Employment Goals Research Articles

Higher education, mature students and employment goals: policies and practices in the UK

This article considers recent policies of Higher Education in the UK, which are aimed at widening participation and meeting the needs of employers. The focus is on the growing population of part‐time students, and the implications of policies for this group. The article takes a critical perspective on government policies, using data from a major study of mature part‐time students, conducted in two specialist institutions in the UK, a London University college and a distance learning university. Findings from this study throw doubt on the feasibility of determining a priori what kind of study pathway is most conducive for the individual in terms of employment gains and opportunities for upward social mobility. In conclusion, doubts are raised as to whether policies such as those of the present UK government are likely to achieve its aims. Such policies are not unique to the UK, and lessons from this country are relevant to most of the developed world.

Supporting mental health service users back to work

Evidence accumulated over many years illustrates the benefits of work for mental health, including that of mental health service users. Despite strong evidence of the effectiveness of the individual placement and support (IPS) approach in enabling this group to find and keep paid employment, employment rates among mental health service users remain low, and IPS is not widely implemented in the UK. This paper reviews recent evidence for IPS, describes the key features of the approach and compares these with service users' accounts of the kind of support that they find helpful. The current situation regarding implementation of IPS is then considered, together with the barriers hindering implementation. It is clear that the barriers are multifaceted, and action will be required at a number of levels if mental health service users are to be enabled to achieve their employment goals.

Best Practice in Relation to Seeking and Maintaining Employment for People with Depression and Other Mental Illnesses

Objective: The pilot study aimed to evaluate the Disability Open Employment Services (DOES), now called the Disability Employment Network (DEN), developed by the Australian Federal Government to assist clients with health disabilities to seek and maintain employment. This is the first time this type of programme has been evaluated in a service delivery setting in Australia. Method: This study employed a mixed method design for inquiry. Findings: Male participants reported less symptom interference with work duties than females. There was also an association of gender on mental health with males reporting lower levels of mental health than females. There was an association of employment goal on the degree to which symptoms interfered with work duties where those whose goal was full time work experienced significantly more interference from their symptoms than other individuals. Key findings relate to the fragmentation of current services and the variability in the educational preparation of employment counsellors. Implications and Conclusions: Implications for practice relate to the enhancement of the provision of employment services to people with a mental illness. Further research is required into the factors which clients perceive as enabling or inhibiting their participation in employment support services and further knowledge is also required about how employment support services and mental health organisations can work together as interlocked services.

Welfare State, Gender, and Reconciliation of Work and Family in Poland: Policy Developments and Practice in a New EU Member

Abstract In the context of welfare state change and European Union and national debates on activation, this article engages in a systematic analysis of the reconciliation of work and family policies in Poland, and their implications regarding the gendered division of labour. Examination of three areas of reconciliation, that is, childcare services, maternity and parental leaves, and parent‐friendly organization of work, reveals strong tensions between the unpaid labour of care and paid market labour. Reconciliation of work and family appears challenging for mothers and fathers alike, but the nature of the problem differs – women face greater obstacles to paid employment and men to involvement in family and care. Assessed against EU prescriptions in this area, Poland's performance is mixed. Based on policy developments and practice, Poland is far from achieving Barcelona targets for the provision of childcare services, it complies with EU regulations on maternity and parental leave arrangements but also compares unfavourably with the member states which provide special arrangements for fathers, and, finally, lags behind employment goals and parent‐friendly organization of work. Although participation in the Lisbon Strategy has proved important for raising the visibility of the reconciliation of work and family policies on the national political agenda, recent policy reforms have been either inconsistent or too modest in light of EU policy goals. Therefore, it is too soon to argue that parents’ ability to reconcile work and care has improved or that greater equality in the gendered division of labour has been attained.

The Targeted Wage Subsidy: How Program Design Creates Incentives for “Creaming”

Across most developed nations, including Canada, parallel systems of social welfare and employment insurance have increasingly been replaced by programs that emphasize work as a means to achieve welfare goals within the so-called re-employment framework. Various authors have drawn attention to the tension between the goal of long-term sustainable employment, and re-employment-based strategies that emphasize short-term and stand-alone interventions. In this paper, we focus on the implementation of one such program in Canada, the Targeted Wage Subsidy. This program seeks to place the most marginal qualifying participants in employment by offering employers a financial inducement. By paying close attention to the experiences of those tasked with monitoring and implementing the program in Toronto, we identify various ways in which program design elements may systematically disadvantage the intended recipients. These program delivery mechanisms are shaped both in the practices of implementing agents, as well as by the public accountability framework that enforces rigid timelines and reporting requirements, resulting in a practice commonly referred to by employment service providers as “creaming.” Our observations lead us to question whether the target population is, in fact, the one benefiting from these return-to-work supports.

