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This article traces the development of four narratives of financial assistance for Australian university students – to encourage excellence; to meet public need; to build the stock of human capital; and as universal provision – and their effect on the development of a fifth narrative, centred on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). Financial support schemes have been provided by governments, industry, philanthropic and religious groups, or a combination of these. These narratives reflect deep-seated ideas about the meaning and value of education, and the emphasis placed on public or private benefits. This article shows how these narratives have affected access to university and who has attended. It shows the influence of student support schemes in shaping higher education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 20th century, skilled labour migration has become a primary channel for resolving the increased global competition, ageing workforces, and skill shortages facing industrialised countries. Despite this ongoing policy trend, skilled migrants – who are increasingly from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESBs), including Asia – confront barriers to securing employment that is commensurate with their skill levels, which exposes them to an array of social and economic vulnerabilities. This article uses qualitative data to examine post-migration employment disadvantages among an under-researched group of Asian NESB skilled migrants in Australia: Japanese independent professionals. The findings show that their employment disadvantages in the host labour market can be attributed to what is termed here multilateral contextual gaps in skills transfer, rather than simply a lack of competence, knowledge, or work experience. The article concludes by identifying the implications of the study, including policy changes that would help improve the skills utilisation and retention of skilled migrants in Australia, which appear to be hampered by the host country's human capital-based, market-driven skills regimes. These changes are urgent given the imperative for societies such as Australia to revive their economies in the post-pandemic era through higher intakes of skilled migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Australia and Canada adopted policies to admit immigrants of any nationality or race, the racial composition of immigrants did not immediately diversify. It only diversified after their governments adopted points systems to recruit immigrants with the education, language ability, and skills that would increase the national income of the migrant-receiving country. Why? I draw on archival documents to reveal how the organization of consular institutions and practices of bureaucrats limited how much immigrant sources diversified. However, the more human capital-rich people in White-majority countries lost interest in immigrating and the more non-White people in migrant-sending societies increased their human capital, the more frequently bureaucrats became amenable to admitting more racially diverse immigrants who could contribute more to national income and productivity than human capital-poor White immigrants. This emerging preference later stimulated the Immigration Departments to geographically expand their organizational infrastructure to facilitate further non-White immigration. This study illustrates how scholars through a more intersectional lens can better potentially understand changes in institutions and norms along one dimension of identity (race) due to policies to admit a minority of non-White immigrants along another dimension (human capital). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and financial remittances from the Australian Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) have transformed the livelihood capabilities of participating households from Timor-Leste. Timorese workers generally participate in SWP for a six-month period, with many returning for subsequent seasons. Qualitative, multi-sited research investigated the livelihood strategies of 50 Timorese worker households over a three-year period. Their net earnings averaged between 4000 and 8000 USD per season, varying with the type of employment, living costs and their ability to save. Remittances assist in strengthening livelihoods by consolidating financial, physical, social, natural and human capital, improving the quality of life for returning workers, their households and communities. Remittances maintain and consolidate social relationships, and enable investments in entrepreneurial activities, education and house building. Migrant workers exhibited a strong preference for developing social capital, with many investments in other livelihood assets underpinned by a desire to strengthen social relationships, reflecting beliefs that this enhances livelihood resilience. While remittances have made greater direct contributions to livelihoods than economic production within Timor-Leste, at least for participating households and their immediate networks, this expenditure on social capital also suggests the broader structural limitations of using remittances in a 'productive' way (through capital accumulation) within labour-sending countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effects of gender role attitudes and personality traits on the gender wage gap in Australia. Applying standard decomposition techniques and controlling for a wide range of variables, the paper finds that at least 67.8% of the total gender wage gap of 17.4% in 2019 remains unexplained – a figure which is lower than previous years. The results establish gender role attitudes as a key predictor of this pay gap both in the explained and unexplained part of the wage decomposition. It also shows that the impact of personality traits depends on whether the big five traits or the sub-traits are used in the analysis. Even some of the sub-traits belonging to the same category can influence the gender pay gap in opposite directions. Overall, the estimates establish the importance of psychological variables as more important than traditional human capital and other work-related characteristics in explaining the remaining gender wage gap in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the regional development role of university campuses in less-advantaged peripheral regions with attention to the role of students. In the international literature, regional campuses are theorized as playing three types of regional development roles: developing regional human capital, contributing to regional innovation and supporting regional community development. A case study of regional campuses in the Australian context identifies that current policy framing overlooks the innovative potential of regional campuses and their students. This paper opens an agenda for further research on regional campuses' work with 'non-traditional' student cohorts and its impacts on the development of peripheral regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to debates that shaped a special issue of Discourse in 2017 by taking the debate about responsibilisation in education into the realm of Foundations Skills in Australia. The difficulties that many Australian adults experience with low levels of language, literacy and numeracy skills (Foundation Skills), have been widely identified. It has been claimed that almost half of Australia's working age population have Foundation Skills at levels that do not allow them to meet the complex demands of work and life. The paper describes the Foundation Skills policy apparatus that has developed in Australia, and discusses how the sector is characterised by aspects of marketisation and commodification. We argue that the Foundation Skills learner is imagined as an individual, choice making, responsible consumer and increasingly made responsible for carrying the burden of the development of their 'human capital' so that they can secure a less parlous participation in precarious labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response-based unit segmentation (REBUS) is an advanced partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique that clusters observations into classes based on the relationships among model constructs. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of REBUS in examining human capital (HC) and firm performance in the upscale restaurant sector – an important segment of gastronomic tourism in a destination. The model framework is developed from HC theory which posits individuals who develop higher levels of knowledge, skills, education and other competencies will outperform others [(Bruce, M., McNally, J. J., & Kay, M. (2013, March). Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(2), 211–224; Mincer, J. (1958). Investment in human capital and personal income distribution. Journal of Political Economy, 66, 281–302)]. We operationalize HC to include operators' (1) previous ownership/management experience, (2) level of education, (3) length of time in current position, (4) years spent in hospitality and (5) entrepreneurial qualifications and examine the structural effects on performance. Data were collected through telephone-based surveys of 308 restaurant operators in Australia and France. REBUS results found that the effects of HC on performance differed across identified segments from the data, presenting new insights on the complexity of the relationship and the presence of moderator effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Australian research on volunteering is rich and diverse, but also increasingly fragmented. In an attempt to promote a more integrated study of volunteering, we review volunteering research conducted in Australia, using volunteering journey as a framework. Specifically, we summarise literature on volunteer characteristics, motivations, benefits, psychological contract, commitment, and withdrawal. Method: A comprehensive review yielded 152 studies on volunteering conducted in Australia. Results: We find that volunteers have distinct characteristics, such as being older, better connected, employed, and residing in rural areas. There are a variety of reasons that prompt individuals to volunteer, and this motivation does change over time. Volunteering leads to better psychological well‐being, as well as increases in social and human capital. Volunteer expectations and commitment are key drivers of ongoing volunteering. Finally, stress, work–family conflict, and negative interactions with others lead to volunteer withdrawal. Conclusion: A lot is known about volunteering, however, future advancement of the field will depend on better integration across disciplines and domains. Currently, volunteering is viewed as a set of distinct stages, and a more integrated approach is required. We also note a lack of theoretical and methodological rigour in many Australian studies on volunteering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the findings of an in-depth genealogical study of the discourse of quality in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy. Quality reform has become the foremost global policy agenda for ECEC due to assumptions about the economic potentials of quality services. In Australia, the recent National Quality Framework elevated early childhood policy in Australia from the margins as the lynchpin of a broader economic reform agenda. However, quality ECEC - what it is and does - is a complex, contestable notion that could be considered problematic for the sector to execute, particularly through market models of provision. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of discourse as the ‘already said’, the truth assumptions that have underpinned policy uses of quality ECEC in Australia are identified and critiqued. It is shown that the discourse of quality has been tactically deployed in Australian ECEC policy to realign quality ECEC outcomes with educative outcomes, as a means for government to selectively grow and govern human capital. This positions quality as a high-stakes reform discourse for early childhood stakeholders, entwined with the expanded reach and intensification of selective, performance-related standards and incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the enhancement of human capital with social capital in a start-up accelerator and how this integration affects the entrepreneurial learning experience. In particular, it examines the relative importance of the three components ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’. The study involved thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with participants in an Australian start-up accelerator that is delivered using ideas such as Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas and Lean Start-up methodology. We find that although the programme emphasised ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’, ‘know-who’ was most significant for participant learning. The results indicate that mentors and experts were especially helpful in shaping learning and in developing entrepreneurial networks. Moreover, our results show that the processes of ‘know-what’, ‘know-how’ and ‘know-who’ are interrelated - by knowing ‘who’, participants learnt ‘what’ and ‘how to’ through social learning. The research contributes to entrepreneurial learning theory and application particularly in the Asia Pacific context, by providing evidence that ‘know-who’ closes the learning loop for ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’ as ‘know-who’ can actually provide entrepreneurs with the means to enhance their entrepreneurial self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public safety organisations across the world invest a great deal of time and money in developing their leaders. It is perhaps surprising, then, that there is relatively little literature assessing the impact that such development opportunities have. This paper serves to address this gap by examining one such leader development programme in Australia. Seventy participants were followed for one