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This article analyses academic work and the academic workforce in the context of current dynamics and likely futures. It discusses the significance of academic work, reviews workforce characteristics, and analyses tensions and pressures. Prevailing conceptualisations, it is argued, do not reflect the current situation in which the profession finds itself, and would provide a very shaky foundation on which to build the future workforce. There is an overarching need for a fresh conceptualisation of academic work that is authentic and feasible and suggestions are offered of what this might look like. A number of strategies are proposed how such a recasting might be implemented. The paper works from Australian research, and make suggestions for other systems.

Ensuring an informed and effective dementia workforce is of international concern; however, there remains limited understanding of how this can be achieved. This review aimed to identify features of effective dementia educational programs. Critical interpretive synthesis underpinned by Kirkpatrick s return on investment model was applied. One hundred and fifty-two papers of variable quality were included. Common features of more efficacious educational programs included the need for educational programs to be relevant to participants 'role and experience, involve active face-to-face participation, underpin practice-based learning with theory, be delivered by an experienced facilitator, have a total duration of at least 8 hours with individual sessions of 90 minutes or more, support application of learning in practice, and provide a structured tool or guideline to guide care practice. Further robust research is required to develop the evidence base; however, the findings of this review have relevance for all working in workforce education.

This study brings attention to the determinants of 21st-century skills and 21st-century digital skills. The following skills are investigated: technical, information, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. To understand differences in the level of these skills among workers, we need to know the factors that determine an individual’s skill level. A systematic literature review was conducted to provide a comprehensive overview of empirical studies measuring skill determinants. The results show that there is strong need for research on determinants of communication and collaboration skills. In a digital context, determinants for creativity and critical thinking are hardly studied. Furthermore, the identified determinants of 21st-century skills studies are limited to personality and psychological determinants, neglecting, for example, social determinants such as social support. Although digital skills studies show more variety, they mostly cover demographic and socioeconomic determinants.

This article extends the literature on 21st-century learning skills needed for workplace success by providing an empirical examination of employers' direct communication to potential employees via job advertisements. Our descriptive analysis of 142,000 job advertisements provides two contributions. First, this is one of the first studies to empirically rank-order skill demand. In doing so, it is clear that oral and written communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills are in high demand by employers, with particular emphasis on the pairing of oral and written communication. Furthermore, it is apparent that many of the skills suggested in the literature as being critical for workplace success are in very low demand by employers, and some were not found to be mentioned at all (e.g., social responsibility). Second, this study explicitly examined whether 21st-century skill demand varied by job characteristics, which was found to be the case, with differences being noted for both education level and degree field requirements. Results were replicated with a sample of roughly 120,000 job advertisements collected 1 year from the initial data collection. Implications for developing educational standards around 21st-century skill development are discussed.

Why did you do this work?We undertook a prospective review of the current health play cover across different providers within the North Thames Paediatric Network (NTPN) to assess how the numbers and skill mix relate to the service being provided. We were interested in the wellbeing of staff in health play roles and in evaluating how the NTPN core team can contribute to this. With this data we aimed to develop a collaborative approach to supporting health play staff in developing their services and ensuring a combined voice for health play across the sector.What did you do?The NTPN carried out visits to the acute care providers (2023/24) to seek out areas of good practice and areas for development. Part of this review assessed the provision of play for children and young people, as well as the support and development in place for staff in these teams.Play staff and paediatric management teams were asked about the current level of play provision and the expectations of staff in terms of tasks and the number and acuity of areas needing to be covered. A survey was distributed by google forms to all play teams across the acute trusts to assess play staff views on the support they need. This was augmented with discussions with senior play team leads across the network as to current availability of training and support.What did you find?We found that there is significant variation in play provision across the different settings and also within wellbeing support and development available for staff. We identified that accessibility to further training post registration varies considerably dependent on the setting in which the post holder works, with established programmes being available within larger tertiary centres, and minimal availability to post holders in other providers.Having identified that provision of additional support for this group of staff as well as creating a shared ownership of play services is needed at a local level we facilitated a collaborative team day, bringing over 40 play staff from across different providers together with representatives of the play taskforce and the Society of Health Play Specialists. Issues raised centred around development of play staff and recognising current barriers to play provision, including recognition of the role, and the ability of teams to communicate between provider settings. The network will continue to facilitate communication through regular forums, facilitating accessibility to shared documents and highlighting the benefits of health play at all levels.What does it mean?Health Play staff now work in a variety of settings including acute trusts, tertiary centres, hospices, and community. Recent work1 has reviewed the health play workforce and generated recommendations at national level to support staff both in job titles, grading, and levels of responsibility, but additional local support will be needed to take this forward.Wellbeing of staff is pivotal to the development of health play teams and the NTPN will continue to work with providers to champion and facilitate this.ReferenceA Common Purpose. Report of the Taskforce on Children’s Play in Healthcare 2023.

