The digital skills divide: evidence from the European tourism industry

PurposeThis paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.Design/methodology/approachMixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria).FindingsThe most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents' answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them.Originality/valueThe paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.

The critical success factors to remote development of construction management skills and competencies in Nigeria

PurposeConstruction management skills and competencies (CMSC) are of greatest importance for the industry to succeed and thrive. Some factors are critical to CSMC development. Hence, following the restrictions occasioned by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, this study reviewed and examined these factors to understand their level of influence in the remote development of CMSC adopted by the industry within and post the disruptions induced by the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a quantitative and descriptive research method. Data were sourced from 155 completed and usable survey questionnaires with registered and licensed engineering and construction professionals practicing in both private and public sectors in Nigeria. Participants were drawn from the membership database of the Nigeria Society of Engineers.FindingsThe identified critical success factors (CSFs) are categorised into organisational factors which include leadership, engineering project networks and eLearning, measurement and review system, strategy and resources, organisational culture, tradition and structure. In addition to individual factors in this order of influence;willingness to learn, promotion and career development, obtaining certified qualification and obtaining respect of peers are CSFs of remote development of CMSC in Nigeria.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to identify and examine the CSFs to remote development of CMSC tailored to developing countries in Africa. It explored the two categories of CSFs in both remote and traditional CMSC developments and established that the organisational factors remain positively dominants in traditional as well as in remote development of CMSC. It further ranked the individual factors in their order of influence in Nigeria, offered insights into motivation of construction management trainees in developing countries and offered areas of improvements such as quality of training and certification.

Designing a Pseudo-Haptics Study for Virtual Anesthesia Skills Development

Pseudo-haptics refers to the simulation of haptic sensations without the use of haptic interfaces, using, for example, audiovisual feedback and kinesthetic cues. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online learning, there has been a recent interest in pseudo-haptics as it can help facilitate psychomotor skills development away from simulation centers and laboratories. Here we present work-in-progress that describes the study design of a pseudo-haptics for virtual anesthesia skills development. We anticipate this work will provide greater insight to pseudo-haptics and its application to anesthesia-based training. © 2022 IEEE.

Analysis of Informal Employment AS a Basis for Implementation of European Union Standards in Ukraine

Achieving full and productive employment in an ideal society is recognized as an independent European value and involves reducing the impact on the labor market of such phenomena as the shadow economy, undeclared work, informal employment and more. These phenomena not only limit the state's ability to pursue modern social policies in the fields of education, health care, skills development, employment, social protection, pensions, they contribute to the creation and existence of unfair competition against those businesses that are fully ensure the fulfillment of obligations regarding the payment of taxes, labor protection and social security of employees. Therefore, the International Labor Organization and the world community draw attention to the problems of the informal economy and undeclared work, which today are one of the most powerful obstacles for countries to ensure decent work and higher growth rates. Thus, the problem of informal employment is one of the obstacles for Ukraine in ensuring decent work of citizens, improving the quality of life and growth in the global labor market. The coronavirus pandemic crisis (COVID-19) has once again increased the vulnerability of the informal and informal livelihoods and is a reminder of the crucial need to make the transition from informal to formal employment a priority national policy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Towards MOOCs for Lipreading: Using Synthetic Talking Heads to Train Humans in Lipreading at Scale

Many people with some form of hearing loss consider lipreading as their primary mode of day-to-day communication. However, finding resources to learn or improve one's lipreading skills can be challenging. This is further exacerbated in the COVID19 pandemic due to restrictions on direct interactions with peers and speech therapists. Today, online MOOCs platforms like Coursera and Udemy have become the most effective form of training for many types of skill development. However, online lipreading resources are scarce as creating such resources is an extensive process needing months of manual effort to record hired ac-tors. Because of the manual pipeline, such platforms are also limited in vocabulary, supported languages, accents, and speakers and have a high usage cost. In this work, we investigate the possibility of replacing real human talking videos with synthetically generated videos. Synthetic data can easily incorporate larger vocabularies, variations in accent, and even local languages and many speakers. We propose an end-to-end automated pipeline to develop such a platform using state-of-the-art talking head video generator networks, text-to-speech models, and computer vision techniques. We then perform an extensive human evaluation using carefully thought out lipreading exercises to validate the quality of our designed platform against the existing lipreading platforms. Our studies concretely point toward the potential of our approach in developing a large-scale lipreading MOOC platform that can impact millions of people with hearing loss. © 2023 IEEE.

