Global Job Market Research Articles

Las posiciones y las estrategias de las organizaciones sindicales y las organizaciones sociales en España ante la responsabilidad social de las empresas transnacionales

In this article we analyse the stances and strategies used by Spanish, European and international trade union organisations, global social organisations and social organisations that comprise global networks in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We also examine relations involving conflict and collaboration among these actors. On the one hand, trade union organisations condemn the fact that companies are using this field to avoid international regulation of their activities as a strategy that forms part of the neo-liberal economic globalisation project. In this respect, these organisations have been set the objective of counteracting this strategy by promoting the global trade union movement, international trade union action and minimum regulation of the global job market via transnational collective bargaining. On the other hand, global social organisations and organisations that form part of global networks maintain that it is necessary to establish the obligatory nature of compliance on the part of transnational companies with international legislation governing human, labour and environmental rights. Along these lines, these organisations are considering the suitability of setting up an international regulatory, supervisory and sanctioning body at the heart of the UN which would be able to monitor compliance with these rights on a global level. Furthermore, it is of the utmost importance to highlight the fact that relations between trade union organisations and social organisations are, generally speaking, non-existent or even conflictive, taking into account the fact that the former undermine the latter as valid interlocutors in this field and, particularly, in the area of labour, owing to their lack of representation. However, social organisations are playing a major role in the field of CSR and have had a major impact in recent years on social, political and labour —related spheres of activity— which could even point to transformations in the prevailing tripartite set-up existing in labour relations.

Entry-level engineering professionals and Product Lifecycle Management: a competency model

Today's global job market requires a worker-oriented focus that emphasises individuals' competencies and is steadily phasing out the task-oriented model that once dominated most work environments. Also impacting the world of work is the pressure to eliminate all forms of waste in manufacturing as companies strive to compete on a global scale. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), considered to be the next generation of lean thinking, shows great promise as a means of managing and tracking products through their entire lifecycle, from design through recycling. This paper proposes the creation of a competency model for engineers functioning in a PLM environment.

Des domestiques philippines à Paris : un marché mondial de la domesticité ?

Liane Mozère — Philippine servants in Paris : a global market of domestic servants ? In Paris, Philippino house aides do child-care and housekeeping for well- to-do French and foreign families. This unusual population of often university- educated women who quit husbands and children handle unqualified, but better paying jobs, than those they could have in Philippines. As the top of the iceberg, the experiences of such women form a part of a global domestic job market trends.

A New Masters Course Program in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Kiel

ABSTRACTAn international study course program in Materials Science and Engineering based on innovative concepts in engineering education has been introduced by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Kiel for students from Germany and especially from abroad. The study program offers advanced materials science education culminating in the internationally recognized degree “Master of Materials Science and Engineering”. It aims at providing students with the necessary skills to meet the challenges of a global job market and the demands of industry and research institutions in modern industrial societies. Some of the main characteristics of the program for which tuition fees are not required comprise theoretical teaching and lab training modules held in English language, internet teaching modules, a broad choice of courses including courses in nontechnical skills, a Master thesis in areas of functional or structural materials, collaboration with research institutes, as well as participation in the European credit point transfer system for international acceptance of the course work. The program has started successfully in 1999 with students coming mainly from the Eastern European countries.

The Challenges of Conducting Interdisciplinary Research in Traditional Doctoral Programs

Key words: interdisciplinary research; doctoral programs; educational reform.Graduate education should prepare students foran increasingly interdisciplinary, collaborative,and global job market and should not be viewedonly as a byproduct of immersion in an intensiveresearch experience. ...What is needed is notadditional specialization. We need a graduatesystem that is well tuned to the central feature ofcontemporary life: continuous change. Our objec-tive, therefore, is a breadth of experience so thatgraduates can keep career options open and havethe capacity to switch career tracks both at thebeginning of and throughout their professionallives (Committee on Science Engineering andPublic Policy 1995, report brief p. 1, full report p.83, emphasis added).Consider the American system of doctoral educa-tion. By most measures, it is a resounding success;indeed, it is generally considered the world leader inPh.D. production. Annually over 40,000 Ph.D.s aregranted by over 350 universities in hundreds ofdisciplines to an ever more diverse group of students(National Research Council 1996). Despite its obvi-ous successes, American doctoral education hascome under criticism. One prominent and persistentcritique is that American doctoral education trainsstudents too narrowly in a subspecialty, leaving newdegree holders unprepared to conduct interdisciplin-ary work (e.g., Panel on Alternate Approaches toGraduate Education 1973; Boyer 1990; Committeeon Science Engineering and Public Policy 1995).Most prominently, the National Academy of Sci-ences' Committee on Science Engineering and Pub-

Direct Outcome-Based Assessment Measures

Leaders from inside and outside the educational community are calling for an assessment of the quality of educational programs. These demands are being driven by the need to ensure that funding is being well spent and engineering students will be well prepared for a rapidly shifting global job market, as well as by the economic competitiveness this nation is facing. Engineering programs are fertile ground for this type of quality control, and as such they are being challenged to design an outcome assessment package. A set of measurement tools has been presented to assist programs in assessing how well their students have met the criteria and how these results must be tied into a larger set of conditions that promote academic improvement. These tools include accreditation, standard testing measures, capstone design courses, teacher evaluations, alumni achievements/satisfactions, student internship feedback, and career-services data. The development of an assessment program has been emphasized and described because such development is currently being demanded to demonstrate that a program is willing to take on its responsibility seriously to monitor the effectiveness of all aspects of its educational enterprise.