The growth challenge for Europe and the EMU. CHALLENGE EUROPE Issue 22- Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU's new leadership, September 2014.

The European economy is slowly and painfully striving to reemerge from the last six years of crisis. It was a crisis of enormous intensity and contagiousness, given the unprecedented depth of global financial integration combined with the systemic flaws in the EMU architecture. And it is not over, as the high levels of unemployment and the growing divergence between Member States testify. The threat of fragmentation is imminent as ever: fragmentation between euro-ins and euro-outs; fragmentation between North and South; fragmentation within societies, with increasing income inequality and a growing number of, what used to be, the middle class population slipping through the social safety net and below poverty lines. Policies of front-loaded fiscal consolidation have left welfare states in economically weaker countries severely underfunded. According to OECD data, the number of people living in households without any income from work has doubled in Greece, Ireland and Spain, and has risen by 20% or more in Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Slovenia. Fertility rates have dropped further since the crisis, deepening the demographic and fiscal challenges of ageing. There are long-term implications from these deteriorating trends, regarding people's long-term health, education and upward mobility from low-income families. It is also highly likely that many of the people unemployed for a long period of time will never again be able to gain proper access to the job market and build a normal career track. The enduring effects of the crisis risk creating vicious cycles of low growth, high debt levels, austerity, declining productivity, and stagnation. These developments carry heavy implications for the future growth prospects of the European economies, for future prosperity, and for the sustainability of pension systems and welfare states. They must be urgently reversed.

International Experiences – is there an effect on intercultural sensitivity? : An explorative study conducted at Stockholm University

The presented research is an explorative study, aimed to identify differences in intercultural sensitivity of Swedish students with international experience, Swedish students with no international experiences and international students studying at Stockholm University. The research is placed within the field of higher education. International experiences are seen to be a key to intercultural competences and it is universities who need to prepare students for the demands of the globalized job market. The research is of qualitative nature and relevant data was collected by the means of semi- structured interviews. The data was coded according to qualitative thematic analysis and then analyzed and discussed in accordance to the researcher questions and existing literature in this field. The study revealed that there is no general difference in intercultural sensitivity between the three groups analyzed. However, international students show higher sensitivity in terms of respect of cultural differences and open-mindedness, while students with no international experiences show less sensitivity in terms of interaction involvement and suspending judgment. The identified themes offer valuable information on individual perceptions of cultural differences. This information can be used to improve measures and actions to increase intercultural sensitivity at Stockholm University.

Vocational rehabilitation in psychiatry: A re-evaluation

Objective: To highlight the vocational gap in the provision of psychiatric rehabilitation, to outline the goals and conceptual framework of psychiatric rehabilitation, and to discuss rehabilitation interventions with specific reference to vocational rehabilitation and the evidence base for supported employment. Conclusions and service implications: Vocational psychiatric rehabilitation has been a neglected area of practice in Australian psychiatry. Psychiatric treatment needs to adopt a more balanced approach in the provision of a range of services, including vocational rehabilitation, in order to improve long-term outcomes for people suffering from psychiatric disability. A vocational focus should be included in psychiatric rehabilitation and better integration between mental health services and vocational services needs to take place. Supported employment is an evidence-based practice that is designed to help people with psychiatric disabilities participate as much as possible in the competitive job market.

A FUNÇÃO SOCIAL DA ESCOLA NO OLHAR DOS DIFERENTES SEGMENTOS DA EQUIPE ESCOLAR

O objetivo deste trabalho é levantar os diversos entendimentos que se tem sobre a função social da escola e como os diversos segmentos da equipe escolar a percebem. Procede-se a um levantamento da evolução da instituição escolar ao longo dos períodos históricos, define-se a escola como espaço socialmente destinado à transmissão do conhecimento acumulado pela sociedade humana para as novas gerações, busca-se em Libâneo e Mizukami caracterizar, para cada uma das tendências/abordagens pedagógicas, a sua função social entendendo-a nos níveis micro, meso e macro, e como uma teia de relações caleidoscópicas . Busca-se no pensamento de Gramsci os referenciais teóricos e corpo conceitual que possibilitem a leitura e compreensão dos elementos analisados e presentes na fala dos sujeitos pertencentes a segmentos da equipe escolar pesquisada. Procedeu-se a um estudo qualitativo do tipo etnográfico, através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, observação de campo e análise documental. Verificou-se que a escola apresenta em seu Projeto Pedagógico uma forte tendência tradicional liberal, e nas falas dos sujeitos nvolvidos na pesquisa: alunos, pais/mães, colaboradores e professores uma forte crença na escola como possibilitadora de sucesso e ascensão social aos educandos, depositando nela todas as expectativas nesse sentido. O entendimento da função social da escola é percebida no nível do individual, não demonstrando preocupações com o coletivo, nem tampouco com o diploma sem saberes aprendidos , a personalidade do educando ou seu nível para o acesso ao capital cultural. Os professores partilham dessa esponsabilidade com a formação e sucesso do indivíduo educando. Buscou-se a partir dessa reflexão, um entendimento sobre a função social da escola contemporânea.

