Search

Young adult caregivers experience reduced wellbeing when the combination of family care and an educational program becomes too demanding. We aim to clarify the role views, competences, and needs of lecturers regarding the identification and support of these students to prevent negative mental health consequences. A mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was used. We collected quantitative data using a survey of lecturers teaching in bachelor education programs in the Netherlands (n = 208) and then conducted in-depth interviews (n = 13). Descriptive statistics and deductive thematic analyses were performed. Most participants (70.2%) thought that supporting young adult caregivers was the responsibility of the educational institution, and 49% agreed that it was a responsibility of the lecturer, but only 66.8% indicated that they feel competent to do so. However, 45.2% indicated that they needed more training and expertise to identify and support these students. All interviewees felt responsible for their students’ wellbeing but highlighted a lack of clarity regarding their role fulfillment. In practice, their ability to identify and support these students depended on their available time and level of expertise. The lecturers required agreements on responsibility and procedures for further referral, as well as information on support and referral opportunities, communication skills courses, and peer-to-peer coaching.

This paper concerns agricultural entrepreneurs involved in organizing their learning towards developing innovative and learning enterprises. In high-tech sectors, such as Dutch agriculture, this learning and innovative capacity is particularly essential for economic survival. Reviewing the literature we concluded that innovation can be seen as informal learning processes, in which social networks play an important role. Workers learn by sharing knowledge in the working team, and employers learn by creating networks of colleagues and advisors. The results of three research projects teach us that interactive learning and innovation should be analyzed from a perspective of uncertainty. Learning skills for interactive innovation, as part of the entrepreneurial craft, should comprise the capability of selecting impulses and combining newly selected impulses with existing skills and routines. Paradoxically, entrepreneurs need new impulses from weak, unknown networks to be continuously innovative. Innovative lea...