year, and statistically significant shifts in self-reported leadership behaviour were identified. Interviews with an additional 30 former students suggested that such behavioural changes were preserved over the longer term, and may compound as individuals utilise both their formal learning and on the job experience to enhance their leadership effectiveness. This suggests that for a relatively modest upfront investment in human capital, considerable organisational gains are possible. The extent to which such gains are measurable or can be characterised in monetary terms is discussed, ahead of a conclusion that sets out an agenda for future research to better understand how leadership and its development are conceptualised, operationalised, and realised in public safety agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia attracts international nursing students from China to maintain its economic advantage and to alleviate the projected nursing shortage; conversely, China needs its best and brightest citizens who have trained abroad in nursing to return to cope with current challenges within its healthcare system and nursing education. This paper explores whether China can lure its foreign-trained nurses home to achieve its goals; whether China or Australia will win the nursing talent war; and do Chinese nursing students want to remain abroad or return home. The insight gained can support the development of successful human capital investment for all parties involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using data from the Household and Labour Income Dynamics Australia (HILDA), an endogenous switching model is employed to analyse union wage effects in Australia between 2001 and 2013. An advantage of this approach is that the decision to join a union is treated as potentially endogenous, a function of the wage differential between union and non-union workers, rather than exogenous as is the case in virtually all previous Australian studies. The article finds that the decision to join a union is highly sensitive to the wage differential between union and non-union workers. The article also finds that male (female) union workers with average union characteristics earn 12% (18%) more than male (female) non-union workers with average non-union characteristics. However, a decomposition analysis finds that this difference is due to union workers having better human capital endowments than their non-union counterparts. In addition, they also receive a lower return for those endowments. These decomposition results suggest that union wage effects in Australia may be negative, rather than the small positive effects typically found in the Australian literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically documents media portrayals of Australia’s performance on the Program for the International Student Assessment (PISA), 2000–2014. We analyse newspaper articles from two national and eight metropolitan newspapers. This analysis demonstrates increased media coverage of PISA over the period in question. Our research data were analysed using ‘framing theory’, documenting how the media frames stories about Australia’s performance on PISA. Three frames were identified: counts and comparisons; criticisms; and contexts. Most of the media coverage (41%) was concerned with the first frame, counts and comparisons, which analysed PISA data to provide ‘evidence’ that was then used to comparatively position Australia against other countries, reference societies, which do better, with particular emphasis on Finland and also Shanghai after the 2009 PISA. The other two frames dealt with criticisms and contextual issues. This paper only focuses on the first frame. The analysis demonstrates the ways in which media coverage of Australia’s PISA performance has had policy impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This appraisal considers the role and impact of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and New Zealand, and suggests directions such policy might take in other Asia-Pacific countries. It identifies key issues and constraints in making VET more responsive to emerging labour market needs in the region as an important factor in sustaining high economic growth. It focuses on the way in which the demands of the government, industry, trainees, and, in particular, shifts in political ideology that have influenced the education and training sectors in both countries. It addresses points of specific relevance for the delivery of VET in the broader Asia-Pacific context and concludes with a consideration of lessons and experiences of Australia and New Zealand with VET that may hold for other countries in the region in formulating priorities and implementing strategies in meeting their current and emerging needs for skills development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Professional service firms face particular human capital challenges. This study reflects on the distinctive characteristics of professional service firms through the concepts of knowledge intensity, low capital intensity and professionalized workforce. Based on in-depth interviews with 21 partners of Australian law firms, we provide empirical evidence on the war for talent challenges faced by professional service firms and in particular, law firms. The findings point to talent management challenges including reputation building and maintenance, employee autonomy, knowledge acquisition, revenue and profitability through internationalization, managing knowledge across borders, managing employee mobility, talent acquisition and retention, talent engagement, performance management and developing leadership capability. These challenges are important issues to be considered by professional service firms as they attempt to compete more effectively in global business contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the dynamic nature of human capital formation in the context of childhood obesity and the association of household income and childhood obesity in Australia using the first five waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Our results show a strong evidence of dynamic nature of child obesity: the lag obesity is a significant and robust predictor of obesity in the current period. We also found that the main channel for childhood obesity is inter-generational trait: the probability of obesity in children born to an obese mother or father is 15% higher than that of other children. Other important determinants are lifestyle factors, including the consumption of drinks with a high sugar content and the amount of time watching TV. Income becomes an insignificant determinant of childhood obesity once we control for unobserved individual heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that entrepreneurship is central to the mind of the arts manager in building capability and creating value. Its focus is upon the arts sector in Western Australia (WA) and how it sustains its artistic vibrancy through entrepreneurial management. Western Australia is the largest landmass