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The study examined tourists’ behavioral intentions toward hard adventure tourism in mountain and rural areas by investigating the impact of customer value, in addition to assessing the impact of perceived risk factors, self-congruity, and switching costs. The study uses multidimensional theoretical frameworks for customer value dynamics as the basis for model proposals and research hypotheses, using SEM models to analyze data from 503 surveys collected from tourists who have participated in hard adventure tours in the mountain and rural areas before. The results showed that customer value and actual self-image both positively impact satisfaction and behavioral intentions, while perceived risk has the opposite effect and rejects the influence of ideal self-image and switching costs. The study also found differences in behavioral intentions between Asian and Western tourists, and between different income groups. The research results are expected to make practical contributions to the tourism industry in general and travel businesses in particular, thereby having solutions to increase the satisfaction and behavioral intentions of tourists in the future with discovery tourism products.

Purpose: Globally, countries with both developed and developing economies are struggling to secure sufficient participation in vocational education to generate the range and quantum of skills required for their communities and realising national social and economic goals. In an era of high aspiration, vocational education and the occupations it serves are increasingly seen as being a less than desirable outcome by young people and their parents. Hence, there is a need to identify means by which to inform and engage young people in considering vocational education and the occupations it serves. The case study discussed in this paper is contextualised within the Australian state of Queensland, which, like many other countries is struggling to have a workforce sufficient to meet communities' healthcare needs as its population both grows and ages. Methods: The study data were collected from 1) interviews with healthcare-related stakeholders including health industry representatives, teachers or practitioners, and healthcare providers, 2) focus groups with senior secondary students, and 3) surveys with these participant groups. It provides a descriptive analysis of efforts to secure greater participation by young people in allied health roles, and, in particular, young Australian Indigenous people. Findings: The study participants included those from regional and metropolitan centres and from state and independent schools, and in all of which the focus on engagement was central. Findings indicated that engagement was necessary to advise young people about these occupations, the effective preparation for them, and likely retention in the workforce. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for intentional strategies to engage young people, their parents/guardians and with those efforts likely needing to be organised and enacted at the local level. This requires collaboration and engagement from education, industry, and local communities. Essentially, a systemic approach is required, specifying roles for government, employers, educational systems, and teachers and parents who engage directly with young people. In all, engagement, advice and opportunities locally are all emphasised in the study reported here.

Abstract Background Historically, efforts to improved healthcare provisions have focussed on learning from and understanding what went wrong during adverse events. More recently, however, there has been a growing interest in seeking to improve healthcare quality through promoting and strengthening resilience in healthcare, in light of the range of changes and challenges to which healthcare providers are subjected. So far, several approaches for strengthening resilience performance have been suggested, such as reflection and simulation. However, there is a lack of studies that appraise the range of existing learning tools, the purposes for which they are designed, and the types of learning activities they comprise. The aim of this rapid scoping review is to identify the characteristics of currently available learning tools designed to translate organizational resilience into healthcare practice. Methods A rapid scoping review approach was used to identify, collect, and synthesise information describing the characteristics of currently available learning tools designed to translate organizational resilience into healthcare practice. EMBASE and Medline Ovid were searched in May 2022 for articles published between 2012 and 2022. Results The review identified six different learning tools such as serious games and checklists to guide reflection, targeting different stakeholders, in various healthcare settings. The tools, typically, promoted self-reflection either individually or collaboratively in groups. Evaluations of these tools found them to be useful and supportive of resilience; however, what constitutes resilience was often difficult to discern, particularly the organizational aspect. It became evident from these studies that careful planning and support were needed for their successful implementation. Conclusions The tools that are available for review are based on guidelines, checklists, or serious games, all of which offer to prompt either self-reflection or group reflections related to different forms of adaptations that are being performed. In this paper, we propose that more guided reflections mirroring the complexity of resilience in healthcare, along with an interprofessional collaborative and guided approach, are needed for these tools to be enacted effectively to realise change in practice. Future studies also need to explore how tools are perceived, used, and understood in multi-site, multi-level studies with a range of different participants.

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 and its variants have persisted in this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the vaccines have greatly reduced the COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and death, about half of the world remain unvaccinated due to various reasons. Furthermore, the duration of the immunity gained from COVID-19 vaccination is still unclear. Therefore, there is a need for innovative prophylactic and treatment measures. In response to this need, we previously reported on the successful computer-aided development of potent VHH-based multispecific antibodies that were characterized in vitro. Here, we evaluated in vivo efficacy and safety of the lead trispecific VHH-Fc, ABS-VIR-001. Importantly, our data showed that ABS-VIR-001 treatment prevented SARS-CoV-2 infection and death when provided as an intranasal prophylaxis in a humanized ACE-2 mouse model. In addition, ABS-VIR-001 post-exposure treatment was shown to greatly reduce viral loads by as much as 50-fold. A detailed panel of metabolic and cellular parameters demonstrated that ABS-VIR-001 treatment was overall comparable to the PBS treatment, indicating a favorable safety profile. Notably, our inhibition studies show that ABS-VIR-001 continued to demonstrate unwavering efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 mutants, associated with key variants including Delta and Omicron, owing to its multiple epitope design. Lastly, we rigorously tested and confirmed the excellent thermostability of ABS-VIR-001 when heated to 45 °C for up to 4 weeks. Taken together, our study suggests that ABS-VIR-001 is an efficacious and durable prophylaxis and post-exposure treatment for COVID-19 with promising safety and manufacturability features for global distribution.