Training and Skills Development for the Circular Economy in the Current Geopolitical Context: A Bottom-Up Design Focused on Community Need and Social Enterprise

The rise of circular economic thinking in academic literature can be traced back to Boulding's work on open and closed systems in the 1960s. Since then, the Circular Economy (CE) has been developed as a model to facilitate environmentally sustainable production and consumption, as well as economic and social prosperity. Recent geopolitical destabilising events such as Covid-19, and the war in Ukraine, have further increased the urgency of finding practical solutions to the climate crisis. In this paper we will explore industrial transformation, and how it can best adapt to a more circular and greener landscape from the perspective of economic activity and social prosperity. Training, or retraining of the workforce with the new skills they will need must be targeted and part of a unifying strategy, locally, nationally, and ultimately, globally. We present a conceptual paper on this theme and present initial work carried out to co-design and deliver training to disadvantaged individuals;working with local authorities, community charities and social enterprises and focusing on the grassroots of the drive to promote and establish the system wide changes needed to shift from linear to circular economic practice. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Gameful design for skills development of youths in marginalised urban communities

Unemployment is high among youths living in marginalised communities in South Africa. One of the reasons is that many young people are either un or low-skilled to gain employment in a digital economy requiring high-skilled individuals. The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) also exacerbates the future of work for these youths if they remain unskilled. Training with digital technologies is becoming the norm (especially with COVID–19) but engaging and motivating youth to learn skills is challenging. Gameful design, when effectively used, can create engagement and motivation. This study investigated what gameful elements can engage and motivate youths in marginalised communities to learn employable skills and how these elements can be incorporated into a system. We conducted a series of co-participatory workshops, including self-reflection tasks with some youths from a marginalised urban community in the Western Cape, South Africa. The study finds twenty-three system-based gameful design elements and three nonsystem-based elements to engage and motivate youths. The results provide insights for gameful designers, development centres, and policymakers involved with youth skills development. © 2022,Interaction Design and Architecture(s). All Rights Reserved.

IMPACT OF DISTANCE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

This article describes a new method for identifying the impact of distance learning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the teaching and learning environment and for developing teachers' technical skills and attitudes toward distance learning. It is based on a relevant questionnaire filled in by 453 teachers in the Jordanian capital of Amman during the second semester of 2019/2020. Using the two parts of the questionnaire, one of 22 items on the effectiveness of distance learning and one of 15 items on the teachers' attitudes toward distance learning, the authors have found that distance learning was moderately effective and that the teachers' attitudes toward distance learning were positive. More particularly, statistically significant differences at a level of α ≤ 0.05 existed between the teachers' mean scores on the distance learning scale in favor of humanities (t = 13.19). From our findings, we propose establishing a comprehensive assessment system for the distance learning program to monitor its implementation in computer labs;assisting teachers in using the program;implementing tutorials and training lessons for teachers to share their experiences;and providing tablets, computers, or smartphones to students from vulnerable social groups. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.

The Role of Conscientiousness and Toxic Behaviors on Skills Development in Professional E-Sports

