Public Training Programs Research Articles

Enhance Mothers' Knowledge and Skills in Choking First Aid through Self-Directed Learning with Video Resources

Choking represents a life-threatening emergency that necessitates immediate intervention, making bystanders' knowledge and skills essential for practical first aid. Traditional training methods, such as PowerPoint presentations and printed materials, are widely employed; however, technological advancements have prompted the exploration of self-directed learning through video (SDL-V) as a potentially more effective approach. This study aims to evaluate the impact of SDL-V-based choking first aid training on mothers' knowledge and skills concerning toddler choking in Kalisongo village. Employing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group, 30 participants from the intervention and control groups were selected through simple random sampling. Knowledge and skills were assessed before and after training, and differences were analyzed using independent and paired sample T-tests. The N-Gain Score test was employed to determine the effect size. The results revealed no significant differences in knowledge and skills between the groups before training (P > 0.05). Nonetheless, significant improvements were noted within each group following the training (P < 0.05). The intervention group exhibited significantly higher levels of knowledge and skills compared to the control group after training (P < 0.05), demonstrating a high N-Gain Score (>0.70). In conclusion, SDL-V-based choking first aid training significantly enhances mothers' knowledge and skills in Kalisongo village. Healthcare professionals should consider the integration of SDL-V into public education and training programs.

Mainstreaming Law and Human Rights Education in Indonesia: How the National Training Institute Can Drive Legal and Policy Reform?

This paper explores the integration of law and human rights education in Indonesia, with a focus on the role of the National Training Institute (NTI) in advancing these principles through governmental and public service training programs. As Indonesia continues its commitment to upholding human rights, both domestically and in line with international conventions, the mainstreaming of law and human rights education plays a critical role in promoting justice, equality, and legal literacy across society. Despite legal frameworks aimed at protecting human rights, there remains a significant gap in the effective implementation of such education, particularly within public institutions and civil service training. The study assesses how the NTI has integrated law and human rights topics into its curricula, examining the effectiveness of these programs in building awareness and understanding of legal rights and responsibilities. Drawing from interviews with trainers and participants, the paper identifies both strengths and limitations of current training methodologies, highlighting the challenges of addressing complex human rights issues in a culturally diverse context. Furthermore, the research underscores the importance of law and policy reform in advancing human rights education. It argues that a comprehensive and systematic approach to training in legal rights is not only crucial for improving compliance with national and international human rights standards but is also integral to broader legal reforms aimed at enhancing public participation and accountability in governance. The paper concludes by proposing recommendations for strengthening law and human rights education within the NTI framework, advocating for reforms that expand its reach and effectiveness as a tool for both societal change and legal empowerment.

The impact of income inequality on economic growth in MENA region: The role of energy poverty threshold effect

This research paper explores the impact of income inequality on economic growth under the influence of energy poverty threshold effect in 12 Middle East-North African (MENA) countries from 2000 to 2019. We examine the possibility of a non-linear connection between income inequality and growth below and above a specific energy poverty level using the fixed-effect threshold panel proposed by Hansen (1999) [107]. Our results suggest that income disparity adversely influences economic development, no matter the level of energy poverty. Moreover, our results indicate that the detrimental impact of inequality on economic growth diminishes as energy poverty decreases and reaches a certain threshold. Therefore, addressing energy poverty helps to minimize the negative economic consequences of inequality. Our research provides valuable insights for MENA. In fact, policymakers can mitigate these adverse effects by supporting and expanding the diffusion of clean fuels and modern cooking techniques. A comprehensive approach that combines expanding clean energy infrastructure, providing financial incentives, and conducting public awareness and training programs can ensure the availability, affordability while facilitating their efficient use.