ENSINO SUPERIOR E FORMAÇÃO HUMANA: A PERSPECTIVA DE PROFESSORES DO CURSO DE PEDAGOGIA

A finalidade deste trabalho é discutir formação no ensino superior e o que significa formação humana para professores do curso de pedagogia. Considerando a complexidade do tema, a intenção desta pesquisa é apontar os modos pelos quais certas metas oficiais do ensino superior, consagradas na legislação vigente, repercutem na consciência dos professores. Realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica com o objetivo de apurar como o ideal da formação humana se inscreveu historicamente no mundo universitário e no sistema de ensino superior. Posteriormente foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa empírica. Para a coleta de dados, foram realizadas entrevistas seguindo um roteiro. Após a coleta dos dados, foi feita uma análise qualitativa individual de cada entrevista destacando pontos relevantes. Foi realizada uma análise geral com a junção de opiniões convergentes, pois embora os discursos tenham se mostrado diferentes, identificamos tendências de pensamento sobre os temas. Referindo-nos às opiniões dos autores apresentados que sinalizam para uma estruturação do ensino superior voltada a formar pessoas capazes de atender ao mercado de trabalho, e às opiniões dos professores entrevistados nesta pesquisa, podemos entender que a formação humana no ensino superior é uma ideologia. Ela existe no discurso oficial e na documentação legal, mas na prática não se concretiza. A diversidade das opiniões apuradas evidencia que os dispositivos legais referentes ao ensino superior criaram uma superestrutura ideológica flexível cujas fórmulas são suscetíveis de serem apreendidas de modo diferenciado nos agentes do sistema do ensino superior e são pouco operacionalizadas nas atuais estruturas deste sistema.(AU)

The role of academic/industry partnerships in the development of supply chain managers

The need for improvement in the logistics and supply chain management capability of companies in Ireland is becoming increasingly recognised. One of the main bottlenecks currently is the shortage of supply chain management professionals. Education and training has a fundamental role to play if the supply of suitably qualified human resource is to be addressed in a meaningful way. Recent research indicates that demand for people with the right knowledge and skills greatly exceed supply. There are numerous techniques and technologies which can facilitate improvement in a company’s supply chain capability. However, experience has shown that these tools alone can not address the weaknesses – any improvement tool is only as good as a company’s ability to utilise it and effective utilisation depends above all on the knowledge and skill of employees. Education and training is essential in developing the requisite knowledge and skills. Consultants can play a role in terms of providing an objective view of a company’s requirements. But the only way to generate a sustainable competitive advantage is to ensure that the necessary knowledge and skills are available in-house. Indeed, the “consultancy culture” which has developed in many companies is a direct result of this lack of in-house expertise. Given the shortage of suitably qualified and experienced people in the job market, the only way that this problem can be addressed is through effective development of existing staff. This paper describes the partnership model adopted by the NITL to achieve its objective of combining academic excellence with real relevance to commercial needs in its supply chain management development programmes. The Executive Development Programme (EDP) is used to illustrate how the model is implemented.

An analysis of the on-time graduation rate in the two-year program at National Taipei Institute of Technology in Taiwan

Taiwan's technical vocational educational system includes three levels: (1) institutes of technology (two and four year programs), (2) junior colleges (two, three and five year programs), and (3) senior vocational schools. Two-year junior colleges enroll their students through two channels: (1) based on results of the Particular Screening Entrance Examination (PSEE), (2) based on the Joint College Entrance Examination (JCEE). The PSEE has two categories: Category I includes on-time graduates with excellent performance, which means that they are within the top ten of their classes; Category II students include award-winning students in talent contests who have achieved a minimum grade point average of 75%. The JCEE is a regular entrance examination given to any senior vocation school graduate.^ Basic courses have a great impact on the students' academic performance. The purpose of the study was to focus on the effectiveness of teaching mathematics in two-year junior colleges and to analyze and correlate the results of two-year junior college students' performance in calculus and on-time graduation. The target group consisted of 521 students enrolled at National Taipei Institute of Technology in 1993.^ Calculus is a very important course for engineering majors in two-year junior colleges and has a great impact on the students' academic performance. This retrospective study showed that there was a correlation between students' performance in calculus and on-time graduation after two years of study.^ The conclusions of the study urge the Ministry of Education to reform two-year junior college curriculum standards to emphasize basic rudimentary courses. It is recommended that engineering majors receive three hours of calculus per week as the current requirement of only two hours per week is inadequate. The future job market will require a technologically advanced labor force that can be trained in a higher education system. More channels of higher education for two-year junior college graduates should be made available for those wishing to pursue bachelor degrees. Additional work in calculus will not only enhance the opportunities for two-year junior college graduates to continue their pursuit of an advanced academic degree, but also serve them well as they seek career advancement. ^