E-sports and online games represent an entertainment industry that before the 2020 year was characterized by an incredible development. The COVID19 emergency has further accelerated the global process of diffusion of e-sports and online games, consecrating it as the leading economic industry in the entertainment and technology sector. This paper presents a study that is part of the URBAN GAMERS LAB project (in progress), that describes the role of conscientiousness and toxic behaviors. The study involves 227 professional e-gamers aged between 15 and 34 y.o. This project it is part of an interdisciplinary project that involves a municipality in the Emilia-Romagna region, schools' teachers, and researchers from University of Bologna: departments of psychology, architecture, and engineering. The main objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between the conscientiousness (measured by variables such as responsibility, traditionalism, orderliness, industriousness, virtue, self-control) and disturbing toxic behaviors (Mediocritizing, Sabotaging, Hostage Holding, Flaming), played by e-gamers during different phases of the online game League of Legends (LoL). Preliminary results show that for conscientiousness, there are no significant correlations with age but there is a significant correlation with gender and be part of an e-sports team. The latter is negative correlated with gender, positive correlated with been playing League of Legends and play ranked games. This aspect is positive correlated with age and been playing League of Legends. Regarding toxic behaviors, age does not seem to play an important role, that is, no correlations have been found between age and toxic behaviors. While there is a negative correlation with sabotaging and Hostage Holding and a positive correlation with flaming. Considering instead, how long they have been playing LoL, being more experienced negatively correlates with sabotaging, played with teammates who showed little mastery and positive correlated with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game Turning on been part of an eSports team, results show that this aspect positive correlates with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game and decided to mute the chat because of it. Finally, playing ranked games negatively correlates with sabotaging, and positively correlates with being a victim of flaming in chat during a game and decided to mute your chat because of it. © 2022 IEEE.

Implementation of a blended learning course for adult learners during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose>This study aims to evaluate a culture-based blended learning multilingual course created for adult learners in ten languages and the development of learners' 21st-century skills during its implementation in six European countries – Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, Poland and Czechia in the COVID-19 period.Design/methodology/approach>A cross-sectional survey of 638 participants was conducted using a paper-based questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out applying Bereday's four-step model comprising description, interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison to find out similarities and differences among various groups of learners.Findings>Overall, learners have developed their 21st-century skills, but the improvement has not been the same for all target audiences. Learners with economic, social and cultural barriers were more positive in their evaluation than those with geographic and learning obstacles.Research limitations/implications>The research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the face-to-face stage was replaced with online learning on virtual platforms, which impacted the research results. The results cannot be generalized to all adult learners as significant differences were discovered among various target groups of learners.Practical implications>The course may be implemented for formal and non-formal adult education when face-to-face teaching/learning is restricted.Social implications>The findings indicate that the course is especially suitable for learners with economic, social and cultural obstacles to learning.Originality/value>The article focuses on the use of blended learning in non-formal/informal adult education, which is a less widely researched area. The target course implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic shows a novel way of engaging adult learners in lifelong learning, including those with certain barriers to learning.

Technology-Enhanced Social-Emotional Learning Community

COVID-19 has increased the level of stress and loneliness experienced by teens, and there is an urgent need for them to learn social-emotional skills and feel supported by their peers. A technology-enhanced social-emotional learning community was designed to help students acquire effective coping skills and connect meaningfully with others. A study was conducted with 38 high school students, and their coping skills, feeling of social support, and level of stress were measured before and after engaging in the community. Results suggested that social-emotional skill development can be enhanced using an online learning community, where students share their struggles anonymously and learn coping skills by browsing effective coping strategies to support their peers. The results offered opportunities to leverage technology-enhanced learning communities to broaden access to quality social emotional learning experiences and help foster psychological well-being of more high school students. © ISLS.

Bridging the gap between reflective learning and reflective practice through anticipatory reflection

Purpose>This paper aims to analyse student perspectives on the contribution that teaching anticipatory reflection can make to the development of their reflective practice. The project explores lived student experiences of anticipatory reflection and the value students attribute to these in helping them bridge the transfer gap between reflective learning and reflective practice.Design/methodology/approach>An interpretivist approach is taken whereby student reflections on the students' experiences of practicing anticipatory reflection in a workshop setting were analysed using template analysis to understand the value attributed to these. Students were guided through a series of exercises including visualisation of future events and the nature of future practice as well as reflective writing.Findings>Students identified multiple benefits of being taught and practising anticipatory reflection. Specifically, high levels of realism, personal relevance and engagement were reported, as well as increased confidence, self-efficacy and self-belief. In addition, the development of empathy and increases in self-awareness were common benefits of working through the process of anticipatory reflection.Originality/value>In contrast to existing retrospective approaches, here the authors focus on the future, using anticipatory reflection to inform pedagogical approaches enabling students to experience anticipatory reflection in a classroom setting. The positive value attributed to experiencing anticipatory reflection suggests that the temporal focus in teaching reflection should evolve to incorporate prospective approaches which have a valuable role to play in bridging existing transfer gaps between reflective learning and practice.

