Search

Prior clustering approaches of soccer players have employed a variety of methods based on various data categories, but none of them have focused on clustering by career paths characterized through a time series analysis of yearly performance quality. Therefore, this study aims to propose a methodology how a career path can be represented as a time series of a player's seasonal qualities and then be clustered with players that have a similar career path. The underlying data focuses on soccer players from the five largest European soccer nations (Big-5). This allows for the identification of different types of career paths of players and the investigation of significant disparities between career paths among the Big-5 nations. In line with our proposed methodological approach, we identified and interpreted 13 different clusters of player career paths. These range from the cluster with the highest player quality scores to the pattern comprising players with the weakest scores. Further, the detected clusters show significant differences regarding variables of soccer players' early career phase in adolescence (e.g., age of debut in professional soccer, years spent in a youth academy). The presented approach might represent a first step for stakeholders in soccer to get an objective insight in players' career by utilizing mainly freely available data sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global challenges of today’s world define school teachers as key actors of the education system’s development. This agenda has led to the fact that various countries are actively implementing additional education programs and strategies aimed at building leadership skills and management competencies in teaching staff. One of the essential factors that ensures education quality and its efficiency is providing teachers with diverse career opportunities. Based on the theoretical study, the authors have identified typical teacher career structures, teacher career models, career ladders and trajectories, as well as requirements to career growth in the countries of the world. The research findings include showcasing best international practices of organizing teacher career progression based on the case studies of three countries – Japan, China (Shanghai), and Singapore; defining the main trends that must be taken into account when planning and implementing supporting measures for school teachers’ professional development; identifying the key components of activities aimed at supporting teacher professional development at schools.

The analysis of the members of the CPSU Politburo of the Central Committee biographical characteristics as an elite category in the structure of the Soviet political class is carried out. The purpose of the study is to identify normative patterns in the career trajectories of the highest stratum of the Soviet political elite. To achieve this goal, a database was formed containing the biographical characteristics of the leaders who had the status of a member and candidate member of the Politburo in the period from 1966 to 1990. Some parameters of the biographies of the studied leaders are of a normative nature, that is, they are characteristic of the majority: gender belonging to the male sex, place of birth in a rural area, higher education with a specific technical specialty, early age of starting managerial activity and relatively late age of entering the Politburo level as the highest stratum of the Soviet political class, experience in the real sector of the economy and management, combined with experience in exercising deputy powers in representative bodies at various levels. The combination of these characteristics contributed to the positive perception of the political elite by society and can be considered as a model for comparison with the political elite of modern Russia.

The labor market can be a daunting place for young graduates; this paper aims to shed light on how they navigate it. By examining the ways in which they enter the workforce and the impact of individual and socioeconomic factors on their career paths, we gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face. We use a two-stage approach to study this issue: first, we create a typology of graduates' integration paths and then estimate the likelihood of following a specific trajectory through multinomial logit analysis. Our findings reveal a diverse range of professional journeys, with graduates from open-access institutions facing higher rates of unemployment and continuing their studies, and women experiencing more precarious situations. This study stands out in the literature in several ways. Unlike previous research on the topic, we develop an index of soft skills that incorporates multiple dimensions. Additionally, we use individual data from a regional survey conducted by ANAPEC, making this the first study of its kind for Morocco. The results of our study can inform our understanding of the importance of soft skills for youth employability and the need for training policies in a rapidly changing job market. In terms of employment policy, our findings on the intertwining of first-time and long-term unemployment among higher education graduates suggest the need for a comprehensive strategy that focuses on the organization of the initial integration phase. To achieve this, the efforts of Career Centers must be broadened, consolidated, and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to quantify the prevalence of track and field sprinters competing at a world-class level in more than one discipline, and we describe the career characteristics of single- and double-discipline athletes in terms of peak performance and the age of peak performance. The career performance of athletes ranked in the top 200 positions of the World Athletics database in the 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m were analyzed, i.e., 5514 career profiles (49.9% female). Using binomial proportion, we calculated how many competed in only one or more than one discipline. We also compared the peak performance and the age of peak performance of athletes who competed in one vs. more than one discipline. Independent of gender, about 50% of the athletes competing in the 100 m and 200 m also competed in the other discipline (i.e., 200 m and 100 m, respectively). Differently, only 20% of the athletes competing in the 400 m also competed in the 200 m. Sprinters competing in the 100–200 m and 200–400 m couples showed better peak performance than the sprinters competing in only one discipline. Many world-class sprinters compete in two disciplines, and the 100–200 m was the most prevalent couple. Our results also suggest that sprinters who compete in two disciplines may be advantaged compared to sprinters who compete in only one event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of the feminization of administrative politics is important to understand the transformation of power and the overall development of the Russian society amidst political, economic and social instability. This article presents the study results for the administrative elite in ten Russian regions (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Rostov, Kaliningrad, Kostroma and Novosibirsk Oblasts, Khabarovsk and Stavropol Krais, Republic of Dagestan). The analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics of the administrative elite showed no significant differences between men and women in terms of age, birthplace, as well as the type and the place where first (and subsequent) higher education was received. Studying the career trajectories of women in the ministerial elite showed that they most often occupy elite positions, like men, in middle age, but less often come from economic and security structures; horizontal and vertical movements mostly take place within the same professional institution - executive power agencies. The author identified regional governments with similar gender specifics (relative gender parity and relative gender imbalance). The study revealed that more feminized governments are formed in bordering and economically successful regions, while gender imbalance is most characteristic for the governments of economically dependent regions and those located in the south of the Russian Federation (with some exceptions).