Database System for Alumni Tracking

In their discussion - Database System for Alumni Tracking - by Steven Moll, Associate Professor and William O'Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, Professors Moll and O’Brien initially state: “The authors describe a unique database program which was created to solve problems associated with tracking hospitality majors subsequent to graduation.” “…and please, whatever you do, keep in touch with your school; join an alum’ organization. It is a great way to engage the resources of your school to help further your career,” says Professor Claudia Castillo in addressing a group of students attending her Life after College seminar on 9/18/2009. This is a very good point and it is obviously germane to the article at hand. “One of the greatest strengths of a hospitality management school, a strength that grows with each passing year, is its body of alumni,” say the authors. “Whether in recruiting new students or placing graduates, whether in fund raising or finding scholarship recipients, whatever the task, the network of loyal alumni stands ready to help.” The caveat is the resources are only available if students and school, faculty and alumni can keep track of each other, say professors Moll and O’Brien. The authors want you to know that the practice is now considered essential to success, especially in the hospitality industry whereby the fluid nature of the industry makes networking de rigueur to accomplishment. “When the world was a smaller, slower place, it was fairly easy for graduates to keep track of each other; there weren't that many graduates and they didn't move that often,” say the authors. “Now the hospitality graduate enters an international job market and may move five times in the first four years of employment,” they expand that thought. In the contemporary atmosphere linking human resources from institution to marketplace is relatively easy to do. “How can an association keep track of its graduates? There are many techniques, but all of them depend upon adequate recordkeeping,” Moll and O’Brien answer their own query. “A few years ago that would have meant a group of secretaries; today it means a database system,” they say. Moll and O’Brien discuss the essentials of compiling/programming such a comprehensive data base; the body of information to include, guidelines on the problems encountered, and how to avoid the pitfalls. They use the Florida International University, Hospitality database as a template for their example.

A educação profissional em debate: uma avaliação política da formação para o trabalho ofertada pelo SENAC/RN através do Programa Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Técnico e Emprego

In this study, we present a political evaluation of how SENAC/RN perceives PRONATEC, emphasizing all ideological principles, aims and theories that this institution reproduces and reinforces while playing this professional qualification program. We intended to reveal ideological aspects that inspire SENAC’s perception of PRONATEC, pointing the actual interests hidden by those aspects. Our starting question is: What ideologies, objectives and theories that are explicitly or implicitly reinforced by Senac in implementing PRONATEC? In the research, we consider the hypothesis that transferring the responsibility about PRONATEC from public to private institutions is something that impoverishes the professional formation process, once the program ends up subordinated to private institution’s ideological, political and economic interests. The methodological approach chosen was the single case study. As data source, we used broad literature survey, official files of PRONATEC and SENAC, official information about the program and personal interviews. At the end of the research, we present elements that show some “flexibility” on PRONATEC due to SENAC’s interests, offering a superficial professional formation, commonly dissociated from a propaedeutic education, focusing on the need of adaptation e consensus of works around a society project. In this regard, despite PRONATEC is payed by public resources, it’s been used by SENAC as a fortifier of this institution on professional education market, in an hegemonic and neoliberal construction of a model of society.

A educação profissional em debate: uma avaliação política da formação para o trabalho ofertada pelo SENAC/RN através do Programa Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Técnico e Emprego

In this study, we present a political evaluation of how SENAC/RN perceives PRONATEC, emphasizing all ideological principles, aims and theories that this institution reproduces and reinforces while playing this professional qualification program. We intended to reveal ideological aspects that inspire SENAC’s perception of PRONATEC, pointing the actual interests hidden by those aspects. Our starting question is: What ideologies, objectives and theories that are explicitly or implicitly reinforced by Senac in implementing PRONATEC? In the research, we consider the hypothesis that transferring the responsibility about PRONATEC from public to private institutions is something that impoverishes the professional formation process, once the program ends up subordinated to private institution’s ideological, political and economic interests. The methodological approach chosen was the single case study. As data source, we used broad literature survey, official files of PRONATEC and SENAC, official information about the program and personal interviews. At the end of the research, we present elements that show some “flexibility” on PRONATEC due to SENAC’s interests, offering a superficial professional formation, commonly dissociated from a propaedeutic education, focusing on the need of adaptation e consensus of works around a society project. In this regard, despite PRONATEC is payed by public resources, it’s been used by SENAC as a fortifier of this institution on professional education market, in an hegemonic and neoliberal construction of a model of society.