in Australia and its capital, Perth, is one of the most isolated cities in the world. Known mainly for its mining industry, Western Australia is the home of considerable corporate wealth. However, it also hosts a vibrant arts scene. This article examines arts companies in Western Australia in an effort to identify entrepreneurial orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses the database created by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project (www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs) which documents the recipients of the twenty million pounds paid in compensation to the slave-owners at the time of abolition, as a starting point from which to explore some of the implications of the flow of human and financial capital to Australia in the 1830s and 1840s. Once the Caribbean was no longer a place to make a fortune, descendants of slave-owners chose this new colony of white settlement as the next frontier of empire. Colonial officials, sheep farmers and writers were amongst those who attempted to make a new life, carrying with them attitudes to racial difference which inflected their understanding of Aboriginal peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war for talent, whereby skilled workers move between countries, continues to remain a global issue. This paper is informed by the human resource management (HRM) literature on global careers of skilled migrants and their cross-cultural adjustment and well-being. These literatures draw on human capital theory to understand skilled migration. In this paper, a case study of Western Australia's answer to addressing skills shortages by employing skilled migrant workers through temporary skilled migration schemes (employer-sponsored) situates the discussion within the role of HRM. Temporary skilled migrants are vulnerable in that they can experience a number of stressors, including long periods of separation from their loved ones, commencing a new job in an alien environment and resettlement tasks. The paper makes a contribution in utilising Al Ariss and Syed's (2011) model of human capital drawing on social, cultural, economic and symbolic forms of currency for temporary skilled migrants. This group is not homogenous in that they all draw on these aspects of human capital in varying ways. By addressing the gaps, HRM can add value in providing assimilation strategies for temporary migrant workers that supports retention and ensures improved worker well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of this paper is to better understand the factors that affect the chances of re-engaging early school leavers in education, with a particular focus on the importance of time out from school (duration dependence) and school-related factors. Using data from three cohorts of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth and duration models that control for unobserved heterogeneity, our results suggest that programmes that encourage an early return to study and those that develop post-school career plans may be more effective than programmes that concentrate on improving numeracy and literacy scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, 2005–2006, to examine the housing tenure experience of skilled immigrants to Australia 6 and 18 months after arrival for relationships with ethnic capital (cultural background), visa category streams, aspects of human capital, demographics, social capital and discrimination. Homeownership experience is used to indicate integration into Australia's dominantly middle-class society. Multinomial regression analysis identifies visa entry category as the most important independent group of variables accounting for immigrants' short-term dwelling tenure, followed by aspects of human capital, family status, and the importance of ethnic capital for immigrants of both English-speaking and non-English-speaking backgrounds, and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article, which is based on research conducted at five Australian organizations, explores the role frontline managers play in promoting and facilitating learning at work, an area in the field of workplace learning and human resource development that has not been extensively researched. This article provides a brief review of the literature, outlines the theoretical framework and research methodology and design utilized and presents the research findings and a brief discussion. The results of this study suggest that frontline managers, who were considered leaders of learning within their respective organizations, take an instrumental approach to leading employee learning, that is, learning is seen largely as a mechanism for getting work done. Additional evidence suggests that some frontline managers provide a more expansive learning environment through the purposeful creation of conditions for learning for their employees, beyond the immediate focus on learning, simply for the purpose of getting the work done. A further finding is that much of what frontline managers do in the promotion and facilitation of employee learning is deeply embedded in the idea and practice of being an effective manager. It is hoped that the findings will provide guidance to human resource development and frontline managers in shaping learning at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have investigated contemporary professional migrant women from mainland China to developed economies like Australia to understand their motives of migration and the strategy they may adopt to advance their careers. This paper fills part of this important research gap by investigating the career rebuilding experience of Chinese professional immigrants in Australia. It examines the motives of their migration, their career aspirations, the strategies they adopt to rebuild their career and the types of career they are rebuilding. It explores how the compounded effect of gender, race, immigration and family commitment may be articulated in the family and social relations, and how these factors affect women's career aspirations and outcomes. This paper concludes that whilst social capital is important for Chinese migrant women professionals who already possess a high level of human capital, to restart their post-migration career, cultural capital is crucial for their managerial career advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we estimate the growth effect of human capital with country-specific time series data for Australia. In doing so, we extended the Solow (1956) growth model by using educational attainment as a measure of human capital developed by Barro and Lee (2010). The extended Solow (1956) model performs well after allowing for the presence of structural changes. Our results, based on alternative time series methods, show that educational attainment has a small and significant permanent effect on the growth rate of per worker output in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments increasingly seek to implement skilled migration programmes. Yet, the policies that ultimately result