Search Results for
"Higher education"

Background: Internship programs are essential for bridging the gap between theoretical education and practical application. They equip students with the practical skills, relevant knowledge, and professional networks necessary for career success. This study explores the experiences of Health Information Management (HIM) stakeholders, including faculty, interns, and hospital supervisors in Ghana. Methods: The study was conducted across ten hospitals in six of Ghana's sixteen administrative regions between 18th July and 30th August 2024. A concurrent mixed methods design incorporating qualitative (In-depth interviews) and quantitative (survey) was used. Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory provided the conceptual framework to interpret how interns learn through real-world engagement. Results: Seventy-nine HIM students participated in the quantitative survey. Of the interns surveyed, 96.2 % (n = 76) reported that site supervisors could readily address their questions and provide guidance. A similar percentage reported gaining new knowledge, with most interns noting significant improvement in teamwork skills. Unadjusted regression analysis identified key factors influencing overall satisfaction, highlighting opportunities to demonstrate initiatives beyond basic requirements, perceptions of enhanced employment prospects, and contributing to meaningful outcomes. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews revealed challenges like non-adherence to logbook modules and inadequate supervision. Despite these issues, the presence of interns was perceived as a benefit to the facilities, as they were seen to enhance staff capacity. Conclusion: This study highlights the critical role internships play in professional development, while also drawing attention to key challenges such as non-adherence to logbook requirements, limited financial support, and program durations. Recommendations for improving the internship experience include ensuring consistent and effective supervision, extending the program durations, adhering to logbook modules, and providing financial assistance to support interns. © 2025 The Authors

This study addresses the need for context-specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy research in West Africa, confronting challenges such as interrelation of AI literacy dimensions, ethical concerns, and a scarcity of localized studies. It investigates AI literacy among university students in Ghana and Nigeria through a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 427 participants (n = 206 Ghana, n = 221 Nigeria). The investigation focuses on four interconnected dimensions from the ABCE framework: Affective (motivation, self-efficacy), representing emotional engagement with AI; Behavioral (collaboration, intentional use), reflecting active participation in AI-related tasks; Cognitive (knowledge, critical thinking), encompassing understanding and application of AI concepts; and Ethical, pertaining to awareness and commitment to AI's societal implications. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), findings confirm that affective factors positively influence cognitive outcomes, mediated by behavioral engagement and ethical understanding. Notably, country differences do not significantly affect these relationships, thereby justifying the analysis of the combined dataset and highlighting shared patterns in AI literacy development across the two contexts. This consistency validates a common underlying mechanism for AI literacy development in these West African contexts. The study shows the importance of integrating technical AI skills with ethical principles, collaborative learning, and culturally appropriate strategies. Specifically, it offers actionable strategies for strengthening affective learning, designing collaborative behavioral interventions, embedding ethical reasoning into curricula, and contextualizing pedagogies for regional realities, thereby informing stakeholders on effective AI education in West Africa. © The Author(s) 2025.

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence across industries necessitates systematic AI literacy development in higher vocational education to prepare students for AI-driven professional environments. This study develops and validates a comprehensive competency-based ladder development pathway specifically designed to enhance AI literacy among vocational students. The research employs a mixed-methods approach combining theoretical framework construction, empirical investigation, and practical implementation validation. The three-tier pathway model integrates foundational cognitive, skills application, and comprehensive innovation layers to address diverse learning needs while maintaining progression standards. Through empirical investigation involving 2850 students across 15 institutions, the study identifies distinct learner profiles and competency deficits, informing personalized development strategies. The validation experiment with 420 participants demonstrates significant improvements across all competency dimensions, with overall AI literacy gains of 56.0% and sustained retention rates exceeding 85% at six-month follow-up. The innovative pedagogical approaches incorporate project-driven learning, experiential methodologies, and hybrid delivery models to optimize competency development. The comprehensive evaluation framework provides robust assessment tools that balance formative and summative approaches while maintaining alignment with industry standards. Results indicate that students in the ladder pathway intervention achieved 34.7% higher cognitive assessment scores, 42.3% superior performance on skills application tasks, and 28.9% better innovation competency outcomes compared to traditional instruction. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of competency-based AI education while providing practical implementation guidance for enhancing workforce readiness in the artificial intelligence era. © The Author(s) 2025.

