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This article deals with individuals of immigrant background in Swedish higher education-i.e., those who have a PhD and work in Swedish universities. The aim of the study is to examine whether and how factors other than academic qualifications-such as gender and migrant background-may affect the individual's ability to find employment and pursue a successful career in a Swedish institution of higher education. The data used in the first section are Swedish registry data (LISA database and population), administered by Statistics Sweden. The second part of the paper is based on semi-structured interviews with 19 academics of migrant background. The results show that, given the same work experience and compared to the reference group (born in Sweden with at least one Swedish-born parent), individuals born in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America are, firstly, more likely to be unemployed and, secondly, if they are employed, to have a lower income (lower position). The ways in which such gaps arises are also examined., Author(s): Alireza Behtoui [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Hege Høyer Leivestad [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 0679 2457, grid.412654.0, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, , Huddinge, Sweden (Aff2) 0000 [...]

ABSTRACT This study investigates skills and aptitudes required and preferred by institutions for entry-level professional employment in music librarianship. All announcements from the Music Library Association's Job Placement Service's Job [...]

The inequitable distribution of teachers in high-needs areas and the failure of teacher education programs have recently become focal points in the discussion of how to provide a quality education to all students. To address this concern, reformers have responded by mandating specific qualifications for teachers in all schools. These mandates have been established, however, without a real understanding of what these qualifications mean. This article adopts a mixed-methods approach to understanding what qualifications measure for novice teachers in urban districts in terms of teacher efficacy and one-year retention. Analysis of data from the Schools and Staffing Survey (2009-2010) and qualitative interviews reveal that qualifications do predict teacher efficacy, to an extent, yet they do not predict teacher retention. More research needs to be done to identify measurable qualifications that can actually predict what will happen in the first year of teaching. Keywords teacher efficacy, highly qualified teacher, teacher preparation, urban teaching, teacher retention, Introduction In the current climate of educational accountability, the inequitable distribution of teachers and the 'failure' of teacher education programs have become focal points in the discussion of how to [...]

Economists have long recognized that occupations can be used as proxies for skills in wage regressions. Yet the potential existence of non-market factors such as discrimination and occupational choice (sorting) on the basis of job attributes that are separate from, but potentially correlated with, wages makes occupations an imperfect control for skills. In this paper, we consider whether inter-occupational wage differentials that are unexplained by measured human capital are indeed due to differences in unmeasured skill. Using the National Compensation Survey, a large, nationally-representative dataset on jobs and ten different components of job requirements, we compare the effects on residual wage variation of including occupation indicators and these skill requirements measures. We find that although these skill requirements vary across 3-digit occupations, occupation indicators decrease wage residuals by far more than can be explained by skill alone. This indicates that 'controlling for occupation' does not equate to controlling for only these skill measures, but also for other factors. Additionally, we find that there is considerable within-occupation variation in skill requirements, and that the amount of variation is not constant across skill levels. As a result, including occupation indicators in a wage model introduces heteroskedasticity that must be accounted for. We suggest that caution be applied when using and interpreting occupation indicators as controls in wage regressions. Keywords Occupations * Human capital * Job skill * Wages DOI 10.1007/s12122-010-9098-x

This research sought to identify organizational characteristics associated with the amount of professional qualifications among a nationally representative sample of nursing home social service directors. A self-administered survey was sent [...]

This study examines the skills that recent technical communication graduates and managers believe technical communication students need before entering business and industry as new technical communicators. Through questionnaires and interviews with recent graduates and managers of technical communication departments as well as an analysis of the participating schools' curricula, this study suggests areas where technical communication may need more preparation, including business operations, project management, problem-solving skills, and scientific and technical knowledge. Further research is needed at local, state, and national levels to analyze technical communication undergraduate curricula along with responses from recent graduates of technical communication programs and managers of technical communication programs. Only through continued research can we ensure that future technical communicators receive an education that eases their transition into the world of business and industry.

Research into the changes in skill-biased employment over recent years in the United Kingdom is given. Analysis of the demand for labor in the United Kingdom is given by reviewing literature on labor demand primarily in the 1980's.

This longitudinal study was conducted to identify trends in entry-level technology, interpersonal, and basic communication competencies and skills using entry-level classified newspaper advertisements from ten standard U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Two competencies and one skill were selected from the 'Workplace Know-How's' identified by the 1991 U.S. Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Specifically, ads including interpersonal competencies increased for the fourth consecutive year; ads including basic communication skills increased for the second consecutive year. Ads including technology competencies decreased slightly; however, the overall trend for technology remains strong. Therefore, the workplace continues seeking the competencies and skills advocated by the SCANS authors.

At a time when opinions about literacy and the nature of literacy are being expressed more publicly and given more 'credence', it is important that we have a better sense [...]