Use of technological tools in the English teaching- learning process in the Ecuadorian rural sector

This research aims to explain how the use of technological tools influences the development of English language skills in students of basic general education in a rural fiscal institution in Ecuador. The importance of developing skills such as: writing, reading, listening, and speaking, leads to deciding the support of technological tools in a context in which education was forced to be virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For this, the research approach is mixed, qualitative under an interview with experts and quantitative by collecting data through a pilot plan with eighth grade students, starting from a diagnostic test and later after the use of English language skills. The results show a notable difference in the development of skills with scores between 7 and 8, followed by scores between 9 and 10, which denotes the positive effects on students of the correct use of Educational Technological Tools.

Moving Labs out of Labs: Teachers‟ Perceived Effectiveness of Virtual Laboratories during Pandemic School Closures

The extended periods of absence from physical laboratories due to school closures in COVID-19 pandemic has shortened the contact hours required to develop essential practical skills. This research investigates the perceived effectiveness of upper secondary teachers on virtual labs due to this circumstance. The research participants are subject-matter physics specialists who have been teaching upper secondary students in both learning environments, physical and online. The instruments used in this research are survey, an open-ended questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview protocol. The findings of this research postulated that teaching physics practical skills using virtual laboratories has its limitations, however, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged teachers to explore opportunities that are more effective in teaching physics practical skills. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of teaching physics practical skills using virtual laboratories is confined by the inability to provide students with a similar experience to the traditional labs. Despite its limitations, teaching physics practical skills using virtual laboratories is effective in supporting students through memorizing and comprehending practical skills. The research also revealed that teaching physics practical skills using virtual laboratories is an effective method of encouraging students to apply their existing knowledge and comprehension to unfamiliar situations and draw connections to analyze the physics phenomena. © 2022, International Journal of Information and Education Technology. All rights reserved.

Got skills? A new era of developing and assessing clinical skills in the remote environment

Health professional education is designed to help learners gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for practice. There has been extensive reform in health professional curriculums to emphasize the teaching, development, and assessment of clinical skills. As medical education continues to evolve due to changes in healthcare, and with the ever-increasing growth of technology, it is important to ensure that health professional students are ready to practice successfully. Many curriculums have incorporated clinical skills laboratories to provide learners a safe and protected environment to practice those skills necessary for their profession. Thus, students must acquire, maintain, and enhance their clinical skills techniques as they progress in their education and be properly assessed before they approach real patients. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic required educational transition to a remote platform, providing both challenges and opportunities for health education. This chapter reviews how remote skills-based courses can teach and assess clinical skills effectively. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Clinical skills development in the virtual learning environment: Adapting to a new world

The rapid transition to distance learning in response to the unexpected SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic led to disruption of clinical skills development, which are typically conducted face-to-face. Consequently, faculty adapted their courses, using a multitude of active learning modalities, to meet student learning objectives in the didactic and experiential settings. Strategies and considerations to implement innovative delivery methods and address potential challenges are elucidated. Furthermore, integration of a layered learning approach may allow for more broad perspectives and allow additional interactions and feedback, which is especially necessary in the virtual environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The use of web 3.0 tools for reading skill development: case blogs in virtual education