Transition pathways for young people with complex disabilities: exploring the economic consequences

Disabled young people with complex needs face particular challenges when they reach adulthood and seek to move from school to employment or further education. There are potentially substantial personal and social costs arising from these challenges. We sought evidence from recent UK research, policy and related literatures; undertook exploratory statistical analyses of birth cohort data; and analysed information provided by 30 disabled young people requiring high levels of practical and communication support. The personal, family and social costs that result from unsuccessful transition are substantial and wide-ranging. Health service and local authority expenditure are important elements, but do not allow young people to achieve the educational or employment goals to which they aspire, resulting in considerable costs for the state, whether through missing opportunities to contribute to the economy or through dependence on welfare benefits. The considerable sums currently spent on disabled children and young people are clearly not enough, or not deployed appropriately, to enable those who reach adulthood to fulfil their ambitions, or to meet government policy intentions for young people to achieve economic well-being.

Women and Higher Education in Russia

This qualitative study explored the motivations, goals, and experiences of 25 female apparel majors enrolled at two large Russian universities. Data were collected via in-depth interviews and a demographic questionnaire, and interpreted thematically to explore commonalities and differences across student narratives. Substantial reforms resulting from profound socioeconomic and political changes have affected both higher education and industry in Russia. Based on the analysis of student narratives, three topical areas are used to structure the thematic interpretation and to address key issues stemming from the students' perceptions regarding the relationship between Russian apparel programs and the country's apparel industry. The results establish the significance of apparel programs for facilitating Russian women's career aspirations and have implications for understanding the educational and employment goals of women from an international perspective. Further research is needed to understand the roles these Russian women take on within the industry after graduation.

The Transom: Too Many Cookbooks Spoil the Stupor

The Modern Language Association has released a report on ‘scholarship for tenure and promotion,’ which asserts that two-thirds of those persons with PhDs in English do not obtain tenure and that the successful third has achieved the goal of permanent employment by publishing monographs, a harder and harder thing to do because ‘university presses are under increasing pressure to produce cookbooks and local interest publications instead of monographs.’ I quote not from the MLA report but from a notice prepared by a historian who believes that we in the humanities should get busy and do something about helping new PhDs to publish, because what’s happening in English departments will soon happen to the rest of us. It would be useful, he says, if we agreed to consider ‘the range of forms new media scholarship can take,’ so as to pick a few we could consider worthy of replacing sewn signatures between boards in the must-have category for tenure candidates. I am not sure what ‘new media scholarship’ is, but if it can take a ‘range of forms,’ it must be substantial stuff. Given the rapidity with which technology (and, it would seem, the attendant vocabulary) changes these days, I’m afraid that by the time I learn about ‘new media scholarship,’ it will be as old and obsolete as yesterday afternoon’s computer. I used to think, for example, that ‘electronic publishing’ was a good, useful term; but the historian discussing the MLA report refers ‘digital scholarship,’ by which, I gather, he does not mean the kind produced by people who use their fingers to push pens or pencils across paper or to depress keys on typewriters. I had hoped that he did, so that I could qualify as a ‘digital scholar,’ but upon reflection I have decided that he’s simply trying to be

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Supported Employment Program for Persons With Long-Term Mental Illness in Hong Kong

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Supported Employment Program for Persons With Long-Term Mental Illness in Hong Kong

Housing and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism

The housing market is of central concern to monetary policy makers. To achieve the dual goals of price stability and maximum sustainable employment, monetary policy makers must understand the role that housing plays in the monetary transmission mechanism if they are to set policy instruments appropriately. In this paper, I examine what we know about the role of housing in the monetary transmission mechanism and then explore the implications of this knowledge for the conduct of monetary policy. I begin with a theoretical and empirical review of the main housing-related channels of the transmission mechanism. These channels include the ways interest rates directly influence the user cost of housing capital, expectations of future house-price movements, and housing supply; and indirectly influence the real economy through standard wealth effects from house prices, balance sheet, credit-channel effects on consumer spending, and balance sheet, credit-channel effects on housing demand. I the

The Summary of Performance as Transition “Passport” to Employment and Independent Living

Individuals with moderate to significant disabilities experience the most serious challenges in accessing employment and independent living when they exit high school. Therefore, the process of transition assessment conducted in school should be structured to provide relevant information for adult service providers and employers. For individuals with employment and independent living as their postsecondary goals, the Summary of [academic and functional] Performance (SOP) required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA) can serve as a powerful “passport” that promotes access, accommodation, and self-determination upon exit from school. This article discusses the value and structure of the SOP for individuals with employment and independent postsecondary goals. It provides an example SOP for a student that demonstrates the relevance of formal and informal data as the student makes the transition from high school to employment.