AI-Driven Innovations in Earthquake Risk Mitigation: A Future-Focused Perspective

This study explores the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing earthquake risk mitigation across six key areas. Unlike traditional approaches, this paper examines how AI-driven innovations can uniquely enhance early warning systems, enabling real-time structural health monitoring, and providing dynamic, multi-hazard risk assessments that seamlessly integrate seismic data with other natural hazards such as tsunamis and landslides. It introduces groundbreaking applications of AI in earthquake-resilient design, where generative design algorithms and predictive analytics create structures that optimally balance safety, cost, and sustainability. The study also presents a novel discussion on the ethical implications of AI in this domain, stressing the critical need for transparency, accountability, and bias mitigation. Looking forward, the manuscript envisions the development of advanced AI platforms capable of delivering real-time, personalized risk assessments, immersive public training programs, and collaborative design tools that adapt to evolving seismic data. These innovations promise not only to significantly enhance current earthquake preparedness but also to pave the way toward a future where the societal impact of earthquakes is drastically reduced. This work underscores the potential of AI’s role in shaping a safer, more resilient future, emphasizing the importance of continued innovation, ethical governance, and collaborative efforts.

Building access to linked data for program evaluation: lessons and opportunities from the evaluation of a pan-Canadian skills training initiative

In recent years, Canada’s statistical agency (Statistics Canada) has developed sophisticated linkage infrastructure through their Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE), linking internal data sets held by Statistics Canada and external data held by researchers. While the SDLE presents an opportunity for better measurement of the effectiveness of policies and programs, to date it has not been used for this purpose outside of government, instead largely supporting academic research projects. This session presents a novel approach to program evaluation in the Canadian context, using the SDLE Statistics Canada administrative data alongside independently collected program data from multiple service providers to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of a portfolio of skills training programs. Our approach aims to both rigorously evaluate the long-term outcomes of participants in this portfolio of public skills training programs, and develop a replicable proof-of-concept for using linked data infrastructure in Canada to support program evaluations. Through this initiative, we identify the key design features needed to support this use case for linked data, including study design parameters, necessary datasets and linkage processes, and privacy and data governance policies. Finally, we identify opportunities for future replication of this approach in Canada, including strategies for expedited linkage and analysis of evaluation results that maintain privacy requirements. We find that using the SDLE infrastructure for program evaluation is both feasible and desirable, however barriers exist to replicating this approach, including sectoral capacity for collecting linkable data, and transposing linkage and confidentiality rules from an academic research to a program evaluation context.

Policy Strategies for Training Public Sector Executives to Develop Artificial Intelligence Skills

The aim of the study is to present the current situation regarding the strategies and policies for the development of AI skills in public sector executives and to establish a holistic training framework based on European and international standards. The paper systematically presents the existing literature on AI, focusing on policy strategies for the training of public sector executives. Hence, the key points of the strategies for AI, as well as the UNESCO Competency Framework for Digital Transformation and AI, the e-CF, the DigComp and the EQF frameworks are presented. Based on the theoretical tools emerged from the literature review, an assessment of the existing situation and the identification of the needs of the Greek reality is presented. Most importantly, the paper attempts to create a holistic four-level strategic framework, which can be used by the public administration as a roadmap to lay the foundations for a basis for public sector training programmes, and which takes into account a number of factors, such as the hierarchical structure of the public administration, the various qualification and competence frameworks, as well as the principles of educational design and adult education.

Public knowledge and willingness in the use of public access defibrillation of Hubei Province in China: A cross-sectional study.

To understand the current status of public knowledge of automated external defibrillator (AED) and their willingness to use public AED in Hubei Province, along with the influencing factors. A self-designed questionnaire was used for convenience sampling of the public in Hubei Province. The questionnaire consists of three parts: basic information, AED knowledge questions, and willingness to use public AED and influencing factors. Data was collected between May 2022 and March 2023. A total of 1561 valid questionnaires were collected from 1602 distributed. In the study conducted in Hubei Province, it was found that 875 respondents (56.05%) had knowledge of automated external defibrillator, and they achieved an average score of 39.27 ± 29.17. The pass rate for the survey was 28.11%. Several factors were identified as significant influencing factors, including gender, age, education level, occupation related to medicine, residential location in the past three years, family members with cardiovascular disease, marital status, residential population density, whether there are family members over 65 years old, and participation in AED-related training (P < .05).Furthermore, 692 respondents (72.99%) expressed their willingness to cardiopulmonary resuscitation for someone experiencing cardiac arrest. On the other hand, 686 respondents (43.95%) had no knowledge of AED. Among those who were not willing to perform defibrillation, the highest percentages cited "fear of incorrect use" (129, 31.2%) and "fear of harming the patient" (121, 29.3%) as their reasons. The study also found statistically significant differences in the willingness to use public AED based on participation in training, education level, residential location, family members with cardiovascular disease, population density, and the presence of elderly family members aged 65 or over (P < .05). In conclusion, the study highlights the general lack of public knowledge regarding AED in Hubei Province. However, there is a strong willingness among respondents to provide help during cardiac arrest situations. To improve the chances of survival for cardiac arrest patients, it is crucial to strengthen public AED training programs.