Abstract Background Hospitality personnel are often prepared through vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) providers, taking different emphases. In Vietnam’s hospitality workplaces, HE graduates compete with VET graduates for the same basic operational positions, with limited managerial positions available. Given the different educational pathways taken for similar career opportunities in the current labour market, it is important to understand students’ views of hospitality workplaces as their future career environment. The aim of this study is to identify and examine underlying factors that determine tertiary students’ overall career perceptions in hospitality in the Vietnamese context. Methods A quantitative study utilising an online survey was conducted with 234 hospitality students from different higher education institutes and VET colleges in the South of Vietnam. Chi squared statistics and logistic regression were performed to assess the views and significant educational level differences. Results The analyses show marked differences in views between the HE and VET participants on several aspects of hospitality workplaces, including pay/promotion opportunities, management, and commitment to the industry. The HE participants appeared less positive, and indicated a lower commitment to a future in the hospitality industry. Conclusion The results of this study have important implications for various stakeholder groups. Students’ negative perceptions, associated with their internship experiences in different aspects of hospitality workplaces, currently appear to result in detrimental consequences for HE students, with many not planning on remaining in the hospitality sector. This has both short-term and long-term implications for hospitality employers, hospitality educational providers, and Vietnam’s HE system.

In an ever-changing world of work, workers are expected to maintain currency of changes through lifelong learning to sustain employment and transition into new jobs or occupations - as the need arises. Adult workers rely on affordances from societal, workplace, community and educational institution sources that offer opportunities - intentional or sometimes unintentional. Productive engagement in these opportunities leads to positive outcomes in terms of learning and employment, although adults' personal epistemologies, agency, and intentionality determine which affordances they engage with, in what ways, and for what purposes (Billett, Choy and Le, 2023). Moreover, working age adults' learning is largely and necessarily premised on their own constructive efforts albeit with guidance from those with whom they work closely. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the working age population is defined as those aged 15 to 64 (OECD, 2023). In Australia, the working age can be extended to 74 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023). Working age adults' worklife learning is sustained through permutations of lifelong learning and lifelong education that enables them to navigate different kinds of transitions that may arise due to institutional or personal factors such as life stages, employment status, occupations, re-locations, health and personal preference or trajectories (Billett, Choy & Le, 2023). This means that lifelong educational provisions need to extend beyond those from educational institutions to include experiences in workplaces and the community. The growing realisation of the potency and importance of learning experiences in workplaces and other social settings is now attracting a greater consideration of these sites for ongoing learning of working age adults. This calls for learning in the course of everyday work to be acknowledged and systematised around work practices. In this paper, we illuminate and elaborate on workplace contributions to learning that support individuals' employability across working life. Drawing on the worklife history interviews (n=66) and a survey (n=678) data from an Australian Research Council funded project [DP 190101519], we report and discuss working age adults' perspectives of workplace affordances. The findings from the interviews indicate that three work-based models suggested by Billett et al. (2016) are most appropriate for supporting workers' learning in their work settings. These are wholly work-based experiences, work-based experiences with direct guidance and work-based experiences with educational interventions. The affordances and practices of workplaces are central to supporting workers' lifelong learning in workplaces, but they also need access to lifelong education provisions to maintain currency of knowledge and skills to sustain employment.

Partnerships with local public sector agencies, enterprises and tertiary institutions offer a means to inform young people about post-school pathways into working life and occupations that schools alone cannot achieve. Informing about those pathways is an important, yet, complex educational goal for schooling. This is because much of schooling effort privileges and is directed towards higher education entry. Often advice provided to young people through schools is by teachers and administrators who are, understandably, unacquainted with the range of post-school pathways other than higher education. School guidance officers report being ill-equipped and unable to provide students personalised advice. Consequently, sources of advice and experiences beyond the school are now being utilised, particularly through the growing role of partnerships. These partnerships take diverse forms and comprise different kinds of institutional alignments and are increasingly being viewed as essential bases for supporting effective and informed post-school transitions. This article presents and discusses a review of literature and a recent investigation to advance principles and practices of how such partnerships can be best initiated, enacted, and sustained over time and they can meet the goals of informing and guiding young people's pathways, including options other than progression to higher education.

