Labor perceptions of marketable skills through public education : hearing before the Committee on the Implementation of Career Education.

Cover title.

Governance of career education delivery systems : vocational component : hearing before the Committee on the Implementation of Career Education, February 28, 1975, Sacramento, California.

"#412."

Development of career progression systems for employees in the foodservice industry,

"Prepared for the Manpower Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, under contract no.82-17-71-19."

Australian veterinarians who work with horses: attitudes to work and career

Objective To describe the attitudes to their work and career of those Australian veterinarians who work with horses. Method Questionnaires were mailed to 866 veterinarians who had been identified as working with horses, and 87% were completed and returned. Data were entered onto Excel spreadsheets, and analysed using the SAS System for Windows. Results The main attractions of veterinary work with horses were the horses themselves and the equine industries, but working outdoors and with rewarding clients, and the satisfaction of successful outcomes were attractions for many. The list of disadvantages was longer, and included unreasonable and disagreeable clients as well as those who provided inadequate facilities, could not control their horses or did not care for them. The physical demands and risks of injury, the amount of time required, low rates of return and difficulties in collecting payment, were other major disadvantages. Some mentioned concerns about litigation, unethical behaviour, and recruiting and retaining veterinarians competent with horses. For many in mixed practice, the difficulties in affording modern equipment, and of developing and maintaining their own competence with horses, was a real concern. More than three-quarters of the respondents reported that their careers had lived up to expectations and that they would become veterinarians again; 70% of equine veterinarians would become an equine veterinarian again. Almost all (93%) of the respondents were either very glad, or 'generally glad though with some misgivings' that they had done the veterinary course. Older veterinarians reported suffering less stress, and being more content with their career, than younger colleagues. Conclusions The advantages of doing veterinary work with horses outweigh the disadvantages for most veterinarians, especially those well advanced in their careers.

Mentoring for population health in general practice divisions

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a three-way model of service development mentoring. This population health mentoring program was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing to enable staff from eight Divisions of General Practice in South Australia to gain a sound understanding of population health concepts relevant to their workplace. The distinguishing features of service development mentoring were that the learning was grounded within an individual's work setting and experience; there was an identified population health problem or issue confronting the Division of General Practice; and there was an expectation of enhanced organisational performance. A formal evaluation found a consensus among all learners that mentoring was a positive and worthwhile experience, where they had achieved what they had set out to do. Mentors found the model of learning agreeable and effective. Division executive officers recognised enhanced skills among their "learner" colleagues, and commented positively on the benefits to their organisations through the development of well researched and relevant projects, with the potential to improve the efficiency of their population health activities.

Shadowing experiences and the extension of communities of practice: A case study of women education managers

Recent developments in workplace learning have focused on relational and social network views of learning that introduce practitioners to the norms, values and assumptions of the workplace as well as the learning processes through which knowledge is acquired. This article reports on a qualitative study of a mentoring programme designed to assist women education managers gain promotion by broadening their networks and stimulating insights into the senior management positions for which they were being prepared. The findings are that members reflexively assess and reassess goals and values to demystify knowledge and resolved cognitive dissonance in these processes. Moreover, this article shows that women participants learn from the networks, and that the networks learn from the participant in a reciprocal and informal way. The article concludes that organizational learning programmes must focus on enabling such networks to flourish.

A survey of e-mentoring among New Zealand midwives

Mentoring is a strategy that may assist the midwifery profession to support new graduates and midwives working in rural and remote areas. We conducted a survey of 1577 New Zealand midwives about their opinions and experiences of mentoring. The questionnaire comprised 33 questions, nine of which were open questions. There was a 44% response rate. While the telephone was commonly utilized by mentors (37%) and mentored midwives (37%), the Internet and email played only a small part. Participants acknowledged the potential of these avenues for communication, but midwives felt that mentoring could be provided only by immediate, face-to-face contact. Nevertheless, e-mentoring could be a viable option and requires further investigation. About one-third of midwives identified geographical isolation as a barrier to being a mentor (38%) and being mentored (36%). The use of e-mentoring could remove the barrier of location and allow the midwife to chose a mentor who meets her needs, rather than because she is the only mentor available.

Clinical supervision in school counselling and career counselling: Is it time to develop a new story?

Supervision provides benefits for school counsellors and career counsellors such as support, an opportunity to gain new ideas and strategies, and personal and professional development. Despite this, studies have also shown that school counsellors perceive that the amount of time they participate in supervision is inadequate. In career counselling, there is little evidence that supervision has even been established as a mainstream professional practice. The reasons for this curious situation, whereby little time is spent on a potentially beneficial activity, are uncertain. The present study investigated the supervisory experiences of a group of school counsellors and career counsellors for a six month period following their completion of an intensive supervision training program. Participants recorded their supervisory experiences in a structured diary. Even though the participants were well informed about supervision, the findings of the present study are consistent with those of previous studies. This history of repeatedly similar findings suggests that it may be timely to ask some fundamental questions about supervision in these two professions. Such questions in turn suggest possible new research directions.

Characteristics and benefits of professional work - Assessment of their importance over a 30-year career

The Professions in Australia Study is the first longitudinal investigation of the professions in Australia; it spans 33 years. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed on at least eight occasions between 1965 and 1998 to cohorts of students and later practitioners from the professions of engineering, law and medicine. The longitudinal design of this study has allowed for an investigation of individual change over time of three archetypal characteristics of the professions, service, knowledge and autonomy and two of the benefits of professional work, financial rewards and prestige. A cumulative logit random effects model was used to statistically assess changes in the ordinal response scores for measuring importance of the characteristics and benefits through stages of the career path. Individuals were also classified by average trends in response scores over time and hence professions are described through their members' tendency to follow a particular path in attitudes either of change or constancy, in relation to the importance of the five elements (characteristics and benefits). Comparisons in trends are also made between the three professions.

Sociodemographic backgrounds and career decisions of Australian and New Zealand dental students

This article describes the sociodemographic and career selection characteristics of dental students in Australia and New Zealand. A total of 672 dental students participated in the study. The survey covered age, language proficiency, type of school attended, place of residence, parental occupation, and level of education. The respondents had an average age of twenty-two years, with a range of eighteen to fifty. Fifty-six percent of respondents were female, and approximately half had completed secondary education in private schools with 44.3 percent having finished in public schools. The majority of students lived with their parents, with only a few respondents reporting a rural home address (6.8 percent). The majority of students (65.3 percent) had placed dentistry as their first career choice and had most likely made the decision after leaving high school or near the end of high school (81.4 percent), with self-motivation being the major influence on their decision. This study provides a description of the sociodemographic profile of Australian and New Zealand dental students and provides a better understanding of career decision issues. It also highlights areas for further investigation and management by educational institutions and public policy.