The internationalization of higher education is often seen as a strategy that better prepares students for employment in the increasingly globalized labor market. This paper empirically investigates whether business graduates who participate in International Student Mobility (ISM) programs experience a faster transition into the labor market after graduation. Using a unique database of 10 cohorts of business graduates from Belgium, our results show that students' participation in exchange programs such as Erasmus + significantly decrease the average number of months required to get a job after graduation. Our findings highlight the strategic value of ISM in disciplines like economics and management, where international experience is closely tied to career trajectories. They also underscore the added benefits for French-speaking students navigating multilingual environments, and for regions like Wallonia facing structural employment challenges. These insights support the continued promotion of mobility programs as tools for enhancing graduate employability in a globalized labor market. © The Author(s) 2025.

The promise of knowledge society is clean, creative, and expressive work. Technological advancements would relieve humans from the tedium and hardship of labor, and access to knowledge and expansion of higher education would diminish the existing social inequalities of industrial society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Switzerland's mechanical and electrical engineering industry, this article illustrates how the work experiences of apprentices challenge the image of labor in a knowledge society ostensibly freed from all forms of material, technological, and social constraint. I demonstrate that the persistence of the tedium and potential danger of industrial work, of organizational hierarchies, the decreasing social validation of mechanical and manual labor, and expectations and aspirations to singularity make youth increasingly interested in other kinds of employment and training. The article takes the work and learning relations in the Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering sector as a symptom of emerging tensions around the division of labor and valorization of different forms of skills, and the meaning and motivations of work in late capitalism. I argue that future anthropological studies of work and education in de-industrialized settings might do well to examine the social critique of industrial work in concert with its aesthetic critique. © 2025 American Anthropological Association.

Value creation pedagogy (VCP) is a prominent approach in entrepreneurial education, defined as students learning through creating value for others. As higher education institutions (HEIs) strive to prepare students for global challenges like sustainability, inequality and employability, VCP offers a compelling approach linking academic learning to societal contribution. Most VCP research has focused on schools or student experiences rather than university educators. To explore how VCP is enacted in higher education and why, twelve diverse HEI cases in non-entrepreneurship settings were investigated, in which educators integrated VCP into courses or programmes. Cases in engineering, healthcare, pedagogy, business, humanities and natural sciences were identified through purposive sampling and examined via educator interviews. Findings revealed strong educator engagement and demonstrated how VCP supports educators and students to progress from problem ideation to real-world implementation. Varying notions of value emerged, shaping VCP practices and influencing the forms of value students create for others. Challenges also surfaced, highlighting educators’ responses to emotional, institutional and pedagogical demands when adopting student value creation as a learning mechanism. While VCP can be introduced gradually, institutional support remains essential. This systematic cross-case study contributes new insights and practical recommendations for integrating VCP across diverse contexts in HEIs. © 2025 The Authors

Ecological sustainable development model is a green ecological model and a prerequisite for economic sustainable development. higher education is vocational education and vocational training for relevant personnel, aiming to cultivate more professional talents and skilled workers for the country and society, so as to achieve the goal of social development. This paper aims to use advanced technical means to construct an ecological sustainable development model for higher education. Based on relevant computer technology, this paper proposes a support vector machine (SVM) model and a BP (back propagation) artificial neural network algorithm to analyze and study the ecological sustainable development model. Through experimental analysis, it is known that in the survey of teachers, 199 teachers believe that resources should be effectively utilized in the network environment. This part of teachers accounts for the largest proportion, which is 25.51%, while the proportion of teachers with academic theoretical knowledge is the smallest, which is 7.06%. This shows that teachers should strengthen technical learning. In the process of distance education, practical operation is far more important than theoretical knowledge, and teachers’ skill training also affects the sustainable development of education. Finally, the calculation results show that the experimental method has certain significance for the analysis of ecological sustainable development of higher education. © The Author(s) 2025.