Afectividad y creaciones estéticas: intervención social con jóvenes no cualificados

Los jóvenes no cualificados, que participan en los dispositivos educativos de segunda oportunidad, recorren itinerarios de transición al mercado laboral cada vez más complejos. Por lo que conocer sus expectativas y su capacidad de agencia resulta ineludible para mejorar nuestro acompañamiento como profesionales de la intervención sociolaboral. En este artículo exploramos la adaptación de esos jóvenes a una exigencia creciente de cualificación, que los está excluyendo laboralmente. Frente a este proceso, observamos que contraponen una resistencia basada en su capital simbólico, a través de la afectividad y la estética. Nuestro interés por estas respuestas nace de la desorientación percibida entre los profesionales de los programas educativos. Incapaces de comprender las trayectorias divergentes que estos jóvenes plantean, ante los itinerarios homogéneos que se les ofrecen para su inserción social. Tras el análisis de las creaciones artísticas y estéticas de los adolescentes, intuimos que hay dos factores que activan su resistencia a las limitaciones de sus expectativas de éxito. Por un lado, una variable institucional, que apunta a una deficiente planificación de los itinerarios formativos, que los jóvenes perciben que les aboca a la infracualificación y a un mercado laboral precario e inestable. Y por otro lado, una resistencia a la exclusión, que se enraíza en un imaginario de éxito y de movilidad social propio de una juventud globalizada.

Clima Organizacional: as práticas e contribuição do gestor

Este trabalho pretende refletir o papel da gestão de pessoas, estudando ações e atitudes que podem fazer a diferença no desempenho da organização no mercado de trabalho. Especialmente nas organizações pequenas com menos de dez funcionários, onde as relações entre as pessoas são mais próximas e os resultados são mensurados mais facilmente pelo gestor atento ao clima organizacional. Buscamos pensar no clima dentro da organização, como fator decisório para o sucesso e prosperidade da pequena organização. A pesquisa se deu em cinco pequenas empresas nos municípios Pernambucanos de Escada e Jaboatão dos Guararapes. Todas com menos de dez funcionários que vivem na busca da consolidação diante do mercado competitivo. O clima organizacional quando descrito como satisfatório garante o comprometimento pleno de todos os funcionários de uma empresa? Veremos que há muitos fatores envolvidos nas relações entre líderes e liderados e a prosperidade da empresa. / This work intends to consider the role of people management, studying actions and attitudes that can make a difference in organization performance in the job market. Especially, in small organizations with fewer than ten employees, while relations between people are closer and the results are more easily measured by the manager on alert to organizational climate. We seek to think about the climate inside the organization, as a factor making for success and prosperity of the small organization. The research was prepared in five small businesses of the cities of “Escada” and “Jaboatão dos Guararapes” in the state of Pernambuco. All with less than ten employees that live in search of the consolidation on the competitive market. The organization climate when described as satisfactory guarantees the full commitment of all the employees of a company? We will see that there are many factors involved in the relations between leaders and subordinates and prosperity of the company.

Análise do mercado de trabalho para o bibliotecário na região sul do Brasil, a partir de anúncios divulgados no site Bibliovagas

Buscou-se com essa pesquisa perceber como se apresenta o mercado de trabalho do profissional bibliotecário nos estados do Paraná (PR), Rio Grande do Sul (RS) e Santa Catarina (SC), que correspondem à região sul do Brasil (isso é metodologia). A pesquisa teve como objetivo geral analisar os anúncios publicados no site Bibliovagas (http://www.bibliovagas.com.br/), e específicos identificar fatores como: número de anúncios relativos à região Sul do Brasil, média da remuneração, competências e habilidades exigidas, jornada de trabalho, setor que mais procura esse profissional (Público x privado), além de perceber outras exigências requeridas, como por exemplo: Conhecimentos intelectuais, experiência profissional, gênero, etc.. Quanto aos aspectos metodológicos, trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, com procedimento técnico documental e abordagem qualiquantitativa. O intervalo de pesquisa se deu entre junho de 2014 e maio de 2015. Como resultados, foram contabilizados 109 anúncios, e 113 vagas na região Sul brasileira. Como consideração destaca-se que há mercado para o profissional, e este exige além dos conhecimentos técnicos, características pessoais, psicológicas e emocionais determinadas.

Os desafios do designer contemporâneo

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Design de Comunicação, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.