Is There a Skill Gap for Entry-Level IT Positions? Evidence from a National IT Helpdesk Survey featuring Andrew Weaver

Some analysts maintain that inadequate worker skills are holding back industry growth. These claims are often reinforced by commentators who assert that technological changes coupled with insufficient education have resulted in a shortage of (STEM) skills. Dr. Weaver used a detailed nationally representative skill survey focusing on computer helpdesk technicians to shed light on these claims.
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The Increasing Underemployment and Decreasing Job Control of Highly Qualified Employees: Implications for Further Training and Workplace Change featuring David Livingstone

Co-sponsored with the Office of Equity, Sustainability and Democracy.
Highly qualified professional employees are widely regarded as central strategic resources for “knowledge economies”. However, there is mounting evidence that these “knowledge workers” are experiencing both increasing underemployment and decreasing job control, as well as diminishing participation in both further education and job-related informal learning. Prospects for employment and educational reforms to reverse current trends will be assessed.
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The Vocational Significance of Cultural Identity featuring Angela Byars-Winston

Race/ethnicity are strong predictors of educational outcomes and labor market position (Byars-Winston, Fouad & Wen, 2015). In this presentation, Professor Byars-Winston briefly reviewed the evidence for and vocational relevance of cultural identity. She used the Outline for Cultural Formulation model to illustrate its applicability for career assessment and career counseling integrating the concept of cultural identity for African American students (Byars-Winston, 2010), and concluded the presentation by delineating implications for promoting workforce diversity.
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Internships and Experiential Learning in a Chinese University: A Report from the Field with Matthew Hora

In this talk Dr. Matthew Hora reported preliminary findings from a recent trip to Tianjin, China where he spent 2.5 weeks conducting a mixed methods study of the relationship between internship program design and student outcomes. Drawing on survey, focus group, and interview data, Dr. Hora provided a comparative and critical analysis of internship programming in China and the US, with a focus on students’ experiences in their internships.
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Our HMoob American College Paj Ntaub

A presentation of findings from a student-led research project examining the experiences of HMoob American undergraduate students at UW-Madison.
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Managing Transitions from College to Work: The ‘Employability’ and Career Readiness Challenge

Dr. Michael Tomlinson provided a critical overview of the problem and construct of graduates’ employability, charting its evolution and the ways in which it has been conceptually and politically applied in understanding macro-level changes between higher education (HE) systems and the labor market. The talk drew on evidence from the perspectives of students and graduates making the transitions from HE to formal employment, examining the challenges for their career readiness and employment prospects. It explored salient issues relating to the resources, career values, and identities which graduates develop through and beyond HE.
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Crafting and Marketing Student Experience with Bonnie Urciouli

College and university programs that craft student experience have become a major selling point, representing an intersection of student life administration and higher education marketing. For example, “First Year Experience” programs craft student life in ways designed to fit students into the most productive aspects of college life, optimizing the production of an ideal student. That production, understood in terms of measurable outcomes, becomes a major marketing angle for parents worried about their child’s future. Neither perspective takes into account structural inequities shaping student experience, with consequences for at-risk students. Nor do they take seriously the role of faculty, who are neither problem solvers nor career developers.
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Internships and Vocational Skills Training in China with Jenny Chan

China has the world’s largest vocational education system. The number of vocational high school students (aged 16-18), however, dropped from a peak of 22.4 million in 2010 to 15.5 million in 2018, that is, about 40% of the national student population. By contrast, the number of high school students remained fairly stable over the same period, hovering at around 24 million. This project seeks to understand the internship experiences of Chinese teenage students. Under the existing system, a 6-month workplace-based internship training is mandatory for three-year vocational education program. The legal status of interns remains that of students, not employees. The educational and labor rights of interns are worthy of scholarly attention.
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