Economic growth, the environment and employment: challenges for sustainable development in China

China has been heralded as the fastest growing economy in the world. However, this growth has been achieved significantly at the expense of its environment. Conventional measures of economic performance such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) do not take into account environmental damages, and thus may be biased towards an unsustainable development path. In this paper, we compare China's economic performance as measured by GDP against a measure of sustainable GDP, estimated by adjusting GDP for the depreciation of air, soil and water resources. Our results indicate that China's performance may not be as remarkable as commonly perceived, and that its quest for sustainable development may be challenged by political and social considerations. The challenge includes the resolution of conflicts between the goals of employment and sustainability.

Strategic wage setting, inflation uncertainty and optimal delegation

The paper examines optimal monetary policy delegation in an economy where wages are set strategically by a single economy-wide union whose objectives relate to employment and the real wage. Crucially, the central bank exerts imprecise control over inflation, giving rise to a positive relationship between the mean value of inflation and its variance. In this context, union concerns with regard to the employment goal render equilibrium sensitive to the conduct of monetary policy. As a consequence, optimal delegation arrangements closely resemble those identified as optimal in models that assume a direct aversion to inflation on the part of unions.

What Predicts Supported Employment Program Outcomes?

Numerous state systems and local mental health and vocational rehabilitation programs are currently attempting to implement supported employment. This cross-sectional survey of 26 mental health agencies, partnering with federal-state vocational rehabilitation, identified differences in access to supported employment services and rates of competitive employment (efficiency) as well as predictors of access and efficiency. Access varied from 2 to 100% and was related to the percentage of supported employment specialists per consumers with serious mental illness served by the mental health agency (funding). Efficiency varied from 7 to 75% and was related to implementation of the critical components of evidence-based supported employment and to the local unemployment rate. To help mental health clients achieve their employment goals, state systems and local programs should address consolidation of resources in supported employment and the quality of implementation of supported employment.

What Constitutes Career Success? Implications for Employers and Policy Makers

Individuals’ subjective view of career success varies considerably and will not always align with the goals of employers or policy makers. This paper presents the initial findings of research designed to investigate the subjective perceptions of career success among a sample of younger New Zealanders who were interviewed as part of the Pathways to Sustainable Employment Project in the Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme funded by the Foundations for Research Science and Technology. Implications for public policy and career development strategies within employing organizations are highlighted.

Pay-for-Performance Initiatives and B. F. Skinner

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article LettersFull AccessPay-for-Performance Initiatives and B. F. SkinnerJohn Bachman, Ph.D.John BachmanSearch for more papers by this author, Ph.D.Published Online:1 Feb 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.57.2.273AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail To the Editor: Incipient pay-for-performance plans are beginning to improve clinical outcomes in the general medical sector (1), but they have not yet begun to influence quality improvement efforts in the behavioral health care arena. The research reported by Gates and colleagues (2) in the November 2005 issue of Psychiatric Services is valuable in conceptualizing pay-for-performance initiatives in behavioral health care.The authors note that their performance-based contracting model reimbursed providers more heavily the longer the patient remained employed. This contingency provided incentives that encouraged providers to increase the amount of time spent with patients each week in order to receive initial compensation with minimal delay as well as to place patients in good jobs to ensure retention—and additional reimbursement. This strategy exemplifies some of the behavioral engineering principles articulated by Skinner (3) nearly 40 years ago. Skinner taught that effective reinforcement contingencies maximize the occurrence of desired behaviors (that is, outcomes) by providing incentives after a variable number (rather than a fixed number) of responses and minimizing delay between response and reinforcement.The desired behavioral outcomes in the study by Gates and colleagues included mental health providers' assisting patients to initially secure and then to retain employment and patients' working successfully. The model used by these authors provided variable (that is, sequential) reinforcement (monetary compensation) contingent on providers' and patients' attainment of incremental steps toward the goal of sustained employment. Each step was reimbursed at a different rate, with the later objectives (sustaining employment for three, six, and nine months) weighted more heavily than the earlier ones (life skills assessment, initial placement, and job skills acquisition) to provide increasingly potent incentives to help patients keep their jobs.Gates and colleagues' outcomes-based compensation model might tempt providers to encourage patients to accept inadequate or temporary jobs in order to avoid delays in receiving reimbursement. But their preliminary data suggest that the model promotes successful outcomes by rewarding providers for working intensively with patients early in the placement process, assisting them in finding and keeping appropriate jobs, and coordinating more effectively with social service agencies.The implications for designing behavioral pay-for-performance plans are clear. Providers' compensation should be weighted to differentially reinforce progressive improvements in patients' recovery and sustained functioning. Instead of compensation that is contingent on simply keeping patients in treatment, which subtly reinforces clinical deterioration, incrementally weighted reinforcement contingencies should explicitly link providers' and patients' use of evidence-based treatment guidelines and self-management plans with quantifiable measures of continuing clinical improvement and sustained recovery of functioning.Dr. Bachman, a licensed psychologist, practices in Brentwood, California.