differ in important ways, particularly with regard to the human capital assets required of applicants. These differences in policy outputs can be attributed to important variations in the policy-making process, in particular in the extent of bureaucratic control over policy-making, and in the capacity for venue shopping on the part of internal and external actors. This article develops ideas around bureaucratic control and how it interacts with venue shopping in two Westminster-inspired systems of government in the skilled immigration area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the Australian federal government introduced a ‘new’ graduate visa scheme, the 485 visa sub-class. This visa facilitates the transition from student to worker for overseas graduates from Australian higher education institutions, with the potential to significantly increase their numbers in the country. At the same time, local governments have introduced various policies designed to attract and retain human capital in rural areas to address the shortfall of highly skilled individuals. This paper redresses the current lack of research into the spatial dynamics of overseas human capital in Australia and their relation to the new visa scheme in combination with shifts in rural development policies. Drawing on survey data of graduates describing the ‘before’ (2005) and ‘after’ (2008) periods of the introduction of the 485 visa scheme, this paper shows that the propensity of overseas graduates to move between Australia's regions has increased substantially. In particular, there have been an increasing proportion of overseas graduates moving to major cities despite rural development policy efforts to attract human capital to rural areas. However, these policy efforts appear to have attracted overseas graduates with particular qualifications (education and health) to work in such locales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-private sectoral wage differentials have been studied extensively using quantile regression techniques. These typically find large public sector premiums at the bottom of the wage distribution. This may imply that low skill workers are 'overpaid', prompting concerns over efficiency. We note several other potential explanations for this result and explicitly test whether the premium varies with skill, using Australian data. We use a quasi-differenced Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data model which has not been previously applied to this topic, internationally. Unlike other available methods, this technique identifies sectoral differences in returns to unobserved skill. It also facilitates a decomposition of the wage gap into components explained by differences in returns to all (observed and unobserved) skills and by differences in their stock. We find no evidence to suggest that the premium varies with skill. One interpretation is that the compressed wage profile of the public sector induces the best workers (on unobserved skills) to join the public sector in low wage occupations, vice versa in high wage occupations. We also estimate the average public sector premium to be 6% for women and statistically insignificant (4%) for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical discussion of contemporary policy agendas to raise aspirations for university study among students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. It traces the politics of aspiration from the working class ‘poverty of desire’ thesis propounded by British socialists at the turn of the twentieth century to recent concerns about the educational aspirations of low SES groups. These concerns are manifest in the current aspiration-raising agenda in Australian higher education, which aims to realise equity objectives by cultivating market-rational behaviour and dispositions to maximise self-investment in human capital. However, changes in contemporary global education and labour markets present significant obstacles to the ‘good life’ promises made by advocates of human capital theory, and even when these promises are realised, deficit constructions of aspirations persist. The paper identifies a tension in aspiration-raising logics between (1) human capital promises of economic rewards for enterprising behaviour and (2) the policing of aspirations and associated behaviours according to dominant social values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The conjunction of equity and market logics in contemporary education has created new and different conditions of possibility for equity, both as conceived in policy discourses and as a related set of educational practices. In this editorial introduction, we examine how equity is being drawn into new policy assemblages and how, in the context of marketisation, equity is evolving and being enacted in new ways across education sectors. Different conceptions of equity are considered, including the increasingly influential human capital perspective promoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We argue that, separate from critiques of neoliberalism and its deleterious effects on equity in education, it is necessary to analyse carefully the increasing rationalisation of equity agendas in economic terms, the associated effects on education governance and policy-making, as well as on the work of educational institutions and educators. Providing an overview of the contributions to this Special Issue, we direct particular attention to the multiple, complex and often contradictory effects of the current education reform agenda in Australia, which has prioritised equity objectives and intensified performance measurement, comparison and accountability as means to drive educational improvement and reduce disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the findings from in-depth interviews with Vietnamese international students studying at Australian universities, this article presents insights into the sociological influences that stem from international students' social networks, at home and abroad, and how they impact on students' aspirations and engagement in international education. Underpinned by Bourdieu's social capital framework, this article critically challenges human capital ideology for its assumptions of individualism and utilitarian function of education as economic goals. The implication for international education providers is to create learning and living opportunities that consider students' social and cultural conditions so as to develop their capacity, self-determination and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing upon human capital theory, this article examines the labour market experiences of Korean migrant women in Australia. Narrative analysis reveals that Korean migrant women experience post-entry barriers in the Australian labour market. These barriers are not only attributable to their English language skills but also to their cultural background and personal orientations' aspirations. This article finds that migrants whose language, cultural and personal orientation