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes in the teaching and learning of EFL, not least through the increased use of ICT and web 3.0 technologies. As part of this phenomenon, blogs have become a widely used technique for assisting foreign language acquisition. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the use of blogs has a significant impact on the development of reading skills in English learners. The study was based on 106 participants (57 male and 49 female) from a private secondary school in the central highland region of Ecuador, with an age-range from 12 to 19 years. A nonparametric-experimental design was applied to the whole sample, who were pre-tested, given reading development instruction, and then post-tested. The pre-test and post-test were adapted from the Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET) and consisted of 5 multiple choice comprehension questions, 5 scanning questions and 6 fill in the gap questions. In the instructional phase, the participants engaged in 6 sessions of asynchronous and 6 sessions of synchronous study, in which a variety of digital resources such as Kahoot, Nearpod, Educaplay, Liveworksheets, Padlet, Quizzis, British Council, Quizzlet and others, were employed to contribute to students' communicative competence. Data tendencies and normality were measured through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, which was 0.000;while Wilcoxon was used to corroborate the hypothesis. The results showed a significant improvement of 66.9% in the students' reading skills through the use of web 3.0 blogs. Findings of the research show that the integration of web 3.0 technologies, specifically blogs foster learners' oral and written interaction, being reading the keystone of the whole process. © 2022 IEEE.

2022 - the year of upliftment for mining communities in South Africa

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : Mining organisations have both a legal and moral obligation to ensure that the greater community is uplifted and that people in the area can become involved. From the construction of infrastructure and schools to skills development and transfer as well as long-term employment, mines have a central part to play in driving positive change in South Africa. While Covid-19 put the brakes on a lot of spending, it is time to focus once more on these initiatives and make 2022 the year of upliftment in mining communities

EMPLOYEES’ DIGITAL COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRIAL SECTORS

Nowadays, many companies make a great deal of effort to take full advantage of digital transformation and stay ahead of their competitors. The influence of digitalisation on manpower development and human capabilities as well as on the business environment, in general, is especially noticeable in the construction and automotive sectors. That is why the main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of new digital technologies on employee competency development in Czech construction and automotive companies. The quantitative methodology is based on primary data collection conducted from July through October 2020 using the CAWI method. As a result, 27 responses from Czech construction companies and 39 responses from Czech automotive companies have been gathered in Survio software, processed and analysed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-square test of independence. The qualitative data analysis applied in this paper includes three semi-structured interviews with human resource managers of selected Czech companies in the automotive industry. The advantages and disadvantages of the Covid-19 pandemic situation from the point of view of human resource management and employee training have also been analysed in the presented case study. The findings in this paper confirm that creating a digitally ready workforce and changing the employees’ mindset towards the new style of doing their jobs remain significant challenges to deal with in the Czech construction and automotive industries. Implications for Central European audience: This paper focuses primarily on the training and professional development of people employed in the construction and automotive sectors, which have been highly affected by the ongoing digitalisation of business and the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. As the results further demonstrate, the widespread use of digital technologies can definitely help to enhance employees’ digital competencies. However, the employees still have to get used to a digitalised workplace. In such conditions, the role of human resource managers is key in the implementation of continuous training as part of the corporate culture. © 2022, Central European Business Review. All Rights Reserved.

Using reflective, authentic assessments to embed employability skills in higher education

Purpose>Reflection on performance and progress prepares students for workplace environments where self-management is expected, and yet this is something students are not often required to do formally in higher education (HE). This paper explores this gap in students' ability and seeks to address it through a reconsideration of summative assessment practices which, particularly in light of COVID-19, must align with the needs of graduates and their employers.Design/methodology/approach>The paper draws from data collected from the summative reflective assessment reports that degree apprentices (DAs) submitted during the final year of their Business Management degree while undertaking a problem-based module. We undertook a document analysis of these reports and used thematic analysis where we systematically looked for repeated themes in students' reflections.Findings>Students problematise the skills needed during COVID-19, and beyond, both in their academic studies and the workplace. Authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to work on skills and projects which are relevant to them. Through reflective accounts of skills they developed, students were able to bridge academic and professional practice and identify areas of convergence. Students engaged with academic theories in a constructive and meaningful way which suggests that authentic reflective accounts as part of assessment have the potential to maintain academic rigour.Originality/value>Skills development can bring the workplace into HE in a meaningful and systematic way and this article provides guidance for those looking to introduce reflection on skills to other courses. We suggest how this model can be utilised across modules which do not have work-integrated learning in their delivery.