The Transparency of Central Bank Preferences

We examine whether the transparency of the weight central banks attach to employment goals compared to inflation targets is beneficial. We show that society prefers transparency if it sufficiently values the employment target, whereas it prefers opacity if it estimates inflation as sufficiently important.

Clinical Factors Associated With Employment Among People With Severe Mental Illness

Research has shown that supported employment programs are effective in helping psychiatric outpatients achieve vocational outcomes, yet not all program participants are able to realize their employment goals. This study used 24 months of longitudinal data from a multisite study of supported employment interventions to examine the relationship of patient clinical factors to employment outcomes. Multivariate random regression analysis indicated that, even when controlling for an extensive series of demographic, study condition (experimental versus control), and work history covariates, clinical factors were associated with individuals' ability to achieve competitive jobs and to work 40 or more hours per month. Poor self-rated functioning, negative psychiatric symptoms, and recent hospitalizations were most consistently associated with failure to achieve these employment outcomes. These findings suggest ways that providers can tailor supported employment programs to achieve success with a diverse array of clinical subpopulations.

Outcomes-Based Funding for Vocational Services and Employment of People With Mental Health Conditions

This study explored the likelihood of and identified the factors related to securing and sustaining jobs for people with psychiatric disabilities in New York State who received vocational services through an outcomes-based reimbursement program. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected over two years to characterize placement and retention through the performance-based contracting demonstration. Seven social service agencies located statewide were contracted by the New York State Office of Mental Health to provide vocational services to people with mental health conditions through the performance-based contracting milestone structure, which established incremental steps toward the goal of sustained integrated competitive employment at which providers were reimbursed. Intake was continuous throughout the demonstration period, from December 2000 to December 2002. Key outcomes included placement in employment, time to placement, and job retention. Data were examined for the 171 participants who were still active in the demonstration at the end of the study period. A total of 108 participants (63 percent) were successful in securing jobs. Among those placed, 79 (73 percent) retained work at the end of the demonstration, a rate comparable to other best-practice models. Factors related to these outcomes included number of provider hours spent assisting consumers weekly, length of time to placement, consumer enrollment in the state's rehabilitation services program, and quality of the jobs developed. Outcomes funding was associated with successful employment for people with psychiatric disabilities. The performance-based funding structure may encourage providers to work more intensively with consumers early in the placement process, find jobs that consumers want to keep, and coordinate more effectively with the state rehabilitation agency.

Promoting the Involvement of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Career and Vocational Planning and Decision-Making: The Self-Determined Career Development Model

The authors examined the effectiveness of a support model to instruct five youth with EBD to self-direct the problem-solving processes and promote self-determination skills by enabling them to: (a) set employment/career related goals, (b) develop and implement a plan toward goal attainment; and (c) adjust and evaluate progress toward meeting their goals. Participants chose individualized employment goals and worked through the model as a support to planning, implementing, and attaining their goals. An AB design was used to evaluate goal achievement. The results revealed that all participants made progress toward each of their goals. Additionally, all participants reported that they achieved their target goals and were satisfied with the support that the model provided. Results support the potential utility of the model in promoting self-determination skills and increasing positive employment outcomes for youth with EBD.