Enhancing employability in the ‘ME generation’
Special issue call for papers from Education + Training
Deadline for submissions: Friday 22th January 2010
Guest Editors
Dr Carl Senior & Dr Robert Cubbidge
School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, UK
The Guest Editors would like to invite submissions for a special issue of Education + Training focused on "Enhancing employability in the ‘ME generation’"
It goes without saying that today’s undergraduate students have a completely different mindset from their counterparts a decade ago. The shift in attitudes towards study in our students has been given many names in the literature from the advent of the information age mindset to the digital native vs. digital immigrant divide which all tend to focus on the relationship that students have with information technology. However the student experience is far more complex than merely interacting with computers, the Internet etc. Contemporary undergraduates process information in a unique fashion that also tends to be mirrored in the way information is managed in the modern day world of work.
Higher education institutes have adapted to this and a variety of innovative strategies have emerged to embrace the changing undergraduate mindset. However, there has been little, if any, effort in understanding whether or not these innovations actually lead to the development of a skill set that that can actually be taken to employment after graduation.
The aim of this special issue is to address this central question. Namely do the current practices in universities align themselves with the expectations of the undergraduate cohort and do they, together, facilitate the development of a skill set that will ultimately improve employability.
Contributions are encouraged from any field of applied research that involves any topic of teaching strategy within the higher education sector. Topics could include examination of the utility of work-based learning, PDPs and blended learning strategies through to computational modelling of learning styles and neurobiological studies. However, all contributions must bridge the link between the expectations of the contemporary undergraduate populations and subsequent employability.
Submission guidelines
All manuscripts should follow the usual guidelines of Education & Training with submissions (in word format) emailed directly to either editor. Submissions should not exceed 5000 words (inc references) and all contributors should refer to the notes for authors on the Emerald web site for further information regarding their submissions.
Enquiries are encouraged and should be addressed to either, Dr. Carl Senior (c.senior@aston.ac.uk) or Dr. Robert Cubbidge (r.p.cubbidge@aston.ac.uk) Aston University, UK.