The labor market can be a daunting place for young graduates; this paper aims to shed light on how they navigate it. By examining the ways in which they enter the workforce and the impact of individual and socioeconomic factors on their career paths, we gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face. We use a two-stage approach to study this issue: first, we create a typology of graduates’ integration paths and then estimate the likelihood of following a specific trajectory through multinomial logit analysis. Our findings reveal a diverse range of professional journeys, with graduates from open-access institutions facing higher rates of unemployment and continuing their studies, and women experiencing more precarious situations. This study stands out in the literature in several ways. Unlike previous research on the topic, we develop an index of soft skills that incorporates multiple dimensions. Additionally, we use individual data from a regional survey conducted by ANAPEC, making this the first study of its kind for Morocco. The results of our study can inform our understanding of the importance of soft skills for youth employability and the need for training policies in a rapidly changing job market. In terms of employment policy, our findings on the intertwining of first-time and long-term unemployment among higher education graduates suggest the need for a comprehensive strategy that focuses on the organization of the initial integration phase. To achieve this, the efforts of Career Centers must be broadened, consolidated, and evaluated.

The paper is devoted to presentation of the one aspect of the research project dedicated to study of political administrative elite in contemporary Russia. It is based on the network analysis methodology that is not widely used by Russian scholars of elites. The authors establish their approach on the mapping of the social networks within elite groups. Although the explanatory power of the network approach is still comparatively weak it is applied as exploratory method for structuring of empirical data, find the trends and set the research questions and hypotheses. The study of networks based on the birthplace is presented in the paper. The key research question is the following: are there cohesive subgroups based on birthplace compatriotship in federal executive branch of power? Federal ministers, deputy ministers and heads of departments are included into sample. The authors find that regional compatriotship is not the important factor of the recruitment of the federal political administrative elite. However, in some cases the cohesive groups based on compatriotship ties appear within one ministry. For example, when the authors reduce the sample to those who were born after 1970, several cohesive subgroups of regional compatriots are found.

We aimed to quantify the prevalence of track and field sprinters competing at a world-class level in more than one discipline, and we describe the career characteristics of single- and double-discipline athletes in terms of peak performance and the age of peak performance. The career performance of athletes ranked in the top 200 positions of the World Athletics database in the 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m were analyzed, i.e., 5514 career profiles (49.9% female). Using binomial proportion, we calculated how many competed in only one or more than one discipline. We also compared the peak performance and the age of peak performance of athletes who competed in one vs. more than one discipline. Independent of gender, about 50% of the athletes competing in the 100 m and 200 m also competed in the other discipline (i.e., 200 m and 100 m, respectively). Differently, only 20% of the athletes competing in the 400 m also competed in the 200 m. Sprinters competing in the 100–200 m and 200–400 m couples showed better peak performance than the sprinters competing in only one discipline. Many world-class sprinters compete in two disciplines, and the 100–200 m was the most prevalent couple. Our results also suggest that sprinters who compete in two disciplines may be advantaged compared to sprinters who compete in only one event.

