do conhecimento e a dinâmica do grupo, em especial a memória transactiva e relacional. Este artigo, demonstra que as novas práticas pedagógicas, com base nas novas tecnologias da comunicação e informação, devem ter o foco no grupo e não no aluno como entidade isolada.

Extensão Universitária: Estudo de Caso do ISCEE Cabo Verde Business School

o objectivo da presente comunicação é apresentar o resultado da investigação aplicada no ISCEE sob a forma de extensão universitária. Este novo paradigma no Ensino Superior deve ser aplicado em todas as IES, de forma a demonstrar à comunidade em geral as três dimensões da missão das Universidades, nomeadamente, o ensino, investigação e extensão. Aliás estas três dimensões deverão igualmente ser contabilizados na elaboração de rankings universitários que normalmente não avaliam os mecanismos de extensão universitária. Em África, as Universidades são promotoras do desenvolvimento local e trabalham directamente com as comunidades no processo de partilha e disseminação do conhecimento para dotar as comunidades de ferramentas e instrumentos para o seu desenvolvimento. O Estudo de caso apresentado, IRT, Itinerário de Recursos Turísticos, mostra como o ISCEE se candidatou a um concurso público lançado para fazer o levantamento exaustivo dos itinerários turísticos em Cabo Verde nas principais ilhas, Santiago, São Vicente, Santo Antão e São Nicolau. Estiveram envolvidos nestes projectos vários docentes e alunos do ISCEE, no terreno, o que também demonstra a importância da extensão universitária promover “ in loco” a simbiose na relação entre docentes e alunos em termos de trabalho de campo e ao mesmo tempo cumprir a missão do ISCEE que é a de reforçar a competitividade de Cabo Verde, através da formação de recursos humanos qualificados e ao mesmo tempo responder aos grandes desafios do País, em especial, a dinamização do cluster do Turismo. A transmissão e difusão do conhecimento universitário para a sociedade, o conhecimento pluriversitário é o grande desígnio do ISCEE em Cabo Verde.

Foreign-Medical-School Graduates object to the VISA Qualifiying Examination

To the editor; The Visa Qualifying Examination is a two-day test composed of approximately 950 multiple-choice questions conerneing the basic and clinical sciences....

New York Trade School Graduates David J. Stevens and Ernest Fitzgerald

David J. Stevens and Ernest Fitzgerald were 1948 graduates of the Plumbing Department at the New York Trade School and are pictured with a truck from their successful D.H. Stevens Company in Washington, DC. Original caption reads, "David J. Stevens - Plumbing 1948, is shown here with Ernest Fitzgerald - Plumbing 1948, with two of their thirteen pieces of equipment necessary to satisfy 650 calls per month. David Stevens is the third generation to have graduated from Plumbing." Black and white photograph with caption adhered to reverse.

Are Today’s Medical School Graduates Performing the Same Number of Medical Procedures Compared to Graduates Ten Years Ago? A case for Simulation?

INTRODUCTION: Medical schools are charged with providing both a strong basic science and clinical curriculum for their students. In most institutions instruction in performing the core clinical procedures is part of the curriculum, but because of many constraints do medical students practice these procedures as many times as medical students in the past? Several studies have concluded that medical students today feel incompetent to perform basic clinical procedures at the time of graduation. [See PDF for complete abstract]