and academic qualifications are similar to those of the dominant culture tend to feel less disadvantaged in the labour market. The narrative analysis allows Korean migrant women to describe symbolically in their own words their labour market experiences and the decisions, factors and emotions that constitute their experiences. The findings reinforce an increasing call for incorporating the cultural and personal aspects of human capital (beyond linguistic proficiency) into an understanding of the post-entry labour market experiences of migrant workers in their adopted country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the occupational attainment of recent immigrants at 2 years post migration in order to study their early stage assimilation into the labour market in Australia. Human capital endowments and country-of-origin effects are examined for six occupational groups. We also study transitions across occupations from source to host country. The empirical approach utilizes the Ordered Generalized Extreme Value (OGEV) model which embodies differing utility functions across occupational outcomes, as well as accounting for any ordering in these outcomes. The results suggest that the transferability of knowledge and skills is affected by cultural and social backgrounds, and that non-Western immigrants are disproportionately channelled into inferior jobs post migration. The investigation of the country-of-origin effect on the skilled migrants’ occupational transition process is especially apt in the context of skill shortages in many host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We estimated the relationship between religion and the rate of return to human capital for Australia. Data from the Household Income Labour Dynamics Survey were analysed for men aged between 25 and 54 years. Conventional human capital functions were estimated using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). Our results suggest that Catholic men benefit from a wage premium of 6.7%, controlling for an extensive range of controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has been paid to factors that influence employers in their recruitment behaviour, especially as it affects immigrants. In order to address this gap in the literature, a case study of regional Australian employers is used to examine how organisation-based factors influence the employer screening and recruitment of immigrant professionals. The findings indicate that employers are not primarily driven by a human capital lens during the recruitment process. Rather they seem to be influenced by the place and specificity of the process. Some of the key factors which can either favourably or unfavourably influence employers include the organisational size, type, resource availability, ethnic diversity of clients, level of role criticalness, industry-based culture and management style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian government as part of its aid programme allocates large funds to improve financial inclusion in developing countries. However, this does not take into account low educational levels in these countries. The existing literature on financial inclusion also treats the issue as mainly supply-centric and does not take cognisance of the fact that poor human development and high illiteracy levels in developing economies may prevent a large section of the population from benefitting from financial inclusion efforts, because of low awareness and comprehension of the financial services available. This study uses a detailed three-stage methodological approach to examine the relationship between financial development and human capital in 21 countries of developing Asia. The results show that a significant negative relationship exists between financial development proxied by M2/gdp and pupil:teacher ratios and a strong positive relationship exists between physical access to banks and expected years of schooling. Further, our financial development and educational development indices also show no clear pattern in the selected countries' financial and educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Segmentation of landholders has rarely been undertaken in the natural resource management literature, yet it provides a rich set of information for planners to improve targeting of public investment and resources. Segmentation allows the identification of segments of landholders that are ‘investment ready’, their location and characteristics, and the land conservation incentive programmes that they would be most willing to participate in. Segments that are not investment ready are also identified, and the instances where they reside in critical ecological habitats. Further, segmentation analysis provides insight into constraints to participation among these segments. We report the results of a large-scale segmentation exercise involving qualitative research and a quantitative survey of 5904 landholders in Australia. Using several new constructs related to human capital, trust and social connectedness not previously used for segmentation, we find three mainstream and two lifestyle segments which differ substantially in their socio-demographics and their propensity to be involved in incentive programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Calls for disaster medical assistance teams (DMATs) are likely to continue in response to international disasters. As part of a national survey, this study was designed to evaluate Australian DMAT experience in relation to the human resources issues associated with deployment. Methods: Data was collected via an anonymous mailed survey distributed via State and Territory representatives on the Australian Health Protection Committee, who identified team members associated with Australian DMAT deployments from the 2004 South East Asian Tsunami disaster. Results: The response rate for this survey was 50% (59/118). Most personnel had deployed to the Asian Tsunami affected areas with DMAT members having significant clinical and international experience. While all except one respondent stated they received a full orientation prior to deployment, only 34% of respondents (20/59) felt their role was clearly defined pre deployment. Approximately 56% (33/59) felt their actual role matched their intended role and that their clinical background was well suited to their tasks. Most respondents were prepared to be available for deployment for 1 month (34%, 20/59). The most common period of notice needed to deploy was 6–12 hours for 29% (17/59) followed by 12–24 hours for 24% (14/59). The preferred period of overseas deployment was 14–21 days (46%, 27/59) followed by 1 month (25%, 15/59) and the optimum shift period was felt to be 12 hours by 66% (39/59). The majority felt that there was both adequate pay (71%, 42/59) and adequate indemnity (66%, 39/59). Almost half (49%, 29/59) stated it was better to work with people from the same hospital and, while most felt their deployment could be easily covered by staff from their workplace (56%, 33/59) and caused an