Recruiting and retaining vocational education and training (VET) educators is an increasing challenge in countries across the world. So understanding their transition and retention is vital to the development of a sustainable workforce. This paper draws on interviews with senior administrators of Australian training providers and survey data from practising VET teachers and trainers to identify factors that most influenced these educators to remain in what was, for most of them, a second or later career. The research found that the major influences on retention of new educators in VET were partly extrinsic, including employment conditions, lifestyle balance and support for professional development, and partly intrinsic, including a supportive culture and job satisfaction through enjoyment of teaching and giving back to industry. The findings provide training providers with a clear indication of what encourages educators to make a long-term commitment to VET teaching and what motivates them to perform at their best once they have made the transition.

The ways in which we communicate have expanded substantially. Not only are we expected to read and create print-based text but also those that include images and other modes. To effectively make meaning from contemporary texts, students need to know about aesthetics, that is, how various texts are appreciated and presented. However, evidence suggests that limited attention to aesthetics occurs in schools. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent middle years students understand the importance of aesthetics in their school and work across different professions. To address this, we share data from a survey distributed to two schools and completed by 80 middle years students aged 8-13 years of age. The survey aimed to determine these students' knowledge and understanding of aesthetics and their associated literacies and if they knew of their inclusion in the curriculum. We also asked about their knowledge of aesthetics in different jobs. Findings showed that students are aware of aesthetics in society and work, but they also indicated that they did not feel they had been taught these important literacies at school despite thinking they could improve their grades. These findings suggest that teachers and students may require more development in the area of aesthetic literacies to enhance language and material resources for meaning making. It is hoped that research on aesthetic literacies can provide further insight on their importance in preparing students to be job ready.

Purpose: Globally, countries with both developed and developing economies are struggling to secure sufficient participation in vocational education to generate the range and quantum of skills required for their communities and realising national social and economic goals. In an era of high aspiration, vocational education and the occupations it serves are increasingly seen as being a less than desirable outcome by young people and their parents. Hence, there is a need to identify means by which to inform and engage young people in considering vocational education and the occupations it serves. The case study discussed in this paper is contextualised within the Australian state of Queensland, which, like many other countries is struggling to have a workforce sufficient to meet communities' healthcare needs as its population both grows and ages. Methods: The study data were collected from 1) interviews with healthcare-related stakeholders including health industry representatives, teachers or practitioners, and healthcare providers, 2) focus groups with senior secondary students, and 3) surveys with these participant groups. It provides a descriptive analysis of efforts to secure greater participation by young people in allied health roles, and, in particular, young Australian Indigenous people. Findings: The study participants included those from regional and metropolitan centres and from state and independent schools, and in all of which the focus on engagement was central. Findings indicated that engagement was necessary to advise young people about these occupations, the effective preparation for them, and likely retention in the workforce. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for intentional strategies to engage young people, their parents/guardians and with those efforts likely needing to be organised and enacted at the local level. This requires collaboration and engagement from education, industry, and local communities. Essentially, a systemic approach is required, specifying roles for government, employers, educational systems, and teachers and parents who engage directly with young people. In all, engagement, advice and opportunities locally are all emphasised in the study reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nation states need effective, accessible, and broadly engaged provisions of continuing education and training (CET) to develop the capacities of their working-age populations. Understanding what constitutes accessible and effective CET provisions, is needed to enable informed decision-making about realising governmental goals of securing a skilled, employable, and adaptive workforce. To understand what comprises that efficacy, it is necessary to capture, analyse, and reconcile the perspectives of stakeholders including government agencies, education institutions, CET educators and, most importantly, working-age adults. Reconciliation of these perspectives is essential for establishing what constitutes an effective CET ecosystem, including what kinds of CET provisions can best meet the needs of working-age Singaporeans and their workplaces. Drawing on an investigation of CET provisions in the island nation, this paper seeks to illuminate and advance how CET provisions might be enacted through an ecosystem perspective to promote employability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which we communicate have expanded substantially. Not only are we expected to read and create print-based text but also those that include images and other modes. To effectively make meaning from contemporary texts, students need to know about aesthetics, that is, how various texts are appreciated and presented. However, evidence suggests that limited attention to aesthetics occurs in schools. The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent middle years students understand the importance of aesthetics in their school and work across different professions. To address this, we share data from a survey distributed to two schools and completed by 80 middle years students aged 8–13 years of age. The survey aimed to determine these students’ knowledge and understanding of aesthetics and their associated literacies and if they knew of their inclusion in the curriculum. We also asked about their knowledge of aesthetics in different jobs. Findings showed that students are aware of aesthetics in society and work, but they also indicated that they did not feel they had been taught these important literacies at school despite thinking they could improve their grades. These findings suggest that teachers and students may require more development in the area of aesthetic literacies to enhance language and material resources for meaning making. It is hoped that research on aesthetic literacies can provide further insight on their importance in preparing students to be job ready. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]