Studying in Hungary has become a new trend among Chinese students under the Belt and Road Initiative. The spectacular tripling of the growth of incoming Chinese students has influenced the number of international students in Hungary. In this paper, 26 in-depth narrative interviews with Chinese students in Hungary were conducted and analysed, employing the grounded theory method. This research reveals that beyond considerable uncertainty regarding future plans and career trajectories, three paths are open for Chinese students in Hungary. The largest group intends to return to China after graduation, although they have doubts concerning whether their acquired skills and knowledge can be utilised. The second group aims to find niche jobs, in which they can utilise their in-betweenness. Finally, a small proportion consciously builds their network and aims to remain in Hungary or Europe, engage in further studies or seek employment. The findings contribute to policymakers who support Chinese international educational mobility and to individual Chinese students that wish to widen their horizons and find alternative career paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 15 years, research on the effects of different types of education on labour market integration and labour market outcomes has evolved. Whereas much of the early work analysed school-to-work transition outcomes, the focus of more recent studies has shifted to the relationship between educational achievement and mid- and long-term labour market outcomes. The overarching question of this body of research asks whether the allocation to different types of education leads to different skill sets, to different employment opportunities and to jobs offering unequal wages, job autonomy or job security. However, pivotal issues related to the comparison of vocational and general types of education or upper-secondary and tertiary-level qualification remain ambiguous and are hampered by a lack of suitable data and methodological problems. The aim of this issue is to further this debate and to provide more insights into the relationship between individual and contextual factors, allocation within the educational system, educational achievement and labour market outcomes over the life course. The 12 articles collected in this issue highlight the importance of focussing on the specific features and functions of different education tracks and programs, of applying data and methods suitable for such analyses and of considering the interplay of different determinants of education outcomes, such as social origin, gender or ethnicity.

The present paper, drawing on qualitative interviews with Polish former and current entrepreneurs based in the Opole region focuses on their experiences as it relates to movements from wage employment to entrepreneurship and from entrepreneurship to wage employment. In so doing, it seeks to find out why they decided to become entrepreneurs or to return to paid employment, what they experience in their new occupations, and how their prior experiences influence the way they run their businesses or work as employees. The interview findings suggest that people become entrepreneurs because they seek to earn more, be autonomous, or to test their “inner mettle.” The interviews also lend credence to the view that running one’s own company is a testing experience and that not everyone can and should be an entrepreneur. Yet, at the same time, the study shows that a spell of entrepreneurship can help one gain skills and develop personal attributes that come in handy in wage employment. As there are lacunae in topical literature, the study seeks to fill some of these gaps and, by this token, make some contributions to the existing body of knowledge.

This study looks at the educational experiences, from the preschool years to advanced professional training in STEM fields, of a targeted sample of 10 (7 male, 3 female) early college entrants in China who later became professors at prestigious USA research universities. The purpose of the study was to find out (1) what some identifiable endogenous factors were about these individuals that facilitated the success of their accelerated learning and development; (2) what kinds of exogenous factors (e.g., environmental opportunities, resources, support) they experienced from childhood to adulthood that enhanced the successful acceleration experience; and (3) how these endogenous and exogenous factors facilitated their developmental transitions every step of the way, especially from the role of a student to that of an aspiring scientist. These questions are addressed in light of evolving complexity theory. Retrospective interviews were used for data collection. Thematic analysis of the codes from interview data yielded a conceptual map. A distinct set of endogenous and exogenous factors at different developmental junctures were identified, and their dynamic interplay was delineated to account for accelerated trajectories toward a scientific research career. The theoretical significance and practical implications of the study for talent development in science are discussed.

Parental leaves are, besides unemployment, the main reason for career breaks in early career. Despite the progress in recent decades towards more equal sharing of childcare between mothers and fathers, the labour market risk due to parenting remains mainly with women. In this article, we analyse how parental leaves relate to early career trajectories of young Finnish men and women. Using longitudinal register data for 2005−2016 from the Finnish Centre for Pensions, we perform a multi-trajectory analysis of the labour market attachment of a cohort born in 1980. Based on working days and earnings, we find five distinct career trajectories for both men and women, with the majority being well attached to the labour market by their mid-30s. While men and women on average have similar employment lengths, the gender gap in earnings is already 30 per cent in this early career phase. One of the causes may be found in the highly unequal division of family-related career breaks; the duration of mothers’ family-related leaves in this cohort was 13 times longer than fathers’ leave spells. Long home care leaves were particularly common among mothers with low education levels and weak attachment to the labour market. Efforts towards a more equal division of parental leaves are needed in order to combat gender inequalities that already emerge in early career and potentially cause life-long disadvantages for women’s careers, earnings and pensions.

