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The level of youth unemployment in Nigeria has always been an issue of concern for Focus Learning Support team, particularly in our interactions with foreign students studying in the UK; and also with our dedication in "Making Education Count for the Youths". This paper examines some of the difficulties experienced by young people in Nigeria when seeking employment opportunities, with a focus on employability skills as a way to overcome these barriers and form a basis for strategies to improve young people's life chances. The paper will also provide a comparison of how employability skills are implemented in schools and colleges in the United Kingdom as compared to Nigerian schools and colleges. Furthermore, this research will present the perceptions and experiences of students on a BTEC Business Vocational course in an inner cities further education college; who attended work experience during their studies. The primary question is to find out whether imbedding work experience programme on their BTEC course has had an impact on their future career choice. Collection of data was done in stages using questionnaires to capture the views of participants. The findings of research clearly confirm the benefits derived from the BTEC students who attended work experience and the link to their future career choices. The findings of this work has therefore created an avenue for the FLS team to carry out further research implementation and imbedding employability skills into the Nigerian education system to support youth employment in the country. [For the complete Volume 14, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568088.]

Conducting education research requires researchers to observe key legal and ethical obligations and to respect the rights of research participants. Legislation pertaining to data protection, in particular, has important implications for the way in which research data is collected, used, stored and shared. Researchers are also required to conduct their work within an ethical framework set by the academic community, with the relevant body in this case being the British Educational Research Association (BERA). It is essential that researchers are aware of and observe these protocols, in order to protect all of those involved in their research. The aim of this paper is to examine the understanding by students on Doctor of Education degree programmes of the legal and ethical requirements in conducting education research. This paper is based upon information gathered from 15 Doctoral students in 3 inner-London universities, whose research practice was explored through a combination of questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicate a clear understanding among the Doctoral students of the importance of observing their legal and ethical obligations, but a key conclusion is that these students would benefit from more instruction and guidance on how these should be "applied" to their particular research projects. [For the complete Volume 13, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568595.]

The issue of rising tuition fee in higher education in the UK and other western countries has been debated by researchers and educators alike. The discussions have shown that the increases have had a negative impact on access, retention and career development. This paper examines the impact of rising tuition fees on access, retention and students' career development in Higher Education in the UK. It explores the policies and legislation that gave rise to the recent increases and examines whether these rises are in breach of International Human Rights, in particular the right to education. The paper analyses the findings of a small-scale research carried out to get affected students' and their parents' views on the HE fee increases and to determine whether the educational institutions' policies are operating against the human rights laws. Based on the findings of the small scale research, the paper concludes that students' general education progress and their career development have been negatively affected by the increases in fees, and that institutional policies are in breach of the UK 1998 Human Rights Act. [For the complete Volume 12 proceedings, see ED597979.]

This paper presents a mini research carried out by the Focus Learning Support (FLS) team on reasons why young black males in the community commit crime. Knife and gun crime is seen as a serious problem in the black community involving black males in the inner London city areas--many of whom are both victims and offenders of knife and gun crime. One of the primary aims of FLS is to focus on engaging the youths in positive activities such as career development. Youth crime is a big issue hindering some of the youths who are victims of crime from developing a career, as most of the offenders spend their lives in prison and miss out on what matters. The paper examines the reasons why young black youths engage in criminal activities and suggests ways to prevent such criminal acts, thereby enabling them to be focused on their career aspirations and becoming good citizens. The study uses quantitative and qualitative research methods, quantitative method aimed to explore existing literature and research on reasons behind youth crimes in inner London cities. The use of qualitative method is designed to find out the reasons young black males give for committing crime instead of focusing on their career development. The paper uses case studies to share the experiences of the black youths on reasons why they are forced to commit crime. The findings from the study identified factors contributing to youth crimes such as fatherless families, self image, relationships with police, education system and negative influences. Other factors include unemployment, lack of career engagement and bad gangs. One of the measures to prevent youth crimes amongst black male youths is to continue to ensure that knowledge on crimes is made compulsory in schools and shared at home. Other suggestions are to fully engage the youths on positive activities such as career development, sports, employment opportunities, and community policing. [For complete volume, see ED567118.]