inconvenience to their colleagues (51%, 30/59), it was less likely to interrupt service delivery in their workplace (10%, 6/59) or cause an inconvenience to patients (9%, 5/59). Deployment was felt to benefit the affected community by nearly all (95%, 56/59) while less (42%, 25/59) felt that there was a benefit for their own local community. Nearly all felt their role was recognised on return (93%, 55/59) and an identical number (93%, 55/59) enjoyed the experience. All stated they would volunteer again, with 88% strongly agreeing with this statement. Conclusions: This study of Australian DMAT members provides significant insights into a number of human resources issues and should help guide future deployments. The preferred 'on call' arrangements, notice to deploy, period of overseas deployment and shift length are all identified. This extended period of operations needs to be supported by planning and provision of rest cycles, food, temporary accommodation and rest areas for staff. The study also suggests that more emphasis should be placed on team selection and clarification of roles.While the majority felt that there was both adequate pay and adequate indemnity, further work clarifying this, based on national conditions of service should be, and are, being explored currently by the state based teams in Australia. Importantly, the deployment was viewed positively by team members who all stated they would volunteer again, which allows the development of an experienced cohort of team members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian cities rate high internationally on liveability and well-being indices. State and metropolitan governments are keen to promote the liveability of their cities as a means of attracting mobile capital, skilled labor, and tourists. An examination of the liveability-environmental sustainability nexus, however, suggests that Australia's capital cities have gained their high liveability ratings as a result of having inputs of high, and now unsustainable, levels of resource consumption—indirectly into their built environments and directly into their households. This paper explores the prospects for a socio-technical transition of key urban infrastructure systems—energy, water, waste, transport, communications and buildings—as a basis for winding back unsustainable levels of consumption while maintaining liveability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the ways in which Canadian and Australian immigration policies represent causes and consequences of neoliberal restructuring. Interrogating neoliberalism as a series of political-economic and moral changes derived from the marketization of societal and governmental arrangements, it illustrates how numerically-based ‘points systems’ have been employed as mechanisms for: gauging human capital; establishing indices of risk and undesirability; and promoting the ‘responsibilization’ of incoming migrants. In doing so the points systems' historical trajectory is traced through a variety of administrative reforms characteristic of neoliberal government and flexible accumulation. Ultimately, this article contends that as rational, technical and economically guided systems of enumeration and assessment, both governments' policies mirror, enhance and extend neoliberal arrangements and sensibilities. In providing ostensibly objective techniques of evaluation the points systems have assisted in injecting the ideal neoliberal citizens- who are, above all, flexible, cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial and autonomous- from abroad. Overall this paper contributes to studies of state restructuring by providing new insights into the links between the neglected domain of immigration control and emergent techniques of societal regulation and citizen-making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Traineeships are apprenticeship-like training arrangements that were initiated in Australia in 1985. They were designed to introduce apprenticeship training to a broader range of industries, occupations and individuals; they are available in occupations outside the traditional trades and crafts. Many companies use them on a large scale, some recruiting their entire shop floor workforce as trainees. This article uses findings from a national project on traineeships in six industry areas to examine the ways in which employers adopt them and the factors which affect their take-up across industries and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper commences by demonstrating that Australia's capital cities follow a similar development profile; a large portion of all jobs are concentrated in the inner urban areas. As a result, the accessibility of jobs and services is poor in the outer urban areas. It then goes on to argue that by creating a more accessible and equitable distribution of jobs and services, significant productivity benefits would be conferred across Australian cities, primarily through agglomeration economies, human capital enhancements and transport-based savings. Speculative modelling is undertaken to estimate the likely scale of costs and benefits of partially closing the gaps between urban growth areas and their host metropolises. Interventions for improving the distribution and accessibility of jobs and services are discussed, including improved government service delivery on the urban fringe, promoting vibrant town centres and improving transport links across the metropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration and border protection policies are driven by national interest. However, the national interest can be more broadly and more narrowly conceived, depending in part on the degree to which the future of the individual state is understood to be contingent on a shared global future and on the recognition that the short-term costs of international cooperation may bring long-term collective benefits. Whereas such global interdependence is recognised in international statecraft in the domains of aid, trade and climate change, such recognition does not extend to immigration. Australia's national policies towards human movement from the Global South tend to be driven in large part by exaggerated fears (of unregulated border crossings) or a narrowly instrumental approach to the economic benefits of human capital transfers (migrants filling skills gaps and providing flexibility in the labour market). A broader conception of migration would take into account the potential developmental benefits of human movement for source nations and for migrants themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of a school kitchen garden in the lives of its volunteers. The garden, located at the Majura Primary School in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia, is the first Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden (SAKG) in the ACT. Since its launch on 25 March 2010, it has acted as the demonstration site for SAKG in the ACT. While other schools in the ACT have kitchen gardens, they do not operate under the management of a formal