This paper concerns minimum qualifications (MQs) for jobs, which are statements of education, experience, and closely related personal attributes needed to perform job satisfactorily. MQs are often used as screening devices in personnel selection, particularly in the public sector. Those not meeting MQs are disqualified from the applicant pool. After a brief description of a new job analysis method to develop and validate MQs data are presented supporting the adequacy of the scales used in the job analyses and in the determination of content validity of MQs for selected jobs in large mental health facility. REsults suggest that the methodology yields MQs which demonstrate high levels of content validity. Interrater reliability is also high when resultant MQs are used to screen applications for jobs. Degree of adverse impact is not uniformly affected; it decreases in some cases and increases in others. Future research should continue the evaluation of the methodology and its associated scales on additional jobs, and should explore the constructs being measured by MQs. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

An equilibrium model was developed to describe conditions that determine audit qualifications. In this framework, a manager chooses not to revise the financial report and evade a qualification, and instead opts to rationally recognize a qualified audit report since it could play a signalling role, whereby the qualified report facilitates the reliable dissemination of positive private information that can boost the firm's market value. An analysis of the market response to audit qualifications revealed that market reaction to qualified audits could be favorable if the prevailing equilibrium allows it. This is borne of the fact that the observed market reaction to an avoidable qualification involves the mixture of a negative reaction to the findings of the auditor and a positive reaction to the reporting decision of the firm.

An analysis of the impact of educational attainment on county-level employment is presented. The analysis employs empirical data from manufacturing-, agriculture- and service-dependent industries from three Kentucky counties. It is shown that manufacturing employed applicants with less than high school education, agriculture served as employment for those with minimal formal schooling and the service sector had employees with high school or college education.

This article examines the reasons for the observed discrepancy between workers' actual and required levels of schooling and the resulting differences in returns to schooling, 'Overeducated' workers are found to be younger and to have lower amounts of on-the-job training than workers with the required level of schooling. They also have higher rates of firm and occupational mobility, characterized by movement of higher-level occupations. The findings suggest that overeducation can be explained by the trade-off between schooling and other components of human capital and by the mobility patterns of overeducated workers.

Byline: Julio Cesar Donadone, Vanessa Regina Cenedezi Zanarotti This work results from the research carried out at Volkswagen, a car engine industry located in Sao Carlos - Brazil. By analysing the major restructuring actions of the automobile industry in the last decade, it aims at demonstrating the influence of these actions on the establishment a new professional profile. This profile was later reviewed and modified as a result of a high turnover rate that prevailed in the industry's first few years and also due to organisational structure inertia, which led to fewer opportunities. Concerning the adequacy of the profile for the different phases of the organisational structure, a retrogression of the required qualifications can be noted.

We study the effect of new technologies (NT) on wages and employment using a unique panel that matches data on individuals and on their firms. As in the United States, we show that computer users are better paid than nonusers (15%-20% more). But these workers were already better compensated before the introduction of the NTs. Total returns to computer use amount to 2%. Measurement errors do not affect our estimates. Furthermore, computer users are protected from job losses as long as bad business conditions do not last too long. This result holds even after controlling for possible selection biases., The effects of recent technologies on employment and wages in France are examined. The introduction of computers is not solely responsible for increasing inequality in the labor market; workers' unobserved skills are also an important factor.

Several investigators have argued that raters often rely on the conceptual similarity among performance dimension labels to guide the pattern of their performance ratings. Recent studies have used individual-level conceptual similarity (CS) judgments to investigate this systematic distortion hypothesis and related performance rating issues. In this article the results from 4 studies are reported in which 171 subjects complete CS judgments on 2 occasions. In 3 separate studies the reliability of CS schemata was found to be positively related to the rater's relevant job knowledge. In a 4th study it was found that changes in CS schemata over a 9-week interval may result from CS unreliability as much as from any meaningful reconceptualization of CS structure. Implications for performance rating research are reviewed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

We examined the effects of computerized interviewing on applicant responses within the context of a laboratory simulation in which subjects were interviewed for either a low- or high-status position (clerk or management trainee) under one of four interview conditions: computerized, paper-and-pencil, or face-to-face with a warm or a cold behaving interviewer. The results indicated that subjects in nonsocial (computer or paper-and-pencil) interview conditions both scored lower on the Marlowe-Crowne measure of socially desirable responding (SDR) and reported their grade point averages and scholastic aptitude scores more accurately (with less inflation) than those in the face-to-face interview conditions. However, the use of nonsocial screening interviews for the high-status position engendered significantly higher levels of applicant resentment about the interview, relative to the conditions in which the interview procedure was appropriate (or more than appropriate) for the position level. This unintended behavioral consequence suggests one of the bounds that may influence the effectiveness of computerized interviewing. Contrary to expectations, we did not find the interpersonal style of the interviewer to significantly affect applicant resentment or SDR. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

We conducted a field study to test eight propositions derived from a process model of the selection interview (Dipboye, 1982; Dipboye & Macan, 1988). According to the model, interviewers' preinterview impressions of an applicant bias for the subsequent conduct of the interview and processing of information in the direction of confirming these initial impressions. To test predictions from the model, we surveyed managers and the applicants they interviewed in each of 164 interviews. In support of the model, interviewers' preinterview evaluations were positively related to postinterview evaluations of applicant qualifications and process variables predicted to mediate this relation. Results also supported the model in that interviewers with favorable preinterview impressions were more likely to attribute good interview performances to the applicants' qualifications for the job and poor performances to external factors. Contrary to the model, confidence failed to moderate the above findings, and preinterview impressions were not predictive of applicant reports of interviewers' time spent in questioning. Some possible implications of the model for future research and for improving interview practice are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)