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Pursuing full-time postgraduate studies implies delaying gaining work experience. This study examines the extent to which postgraduate studies correlate with career advancement in South Africa. We use a quantitative methodology to understand the correlation between postgraduate qualifications and senior management and executive positions at 27 of the Top 40 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). We also identify qualifications required by recruiters for jobs advertised in January and May 2023 and find that less than 1% of advertised jobs required master’s and PhD qualifications. We also find that most senior managers and executives do not hold advanced education qualifications. We concluded that these JSE firms and the labour market in general place a greater value on value work experience and expertise acquired through practice, rather than study. The study casts doubt on the importance of advanced education qualifications to acquire jobs or career advancement in South Africa.

The main thrust of this study was to assess the infrastructure inequality and academic performance nexus. Education statistics (2018) from the Ghana Statistical Service was used for the study. Firstly, ANOVA was used to estimate whether district-level academic performance differed at various infrastructure distribution levels (Infrastructure Quintile levels). The study further assessed the relationship between infrastructure and academic performance based on the System General Methods of Moments technique. It was found that the difference in district-level academic performance is conditioned on the infrastructure inequality. Also, previous academic performance had a significant positive relationship with performance. A U-shaped relationship found to exist between academic performance and class size, The study recommends the pursuit of policies aimed at bridging the education infrastructure gap such as prioritisation of education infrastructure development in deprived communities, so as, to impact academic performance.

Adverse life events have short- and long-term effects on the livelihood of victims. This paper studies the effect of early life idiosyncratic shocks on labour market outcomes using five rounds of panel data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) of South Africa. Regression results from alternative panel data estimators suggest that the loss of biological parents early in life is negatively associated with the likelihood of employment and wage earnings. The association is stronger when one loses one's biological mother than one's biological father. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the loss of a biological father among Black South Africans leads to higher wage earnings compared to other race groups who have experienced the same shock. Education level, perceived health, cognitive ability, and occupation type are strongly associated with the loss of a biological mother, while only education is associated with the loss of a father. These could be the main channels that mediate the link between early life loss of biological parents and labour market outcomes. Therefore, strengthening and aligning child support programmes to reach the victims are required.

The 1970s witnessed violent, widespread, and highly-politicized student protests in Turkey. Small protests turned into bloody street clashes, the death toll exceeded 5,000, and a military coup came in—which resulted in mass arrests. The universities were at the center of violent conflict. We study the education and labor market consequences of this political turmoil on the cohorts exposed to educational disruptions. First, we document that the number of new admissions and graduates in post-secondary education declined significantly due to the turmoil. The decline in post-secondary graduation ratio is 6.6 percentage points for the exposed individuals. Second, we estimate a counterfactual wage distribution for the exposed cohorts and check whether the turmoil affected their wage and occupation distributions. We show that the decline in educational attainment pushed the exposed population toward medium- and low-income occupations, and compressed their wages toward the minimum wage. Finally, we use the unexpected decline in post-secondary education as an instrument to estimate returns to college. We find that the college-premium is around 15 percent per year for men.

Lifelong education includes formal and nonformal forms of learning during an individual's life cycle for the conscious and continuous development of one's quality and the quality of life in society.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role and impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in higher education. The proliferation of AI models such as GPT-4, Open Assistant and DALL-E presents a paradigm shift in information acquisition and learning. This transformation poses substantial challenges for traditional teaching approaches and the role of educators. The paper explores the advantages and potential threats of using Generative AI in education and necessary changes in curricula. It further discusses the need to foster digital literacy and the ethical use of AI. The paper’s findings are based on a survey conducted among university students exploring their usage and perception of these AI systems. Finally, recommendations for the use of AI in higher education are offered, which emphasize the need to harness AI’s potential while mitigating its risks. This discourse aims at stimulating policy and strategy development to ensure relevant and effective education in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

The study aims to update the well-settled issue in literature of rate of return on investment in higher education in Europe. The proposed approach slightly modifies the existing methodology based on the Mincer equation, using an updated set of data for the period 2014–2016 from the European Central Bank's ‘Household Finance and Consumption Survey’. The results obtained, ranging between 13% and 21%, are higher compared to historical records for the years 1996–2013. As for the microeconometric estimates of the Mincer-type equation, they are sound and comparable, although showing higher margins in relation to the recent figures. Thus, they may suggest an increasing trend in valuation and importance of human capital based on high school degree, especially for the Central–Eastern European Union countries, resulting probably from rapid economic and cultural convergence.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to examine the causal relationship of maternal education and infants' health outcomes. Using birth certificate data over the years 1970–2004 and exploiting the space-time variation in Minimum Dropout Age laws to solve the endogeneity of education, we find a sizeable effect of mothers' education on their birth outcomes. An additional year of maternal education is associated with a reduction in incidences of low birth weight and preterm birth by 15.2 and 12.7 percent, respectively. The estimates are robust across various specifications and even when allowing mothers’ cohort-of-birth to vary across regions. The results suggest that the candidate mechanisms of impact include improvements in timing, quantity, and quality of prenatal care, lower negative health behavior during pregnancy such as smoking and drinking, and higher spousal education.