programme such as the SAKG scheme. Literature on school kitchen gardens provides some empirical evidence on the benefits of school kitchen gardens for children (primarily from the pedagogical, environmental and health perspectives), but there is scant literature on the various ways in which a kitchen garden may affect the various stakeholders involved in its community. These stakeholders include parents and volunteers associated with the establishment and ongoing support of the school kitchen garden. This paper begins to address this gap in the literature by exploring the experiences of adult volunteers associated with the Majura Primary School kitchen garden. A key finding was that volunteers experienced unexpected benefits, as well as challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study seeks to answer a number of key questions concerning the strategic management of frontline employees (e.g. individuals who do not occupy an executive, managerial or supervisory role in functions such as production, maintenance, service and clerical functions) and their contributions towards the performance of small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Australia. This study adopts a human capital perspective to examine the employee and organisational performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. We were also interested in seeking to examine the presence of the human resource management (HRM) function of SMEs in Australia and their contribution towards employee and firm performance. Findings from the partial least square analysis identified the antecedents and consequences of a human capital enhancing (HCE) approach for the strategic HRM of frontline employees in Australia's manufacturing industry. Strategic orientations of small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms mediate the contribution of the HRM function in adopting a set of HCE HRM systems. HCE HRM system was found to have a direct and indirect impact on manufacturing performance outcomes. Frontline employees' performance was found to mediate the impact of HCE HRM system on manufacturing performance outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in relation to the management of frontline employees in enhancing perceived employee and manufacturing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to an improved understanding of contemporary agricultural extension. Specifically, it considers how extension can add to capacity and resilience of Australian rural industries and their associated communities. It provides perspectives and examples on how extension, capacity-building and resilience are conceptually linked and includes an extension program in the the Tasmanian sheep industry as a supporting case study. Commenced in 2003 the 8_5 Wool Profit Program, now SheepConnect-Tasmania, was funded by Australian Wool Innovation, and the findings of an independent external review, together with supporting documentation from agencies closely linked to the extension program are presented. This study confirms rural extension services can function in capacity-building roles in communities that far exceed simply achieving changes in on-farm agricultural production or natural resource management practices. Extension agents are investments that add value and capacity to the communities that rely on them, providing vital accessible skills to stakeholders negotiating challenging circumstances. Retention of core agricultural extension capacity and expertise at regional levels should therefore be a strategic objective for rural community stakeholders, and industry and government policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses attention on a somewhat overlooked component of the career portfolios of practising professional artists, namely their non-arts work. Although it is widely known that artists hold multiple jobs for a variety of reasons, there is little information on which jobs artists take on, whether they can make use of their creative skills in these jobs and how far artists doing non-arts work are different from artists who don't. We focus on two aspects of artists' non-arts work. First, we consider artists' working patterns in non-arts areas in general, looking particularly at the factors that influence artists to take on work outside the arts. Second, we analyse the extent to which artists are able to apply their creative skills in industries beyond the core arts, interpreting these results in the context of the concentric circles model of the cultural industries. Data used in this article are derived from the authors' recently completed survey of practising professional artists in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among western nations Australia has received, in relative terms, one of the largest and most diverse intakes of immigrants, many of who start up their own small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While most immigrant entrepreneurs are male, there is growth in the number of female immigrants who have moved into entrepreneurship in Australia and other countries. Yet, research into female immigrant entrepreneurship and a theoretical investigation as to how the impact of ethnic diversity and gender on entrepreneurship can be conceptualized is not well developed in the literature. This article attempts to redress this gap. It reviews the theory of immigrant entrepreneurship and the Australian research, including the findings of unpublished fieldwork with 80 Asian female immigrant entrepreneurs in Sydney. While female immigrant entrepreneurs draw on their human capital and community and family networks as do all female small business owners, their small business experience is also shaped by broader societal responses to minority immigrants, embodied in the concept of the 'accent ceiling', that creates labour market and entrepreneurial barriers for women of minority linguistic, ethnic or religious background that non-immigrant entrepreneurs do not face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In western nations, the social and economic changes of the past 30 years have facilitated a reorientation of the focus of educational institutions. Global capitalism has placed education at the forefront of national competitiveness, and governments have responded with education policies primarily designed to serve the needs of the market. Such neo-liberal economic imperatives have been supported by a variety of neoconservative social forces calling for schools to become sites of cultural and moral restoration. This paper draws upon current theoretical debates about the consequences of such changes and employs ethnographic data from a small qualitative study of Australian youth to argue the case for a more democratic and student-centred approach to educational reform. It contends that in the interests of all young people, it is time for schools to resist systemic impulses to make them producers of human capital and claim their role as transformative institutions of human possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]