The New Public Integrity Management and the Protection of the Impartiality of Bureaucratic Decision-Making

The article argues that government organizations and the discipline of public administration should embrace a New Public Integrity Management (NPIM) to bridge the gap between advocates of external and internal public integrity controls on the behavior of public employees and contract government employees. The article argues that external and internal controls are important in maintaining public trust in government. This includes the management of the acceptance of gifts and private hospitality by government and contract government employees. The article traces the evolution of federal executive branch public integrity management and argues that the discipline of public administration has demonstrated a long-standing hostility towards external ethics controls due to early 20th-century divorce between law and administration. Of particular importance, the NPIM requires the adoption of a much broader definition of public corruption, which includes the conduct of private sector partners of government agencies responsible for the delivery of public goods and services paid for with public funds. Finally, the article argues that government ethics programs need to integrate moral reasoning education into their public integrity training programs and discuss criminal and administrative rules of conduct directed at protecting public confidence in the impartiality of bureaucratic decision-making.

STRATEGI KOMUNIKASI DALAM MENINGKATKAN PUBLIC SPEAKING PADA KARYAWAN ALFADH PARFUM

This research investigates effective communication strategies in improving the public speaking skills of Alfadh Parfum employees. In the competitive business world, public speaking ability is a very important skill for companies like Alfadh Parfum. This study uses a qualitative and quantitative approach, collecting data through in-depth interviews and structured surveys from employees who took part in the company's public speaking training program. The research results show that an integrated approach involving intensive training, simulation practice sessions, and direct feedback from trainers and colleagues is very effective in improving public speaking skills. Additionally, the implementation of communications technology such as video conferencing platforms enables remote training, allowing employees to participate without geographic restrictions. This approach not only helps overcome public speaking anxiety but also strengthens self-confidence and the ability to convey messages clearly. This research underlines the importance of targeted and integrated communication strategies in improving public speaking, producing Alfadh Parfum employees who are more confident, effective and charming in communicating with various parties, which ultimately improves the company's reputation.

Information Fusion for the Training of Public Administrators: Design of a Composite Indicator through the Integration of AHP and TOPSIS Methods

The article addresses the importance of capacity development among public administrators to ensure the efficient functioning of the state and the provision of quality services to the citizenry. This entails acquiring legal knowledge, ethical principles, and technical skills in areas such as strategic planning, financial management, and policy evaluation. In addressing the evaluation of public administrators' training programs, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods are employed. The methodology delineates the fundamental concepts and key equations to understand the application of these methods in evaluating public administrators' training programs. The findings underscore the significance of specific competencies in public administrators' training. These competencies, combined with comprehensive training encompassing cognitive, attitudinal, and instrumental dimensions, can equip professionals to confront current governmental challenges effectively. The article emphasizes the relevance of capacity development among public administrators and introduces methods such as AHP and TOPSIS to assess and enhance training programs in this field, aiming to bolster the state's capacity to respond efficiently to societal needs.

Identifying integrated pest management resource needs among Virginia Master Gardeners

Abstract Two survey questionnaires distributed to Master Gardener (MG) volunteers in Virginia provide valuable insights into their awareness, understanding, and utilization of integrated pest management (IPM). Survey responses reveal a varied level of familiarity with IPM, with a notable percentage of respondents lacking knowledge of the term and differing perceptions of its focus on non-chemical or chemical pest control methods. While respondents generally recommended IPM solutions more than half the time, factors limiting their decision to do so included comfort level, limited understanding or knowledge, lack of training, lack of client interest, and lack of resources. The survey results highlight an agreement among respondents regarding the adequacy of state Cooperative Extension Service materials in addressing IPM. Pest management guides, websites, and fact sheets were the IPM resources most frequently used and perceived as effective. Respondents expressed a preference for fact sheets as the top resource material to enhance public training programs, followed by other multimedia content. Moreover, the survey results provide insights into the specific pest-related needs of Virginia MGs, revealing their priorities in terms of arthropod, vertebrate pest, plant disease, and weed resource topics. Overall, the data from the surveys offers a comprehensive understanding of MG perspectives on IPM, identifying areas for program improvement and providing guidance for the development of targeted resources to enhance MG knowledge and facilitate more effective public outreach.

