Education + Training

Chamadia, Sumaira; Mubarik, Muhammad Shujaat

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-04-2020-0085

The major objective of this study is to examine the efficacy of the technical and vocational training courses imparted to generate employment or enhance the productivity of participants.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in the province of Sindh, Pakistan by adopting a quasi-experimental approach. The experiment was conducted on 105 individuals—with the age group of 20–25—distributed between the treatment group and the control group. The data collected through the experiment were analyzed by applying a paired-sample t-test, independent sample t-test and one-way between-group analysis of variance (ANOVA).FindingsThe findings of this study show statistically significant higher monthly earnings of Rs14, 223 after the training intervention program. Findings also exhibit a significant difference in monthly earnings between the control and the treatment groups.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study can provide useful input to policymakers while devising the policies regarding technical education and vocational training (TVET) and to the international donors in assessing the impact of the training initiatives.Originality/valueThis study presents experimental-driven evidence on the role of technical education and vocational training in improving the labor market outcomes.

Chen, Shin-Horng; Wang, Wei-Tsong; Lu, Chih-Tsen

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-07-2020-0195

Understanding the construction of individual entrepreneurial identity for entrepreneurship education is an important but understudied issue. Prior studies indicate that entrepreneurship learning is associated with not only learning critical entrepreneurial skills and knowledge but also facilitating the construction of a personal entrepreneurial identity. However, educators are constantly challenged by the task of facilitating such an identity within students via learning-by-doing processes in the context of entrepreneurial teams. Additionally, while effective conflict management is essential to productive entrepreneurial learning in entrepreneurial teams, studies that investigate the relationships between interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams and the students' entrepreneurial identity are absent.Design/methodology/approachThe approach of an in-depth case study was adopted to achieve our research purpose.FindingsA conceptual model that describes the construction of the entrepreneurial identity of students of entrepreneurial teams in a learning-by-doing environment from the perspectives of conflicts and task characteristics are developed.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings highlight the preliminary relationships between task characteristics (i.e. task interdependence, task uncertainty, resource competition and tension regarding responsibility allocation) and interpersonal conflicts of entrepreneurial teams, and their impacts on the entrepreneurial identity of team members.Originality/valueThis study is among the first group of studies that especially explores the relationships among task characteristics of entrepreneurship projects, interpersonal conflicts and the development of students' entrepreneurial identity.

Anthony Jnr., Bokolo

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-06-2020-0179

The aim of this study is to develop a model grounded by the institutional theory to investigate blended learning (BL) implementation among faculty members in higher education and further validate the model.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative methodology was employed, and data were gathered through questionnaires among 188 e-learning directors, managers and coordinators at faculty/department in institutions, which implement BL.FindingsFindings reveal that BL implementation by faculty members is significantly influenced by coercive, normative and mimetic pressures. Findings from this study also identified institutional initiatives that influence BL implementation. Accordingly, findings from this study provide insights into the institutional theory perspective toward BL. The findings support higher education to plan and initiate BL policies.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from faculty members in universities, colleges and polytechnics only. Besides, this research is one of the limited studies that explore BL deployment from the lens of faculty members.Practical implicationsThis research contributes to the existing literature on the institutional theory and BL by presenting significant initiatives as practical suggestions for educationalist and policymakers. Therefore, this study provides practical implications to better understand BL initiatives by providing insights into how institutions can improve faculty members' satisfaction levels, improving course management, enriching teaching quality and enhancing learning content.Social implicationsThe findings provided in this study can be employed to design practices, policies and a culture that support continuance use of BL systems among faculty members to achieve an effective institutional outcome.Originality/valueThis study contributes to existing BL adoption and develops a model to examine faculty member implementation of BL approach. This research has several suggestions for higher education in terms of practice to support adoption of BL. The developed model can also be employed by academics, administration and institutions to determine success initiatives for achieving an appropriate change in adopting BL in their institutions.

Ferreras-Garcia, Raquel; Sales-Zaguirre, Jordi; Serradell-López, Enric

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-09-2020-0257

The aim of this article is to propose and test a structural model of relationships between generic and specific competencies and entrepreneurial competencies in order to assess students' learning.Design/methodology/approachThe study was carried out on a sample of 337 students enrolled on the entrepreneurship specialisation of the final bachelor's degree project course on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. A questionnaire was designed to gather information on students' perception of their level of acquisition of the different groups of competencies. The partial least squares (PLS) multivariate technique was used to analyse the model.FindingsThe results confirm that there are significant relationships between the different groups of competencies. Specifically, it shows that generic competencies influence specific competencies and that there is a strong relationship between systemic and professional competencies and entrepreneurial competencies. It also shows that the experience variable contributes positively to different competency groups, while the gender and age variables have no effect on the development of entrepreneurial competencies.Practical implicationsThe study provides relevant information to the academic world on different factors that affect competency development.Originality/valueThe analysis provides an innovative research and contributes knowledge on entrepreneurial competency acquisition, providing an answer to whether generic and specific competencies influence entrepreneurial competencies.