Copyright of Management Issues / Problemy Zarządzania is the property of Problemy Zarzadzania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on a largely unrecognised group of educational professional leaders. It seeks to develop an understanding of AP/DPs working in New Zealand secondary schools who considered themselves career AP/DPs. The investigation explored the characteristics and career paths of these leaders who view their position as a vocation and terminal career. Based on findings from a nationwide survey, career AP/DPs, when compared with AP/DPs who aspire to full principalship, experienced a serendipitous and much slower career progression, were less educationally qualified, and were less likely to be employed in larger, high decile schools. It was also found that female career AP/DPs made the decision not to seek principalship at a much earlier age than did males. It is suggested that the education system, in general, and principals, in particular, have important roles to play in ensuring that career AP/DPs receive the support necessary to fulfil their career goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores and unmasks factors in the Zimbabwean school curricula that predispose or channel girls into particular occupational trajectories, in particular occupations or careers traditionally stereotyped as feminine. As a qualitative research study of the culture of the schooling system within this country, it employs the views of a sample size of 20 Sixth Form girls who were purposively selected. The study also examines the impact of the pupils’ gender and their teacher attitudes and expectations towards them as girls on their resultant career trajectories. The design adopted is an exploratory case study that utilises the focus group interview for data collection from four secondary schools conveniently sampled from the Ngezi District of Zimbabwe. The study establishes that as part of the hidden culture and curriculum, teachers’ perceptions, attitudes and expectations of pupils’ gender roles exert a significant influence on their academic achievement and career aspirations. This study concludes that effective intervention strategies are an imperative if the Zimbabwean school curriculum is to be made gendersensitive.

Purpose: Tracking athletes' performances over time is important but problematic for sports with large environmental effects. Here we have developed career performance trajectories for elite triathletes, investigating changes in swim, cycle, run stages, and total performance times while accounting for environmental and other external factors. Methods: Performance times of 337 female and 427 male triathletes competing in 419 international races between 2000 and 2012 were obtained from triathlon.org. Athletes were categorized according to any top 16 placing at World Championships or Olympics between 2008 and 2012. A mixed linear model accounting for race distance (sprint and Olympic), level of competition, calendar-year trend, athlete's category, and clustering of times within athletes and races was used to derive athletes' individual quadratic performance trajectories. These trajectories provided estimates of age of peak performance and predictions for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Results: By markedly reducing the scatter of individual race times, the model produced well-fitting trajectories suitable for comparison of triathletes. Trajectories for top 16 triathletes showed different patterns for race stages and differed more among women than among men, but ages of peak total performance were similar for men and women (28 ± 3 yr, mean ± SD). Correlations between observed and predicted placings at Olympics were slightly higher than those provided by placings in races before the Olympics. Conclusions: Athletes' trajectories will help identify talented athletes and their weakest and strongest stages. The wider range of trajectories among women should be taken into account when setting talent identification criteria. Trajectories offer a small advantage over usual race placings for predicting men's performance. Further refinements, such as accounting for individual responses to race conditions, may improve utility of performance trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policy programs have come to attract students with increasingly diverse backgrounds and career aims, but curricular changes have been modest. Using a data set on MPP alumni from Harvard's Kennedy School, we analyze career trajectories through different sectors and specializations, examining relationships among trajectories, perceptions of public service, and particular skill needs. Although government remains an important destination, we find a predominance of idiosyncratic paths and a diversification of employment trajectories over time. Perceptions of employment as public service and reports of skill use vary significantly by sector. Although certain general skills (communication, systematic thinking about problems, and workload management) are widely used, there are notable differences in other skill areas (policy design and political analysis are more used by government and nonprofit workers; economics is more used in the private sector). Programs may want to consider these differences in skill use in prioritizing what is taught, and how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the gender-based challenges endured by the secondary school girls of Zimbabwe. It highlights the factors that are responsible for the predisposition of girls in feminine occupations or careers. It examines the impact of attitudes and expectations of teachers towards girls involved in career trajectories. It mentions the influence of teachers' perceptions, curriculum and pupil's gender on academic achievement and career aspirations of girls.