Advancing primary care: Establishing family medicine specialty in Tanzania

Family medicine has existed as a training pathway through a private university in Tanzania since 2004. As global calls have increased to embrace primary health care as a pathway to ensuring universal health coverage, so has Tanzania recently turned to explore family medicine as a specialty to improve access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare for her entire population. This article outlines ongoing efforts to define competencies and skills of a family medicine physician in Tanzania, engage government support and open the first public university training programme for family medicine postgraduate education.

Advancing primary care: Establishing family medicine specialty in Tanzania.

Family medicine has existed as a training pathway through a private university in Tanzania since 2004. As global calls have increased to embrace primary health care as a pathway to ensuring universal health coverage, so has Tanzania recently turned to explore family medicine as a specialty to improve access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare for her entire population. This article outlines ongoing efforts to define competencies and skills of a family medicine physician in Tanzania, engage government support and open the first public university training programme for family medicine postgraduate education.

Encouraging participant embodiment during VR-assisted public speaking training improves persuasiveness and charisma and reduces anxiety in secondary school students

Practicing public speaking to simulated audiences created in virtual reality environments is reported to be effective for reducing public speaking anxiety. However, little is known about whether this effect can be enhanced by encouraging the use of gestures during VR-assisted public speaking training. In the present study two groups of secondary schools underwent a three-session public speaking training program in which they delivered short speeches to VR-simulated audiences. One group was encouraged to “embody” their speeches through gesture while the other was given no instructions regarding the use of gesture. Before and after the training sessions participants underwent respectively a pre- and a post-training session, which consisted of delivering a similar short speech to a small live audience. At pre- and post-training sessions, participants’ levels of anxiety were self-assessed, their speech performances were rated for persuasiveness and charisma by independent raters, and their verbal output was analyzed for prosodic features and gesture rate. Results showed that both groups significantly reduced their self-assessed anxiety between the pre- and post-training sessions. Persuasiveness and charisma ratings increased for both groups, but to a significantly greater extent in the gesture-using group. However, the prosodic and gestural features analyzed showed no significant differences across groups or from pre-to post-training speeches. Thus, our results seem to indicate that encouraging the use of gesture in VR-assisted public speaking practice can help students be more charismatic and their delivery more persuasive before presenting in front of a live audience.

Effective economic mechanisms of labor market regulation in Kazakhstan

The major purpose of the article is to guide the state via population employment policy and social assistance provision to assess the requirements of social groups, the inclusion of able-bodied citizens in the number of employees, and encouraging people to retrain and learn new professions. The demand for highly skilled and competent professionals is increasing as production becomes more competitive. Therefore, vocational training and retraining of national qualified personnel is a requirement of today. In this regard, one of the main urgent problems and requiring comprehensive scientific research is to improve the mechanisms of socio-economic, organizational and infrastructural services of labor market regulation, providing employment for the region, creating a public training and retraining program for the unemployed as an active form of social protection. The main task of the article is to the main issues of socio-economic development aspects based on trends in the labour market and employment. Therefore the sustainable development of the country is directly related to sustainable employment and prevention of various unfavorable conditions in the labor market. Improvement of financial and economic mechanisms and strengthening of market infrastructure within the market economy of the country have a significant impact on various social aspects, especially in the sphere of labor and employment. The labor market in Kazakhstan summarized the contradictions of regional labor markets. Analyzed the problem of employment in the regions to differentiate the labor force and labor market in order to create a unified strategy at the macro level. In addition, the important directions in the use of labor resources and influencing their state economic crisis, resource shortage for job creation, professional level of labor resources, the level of growth of technical lighting of production, the movement of the sectoral structure of production were considered. Socio-economic policy of the country should create a priority route approach to the use of labor resources.