Ma, Yin; Bennett, Dawn

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-07-2020-0219

With a focus on Chinese higher education students, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceived employability and their levels of academic engagement and stress.Design/methodology/approachThe study engaged 1,155 students from three universities in China. Students responded to an online survey, reporting their confidence in relation to their perceived employability, academic engagement and stress in life. The authors employed structural equation modelling to explore students' confidence in each employability attribute and to assess perceived employability relation to academic engagement and perceived stress.FindingsThe results suggest that self-perceptions of employability are positively associated with students' academic engagement and negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived employability mediated the majority paths.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies to examine perceived employability in line with academic engagement or stress and the first study to do so in China.

Nimmi, P.M.; Zakkariya, K.A.; Rahul, P.R.

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-10-2020-0295

Graduates' attitudes towards learning, although subject to change, is a crucial indicator of their understanding and involvement in lifelong learning activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether lifelong learning enhances human capital worth to predict perceived employability. An enquiry into the attitudinal differences on lifelong learning among male and female students was also looked into.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical examination using Warp-PLS was conducted on the propositions among 286 engineering graduate students in Kerala, India, from January 2020 to March 2020.FindingsThe Warp-PLS examination reveals a positive association between lifelong learning and perceived employability and warrants the mediating role of lifelong learning in the association between human capital and perceived employability. A gendered variation on attitudinal differences towards lifelong learning is also looked into, and no difference between males and females is found.Originality/valueThe impact of lifelong learning on employability has been conceptually discussed before. This paper is the first attempt to empirically prove the same with a proper theoretical explanation.

Gurel, Eda; Madanoglu, Melih; Altinay, Levent

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-08-2019-0190

This longitudinal study assesses whether higher education has the same impact on the entrepreneurial intentions of women and men with regard to their propensity to risk-taking in particular.Design/methodology/approachA self-administrated survey instrument was used to collect data from students studying business and engineering at five selected universities in Turkey. The survey was carried out in two intervals: first year and fourth year of studies. A total of 215 student participated in both waves.FindingsThe findings indicate that the impact of education is stronger for women than for men as the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention is moderated by education and risk-taking propensity in that the entrepreneurial intention of women with high or low risk-taking propensity increases when they acquire higher education. In particular, the boost is more noticeable for women with low risk-taking propensity. On the contrary, the effect of education is negative for men with both high risk-taking propensity and low risk-taking propensity.Practical implicationsThis study has identified that the impact of education is different for women and men. Based on these findings, Turkey could offer gender-specific entrepreneurship education in higher education for individuals who could then exploit their entrepreneurial capacity and thus contribute to the social and economic well-being of the country.Originality/valueThis paper makes two distinct contributions. First, this is one of the few longitudinal studies in the literature which demonstrates the differences between females and males in terms of their entrepreneurial intention and shows how risk-taking and education influence entrepreneurial intention. Second, it offers new insights into entrepreneurship research from a developing-country but emerging-economy context.

Rose, Philip S.; Teo, Stephen T.T.; Nguyen, Diep; Nguyen, Nguyen Phong

2021 Education + Training

doi: 10.1108/et-08-2020-0225

Internships are utilized globally to recruit graduate employees. However, there is a limited understanding of the process by which interns convert into regular employees, particularly in non-Western research contexts. Integrating attraction–selection–attrition (ASA) theory and proactive career behaviors, this study identifies the mechanisms influencing interns' intentions to convert into regular employment in host organizations in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachTime lagged, questionnaire data were collected from 669 final-year undergraduate business and economics students who participated in internship programs in a large metropolitan city in Vietnam.FindingsThe results indicate that the interns who exhibit proactive career behaviors are more likely to foster high-quality reciprocal relationships with their supervisors and work colleagues during internships. These positive relations magnify interns' intentions to become regular employees via their perceived person–organization fit.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for higher education institutions and host organizations when designing internship programs to maximize employment outcomes via conversion of interns into regular employees.Originality/valuePrevious studies have not tested the critical aspect of ASA theory regarding the personalities of the interns when building work-related relationships that result in the person–organization fit before accepting job offers from host organizations.