Subject and purpose of work: The study examines the consequences of the coronavirus on training for jobseekers supported by county government offices in Hungary.

Este trabajo estudia la evolución de las brechas salariales por nivel educativo y su relación con la estructura productiva en 16 países de América Latina, con base en microdatos de encuestas de hogares e información de cuentas nacionales en el periodo de 1991 a 2015. La evidencia sugiere que el cambio en la estructura productiva está correlacionado estrechamente con la dinámica de la desigualdad salarial en la región. En particular, cuando crece la participación en el valor agregado de los sectores más intensivos en trabajo calificado, aumentan significativamente las brechas salariales por educación.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of investments into competencies. The identification of competencies should belong to the strategic goals of any socially responsible society. The right competencies are a crucial precondition for a functioning labour market in times of digitalisation and technological changes: for good economic performance as well as to ensure lifelong productive and inclusive individuals. Relevant skills and competencies should respond to labour market needs as well as to economic requirements. The approach to this study is linked to the practical deficiencies of ineffective competency management in Slovenia and its consequences. The methodology combines study of theoretical models and specific skill framework in selected countries with chosen policies. The findings confirm that educational paths in Slovenia are not aligned with the economy requirements. Competencies do not correspond to actual industrial policy priorities. The article identifies the reality of competency policy in Slovenia and governance gaps in comparison with EU and OECD countries. It focuses on foreseen skills challenges and skills forecasting needs. The article offers solutions and policies for better skills matching and further reflections on more co-ordination and governance between educational policies and competency requirements in the economy. One limitation of this study is the variety of policies in countries, hindering the transferability. Nevertheless, the article tackles skill and competency challenges, which are common in most of the countries and require actions.

In today’s economy, which is extremely challenging and competitive at the same time, many people want to have their own business and manage their own incomes. Entrepreneurship is a key driver of today’s economy. This observation underscores the need to ensure adequate entrepreneurial education, in line with the demands on the labor market. The purpose and role of this experience are to educate students to understand the entrepreneurial activity, to develop their entrepreneurial skills and competencies and the intention to run a business. The learning environment is crucial for a successful entrepreneur and he can generate change. This article describes experiences from developing and using the entrepreneurial learning environment in high schools with a technological profile. In this study 1200 students from three technological high schools were observed, the behavior and the results obtained after studying the specialized economic modules were analyzed. Our goal was to identify the main challenges of these students. In our study, we used a mixed-method: questionnaires, topic-based interviews, direct and participatory observation as data collection methods. According to our results, the main challenges were: difficulties in understanding new entrepreneurial notions due to traditional teaching methods, lack of ICT skills, lack of team learning principles and inefficient communication within a group.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence and earning effects of the vertical mismatch between attained and required educational qualifications in a developing country’s labor market. Design/methodology/approach – Following Duncan and Hoffman (1981), this paper uses the augmented Mincerian wage equation to decompose the actual years of education of a person into years of over-education, years of required education and years of under-education. These years of education are then fitted in an ordinary least squares model to measure the earning effects of an employee when his/her attained educational qualifications are higher or lower than the required educational level in his/her job. Findings – Unlike studies in developed countries, this paper finds that Vietnam has a higher incidence of under-education than over-education due to a large proportion of the population in rural and remote areas not having access to formal education. Further, qualification mismatch has an asymmetric effect on earnings in the sense that the wage rate is flexible downward but rigid upward. In particular, years of schooling that are in excess or in deficit of the required level for the job are not compensated with higher earnings. This paper concludes that although qualification mismatch incidence in Vietnam is different from that in developed countries, mismatched workers also suffer from significant wage penalty. Originality/value – This paper makes a significant contribution by providing the first evidence from a developing country to the vertical mismatch literature which has already been overwhelmed with studies from advanced economies.

This research was conducted because of the common problem that often happened at rural banks (BPR), that is too focused on business development so less in paying attention to employee’s satisfaction, which impact on high turnover rate of employee. High employee turnover rates have a negative effect on an organization, as it can lead to loss of productivity, profitability, corporate knowledge, skills and competencies.

Education is a key factor that can contribute to the economic growth, supporting the social mobility and the living standard improvement. Both from the scientific point of view, as well as from the policy making process point of view, it is essential to know how individuals choose their educational path, in order to understand what is and can be the role of different educational routes in ensuring social mobility and improving standard of living. In this article we explore the factors that explain attitudes and decisions of individuals for vocational vs. general education in Romania. Our analysis is based on data from a national survey among adult Romanian population. Attitudes regarding the choice of vocational vs. general education are analysed by employing decision trees method in order to assess the extent to which vocational education is considered a valuable education path or an educational alternative for those with lower socio-economic background.