Contemporary creative work has emerged as a focus of international academic and policy attention since the late 1990s, the period in which the cultural and creative industries achieved recognition as a highly successful new sector. Commentators have noted the problems faced by many contemporary creative workers because of the precarious and ill-paid nature of much of the work in the sector. This article proposes that associations with the creative arts provide an important resource for the occupational identification for these workers, yet also a significant source of conflicts. Analyses of interviews with creative workers who were recruited from the students and alumni of UK art colleges (Higher Education Institutions in Arts and Design) suggest that meanings derived from the creative arts and taken up in educational contexts and elsewhere continue to shape these workers' understandings of creative work, including the process of creative working, the trajectory of a creative career, and what constitutes success in creative work. The importance of these meanings is explored and detailed through a consideration of participants' identifications using a narrative-discursive analysis of interview data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychology is a very popular undergraduate major. Examining wage data from a range of degree holders reveals much about the expected career trajectories of those with psychology degrees. First, regarding baccalaureates, psychology and other liberal arts graduates—compared with those from certain preprofessional and technical undergraduate programs—generally fall in relatively low tiers of salary levels at both starting and later career points. Salary levels among baccalaureate alumni groups correlate with averaged measures of salary satisfaction, repeated job seeking, and perceptions of underemployment. These patterns seem to stem from the specific occupational categories (job titles) entered by graduates in psychology compared with other graduates, calling into question the employability advantage of so-called generic liberal arts skills. Second, psychology master’s degree holders also generally fall in a low tier of salary among their science, engineering, and health counterparts. Third, psychology college faculty (including instructors) fall in low tiers of salary compared with their colleagues from other academic fields. Such broadly based indications of the relative economic disadvantages of psychology degrees have implications for career counseling in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper describes the origins and discusses the results of a study of youth transitions to work in England and Germany in the late 1980s, at a time of dramatic social, economic and political change. The novel design involving quantitative and qualitative data collection from young men and young women on the same 'career trajectories' in two comparable labour markets in England and two in Germany, generated insights into the way vocational training systems in the two countries were being experienced by young people and how the vocational training systems were adapting to change. The German system for managing the transition through apprenticeship with cultural roots going back the Middle Ages was directed at instilling a broad range of civic attributes of which occupational identity was the central part. In contrast the English system was focused exclusively on equipping young people with the skills that would enable them to gain and retain employment. During the transition process itself the identity of German trainees was closer to that of student compared with trainees in England where that of worker was dominant. At times of massive economic (and in Germany, political) upheaval, both countries learned from each other in attempting to adapt their systems to meet young people's needs with mixed results. The policy challenges raised by the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologie du Travail is the property of Association pour le Developpement de la Sociologie du Travail and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper addresses the processes and outcomes of doctoral training and their impact on the subsequent careers and work affiliations of doctoral degree holders on the bases of the results of the first large scale survey among this target group in Germany. It assesses the German experience with the doctoral degree as a ticket to multiple journeys on the labour market inside and – quantitatively more important – outside academe. Links between `traditional' inequalities in the framework of the equality of opportunity discourse, `non-traditional' inequalities in the framework of the life-cycle discourse, transition to employment and advanced career stages, are addressed. The overall picture that derives from the survey results shows a quite positive outcome of the PhD on the labour market. By and large, PhD matters if we compare doctoral degree holders and graduates. Selection for doctoral training is biased by social origin while later career attainment among PhD-holders is not. Thus, the `need of inequality' is mainly satisfied by respective selection processes within the educational system. In contrast, the analysis supports the `entry-job hypotheses' that suggests a significant impact of early career stages on later stages. The analysis shows as well that a deviation from continuous full-time employment is a clear career hindrance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the educational experiences, from the preschool years to advanced professional training in STEM fields, of a targeted sample of 10 (7 male, 3 female) early college entrants in China who later became professors at prestigious USA research universities. The purpose of the study was to find out (1) what some identifiable endogenous factors were about these individuals that facilitated the success of their accelerated learning and development; (2) what kinds of exogenous factors (e.g., environmental opportunities, resources, support) they experienced from childhood to adulthood that enhanced the successful acceleration experience; and (3) how these endogenous and exogenous factors facilitated their developmental transitions every step of the way, especially from the role of a student to that of an aspiring scientist. These questions are addressed in light of evolving complexity theory. Retrospective interviews were used for data collection. Thematic analysis of the codes from interview data yielded a conceptual map. A distinct set of endogenous and exogenous factors at different developmental junctures were identified, and their dynamic interplay was delineated to account for accelerated trajectories toward a scientific research career. The theoretical significance and practical implications of the study for talent development in science are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]