This study examines the effects of firm-based (or dual) vocational education and training (VET) on labour market and educational outcomes. Using Swiss administrative data, I compare graduates of dual and school-based VET, all of whom have studied the same curriculum and received the same diploma. In addition to municipality fixed effects models, I use distance to the nearest full-time VET school as an instrumental variable to identify the causal effect. The results show that dual VET is far more effective for securing first employment, especially for men and for occupations with loose labour market conditions. For causal channels, dual VET not only provides the possibility of remaining in the training firm upon graduation but is also more effective among those who do not remain. However, as school-based VET graduates are more likely to progress to higher education, the overall results show that each form of VET has a comparative advantage. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd

This study investigates the role of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in addressing the evolving demands of the European higher education Area (EHEA) labour market. Amidst global economic shifts, technological advancements, and a persistent skills gap, WIL and integrative learning methods such as Work-Based Learning (WBL) emerge as pivotal frameworks to bridge the gap between academic preparation and workplace requirements. By employing a scoping review methodology and guided by PRISMA protocols, this research identifies recurring themes across 50 studies from 2013 to 2024, focusing on WBL and WIL programme characteristics, competency development and assessment, stakeholders' engagement, stakeholder and university cooperation, and WIL impact on stakeholders, universities and students. The findings reveal that while WBL and WIL promote employability and the acquisition of both hard and soft skills, challenges persist for students in balancing academic and professional responsibilities. The study underscores the critical need for stronger cooperation between universities and organisations, particularly through reflective practices, structured learning agreements, and flexible curricula. These elements are essential to align stakeholder expectations and foster student success. Ultimately, this work highlights the transformative potential of WBL and WIL in enhancing employability, innovation, and sustainable partnerships between academia and industry, offering valuable insights for future research and practice within the EHEA context. Context and implications Rationale for this study: This review analysed non-theoretical studies with WIL and WBL data to identify recurring themes, including these programmes' characteristics, stakeholders, universities and students' perceptions. Why the new findings matter: WIL and WBL bridge the theory–practice gap, answer misalignment between higher education and labour market needs in the EHEA, and enhance employability. Implications for policy makers, practitioners and researchers: This study may serve as a guidance for students, higher education institutions and employers involved in WIL and WBL programmes to prioritise co-designed learning contracts and flexible curricula to address implementation challenges. We suggest that these programmes have a reflective pedagogy, structured mentorship and collaboration, and shared assessment frameworks to align academic-professional objectives. Policy-makers should support university-stakeholders partnerships and fund adaptable WIL or WBL models. Future research should pursue longitudinal studies on graduate outcomes and cross-national comparative analyses to strengthen generalisability. © 2025 The Author(s). Review of education published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association.

Background: Historically, physical therapy focused on physical capabilities. The “Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation” course within the Rehabilitation Therapy (RT) program is a highly practical course that requires students to master complex clinical skills. Traditional teaching methods have struggled to engage students effectively, and the lack of interaction has reduced learning outcomes. This study aims to examine the effects of combining the flipped classroom model (FCM) with a multi-functional camera system (MFCS) on enhancing student performance, course satisfaction, and practical skills. Methods: This quasi-experimental study included 106 Guangzhou Medical University RT candidates from 2020 to 2021. We divided the students into four groups: the Combined Group (FCM combined with MFCS), the MFCS Group, the FCM Group, and the Traditional Approach Group (TA Group). After completing the course, students filled out questionnaires that assessed course satisfaction, MFCS effectiveness, and their mastery of SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) practical skills. We also evaluated teaching effectiveness using the final exam scores. We statistically analysed the data using SPSS 25.0. Results: The results showed that students in the Combined Group had significantly higher scores in practical assessments, theoretical exams, and overall scores compared to the FCM and the TA groups (P < 0.05). In terms of course satisfaction, the Combined Group also scored significantly higher than the FCM and the TA groups (P < 0.05). Further analysis revealed a strong positive correlation between overall course satisfaction and SOAP scores in the Combined and MFCS groups. Conclusion: The teaching model that combines the FCM with the MFCS significantly enhances students’ classroom experience, practical skills, and learning achievements. The results suggest that this integrated teaching approach effectively bridges the gap between classroom learning and clinical practice skills, making it worthy of broader application in highly practical professional courses. © The Author(s) 2025.