Technology whilst creating jobs has destroyed many jobs. The destructive power of technology has led many workers in developing countries, especially Ghana to fight against its introduction. We investigate the effect of technological change on job creation and destruction in Ghana using longitudinal data from the World Development Indicator covering 1990 to 2018. By running the ARDL model, the summative technology-related job destruction is higher in the short run whilst job creation is higher in the long run. Thus, technology has a compensation effect on job destruction and job creation, due to its labour-saving nature. The short and long-run job destruction is higher with increasing importations, interest rate, and minimum wages, however, economic growth, FDI, and exportation increase job creation. Since technology results in higher job destruction, it is important to equip workforce with the technological knowledge before the introduction of new technology.

Inclusive education workforce capability is the ability of the education workforce to meet individual student learning needs, regardless of educational context. In this study, we investigated the perceptions of 12 principals in Australian education settings on their views about roles and responsibilities related to the workforce's preparedness for inclusive education. We used thematic analysis to identify 9 major themes and 3 subthemes across the 3 roles about which participants were asked: the principal's role, the system's role, and the teacher registration boards' role. The findings indicated a number of areas of concern for these principals about ensuring the capability of the education workforce in the context of extensive student diversity. In summary, results indicated that principals, systems, and teacher registration boards each have a role in building inclusive education workforce capability, with a coordinated effort more likely to bring Australia closer to its pledge of inclusive education for all students. [Author abstract]

This study takes a retrospective look at the educational experiences of Indigenous health professionals who graduated from The University of Queensland's Indigenous Health Program between 1994 and 2005, to understand the enablers for growing an Indigenous health workforce capable of advancing the health of Indigenous peoples. Drawing on the qualitative accounts of 31 students and 9 staff members, this paper examines the enablers to educational success at this time, juxtaposed against current Indigenising agendas in higher education, of aspiration and capacity building alongside the task of embedding Indigenous knowledges within curricula. We look back not as a call to return to Indigenous-specific cohort courses but rather reconsider both the measures of and strategies for success in Indigenous higher education, within health and beyond, interrogating the ideological assumptions that inform them.

Health research remains a vital activity of Indigenous health workforces. This paper reports on the main findings of yarning interviews with 14 Indigenous researchers, that was central to a project analysing the role of research training infrastructures in strengthening the Indigenous health research workforce in Australia. The findings highlighted Indigenous researcher peers as core sources of inspiration, moral support and sustenance in academia and in life. Peer generative power arising from peer groups provide a unique enriching to the educational and research experience. Indigenous researcher peers have a strong shared aspiration to champion change to health research and higher education as a key pathway to widespread positive impacting on health and well-being. We suggest the (revived) development at a collective level of a strategic and planned approach to capitalising on the positive outcomes of peer generated leadership and support.

Higher education is increasingly concerned with providing students with experiences that enhance employability. Sitting outside the curriculum, extra- or co-curricular activities that focus on career development, leadership, service or recognition can lead to positive employability and employment outcomes. The extent to which different student groups have access to and participate in these employability-related activities (ERAs) is underexplored, along with their relative gains in the labour market. This research surveyed 84,000 graduates in Australia on their participation in various activity types and the impact on their sense of preparedness for work and labour force outcomes. Findings demonstrate that over one-half of respondents participated in an ERA with groups tending to favour different activity types. Overall, the greatest differences in participation were observed by age, gender, disability, citizenship and socio-economic background. Activities impacted differently on employment outcomes with graduates from regional areas, of low socio-economic status and with disability garnering strong benefits. Club/society roles, leadership/award and mentoring programmes offered valuable development opportunities for most graduates, with less favourable outcomes reported for volunteering and micro-credentials. The study provides important information for designing ERAs that can be more easily accessed by increasingly diverse cohorts and that better support lifelong learning and transition to work for all students.