Social work education as foreign policy: an Israeli school of social work in Kenya in the 1960s

ABSTRACT The global growth of social work entailed the transnational translation of professional knowledge and practice, primarily through social work education. The difficulties involved in this process are evident in a case study of an Israeli initiative to establish a school of social work in Kenya in the early 1960s. The school was opened in 1962 and remained active for most of the decade. Its establishment was a part of a drive to further Israeli influence in the emerging states of Africa. Despite the good intentions of the school staff, the effort to transfer social work knowledge from Israel to Kenya was ultimately unsuccessful. The wide gaps between the Israeli and Kenyan contexts, the inability of the Israeli staff to integrate indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and difficulties encountered by the graduates to apply their acquired knowledge in the field, all contributed to the ineffectiveness of the training programme. Growing Israeli reluctance to fund the endeavor and, particularly, a lack of significant continuing support for the school among the Kenyan leadership in the face of calls for Africanization led to the integration of the school into the country’s public administration training programme and its effective closure in 1971.

A decision model for sustainable informal entrepreneurship in cities

PurposeSustainable development goals and the climate change agenda are becoming widely promoted topics of research for the 21st century. The role of cities is increasingly recognised as central to investigating these topics. Yet, the field of informal sector entrepreneurship which so many urban entrepreneurs in developing countries depend upon is seldom considered. To redress this imbalance, this study aims to develop a decision model in accordance with institutional theory (IT) and resource dependency theory (RDT) for city managers to deploy. The model identifies and prioritises optimal strategies to address the three areas of sustainability requirements environment society and economy within the study context of Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a mixed methods research design. In the qualitative part, the authors identified the three areas of sustainability requirements (i.e. environment, society and economy) and their corresponding strategies involving the informal sector that operates within the urban environment. In the quantitative part, the authors applied fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) integrated with the 0-1 non-linear optimisation technique to identify optimal strategies.FindingsThe findings show that strategies such as legitimate frameworks, waste management, allocation of urban public space and training programs contribute in important ways to the three areas of sustainability requirements.Practical implicationsThe proposed decision model will assist policy-makers and city managers to prioritise sustainability requirements and implement optimal strategies to address those requirements.Originality/valueThrough the integration of IT and RDT, the decision model developed in this study is unique in its application to urban-based informal entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries. The effective application of the fuzzy QFD approach and the optimisation model in the context of urban-based informal entrepreneurship also offers unique contributions to the field of study.

Attitudes of employees in green companies regarding CSR communication

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to discern how the Best Green companies, as identified by Newsweek, communicate about green jobs within their companies.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis using NVivo software on 23 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports containing 398,000 words and Glassdoor crowdsourced data were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression enabled the discernment of relationships.FindingsSeveral models were developed to predict how communication patterns (employee-centered, production or company centered and society centered) are associated with several Glassdoor ratings: The models developed by logistic regression accurately predicted the following: Glassdoor ratings: Overall 65.2%, Benefits 71.4%, Attitudes towards Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 65.2% and Recommend To A Friend 78.3%.Originality/valueIt supports communicating about green jobs in CSR reports and suggests other avenues for communicating, including PR, press releases and career pages of company websites. The hypotheses that were empirically verified include the relationship between employees-centered terms (in the CSR reports) and employee attitudes (Glassdoor measures) and return on assets (ROA) (company financials). These practices have manpower impacts, including recruitment and retention. The study's methodology allows for replication since it used publicly available CSR reports, ROA of public companies and crowdsourcing data from Glassdoor ratings. It has implications for public policy in that understanding the nature of green jobs will improve outcomes for public training programs.

Training during recessions: recent European evidence

Abstract We use European Union Labour Force Survey data for the period 2005–2018 to investigate the cyclicality of training in Europe. Consistent with the view that firms use recessions as times to update skills, we find that training participation is moderately countercyclical for the employed. Within the not-employed group, this is true also for the unemployed, who are likely to be involved in public training programs during recessions, but not for the inactive, who may be affected by liquidity constraints.

Evaluation of a patient and public involvement training programme for researchers at a large biomedical research centre in the UK

ObjectivesTo design, deliver and evaluate a programme of training workshops for biomedical researchers aimed at building confidence and skills in actively involving patients and the public (PPI) in research.DesignA bespoke...