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Those who are good in what they do should be helped to become better; and those who are not good in what they do should be helped to identify what they can be good at, naturally. This is the purpose of Talanta! A Guide to identifying, developing and selling my talent & career skills!
Unemployment and precarity have become key features of 21st century work. Employability is presented as a solution to these issues. Individuals are exhorted to manage their employability, in order to be able to exercise choice in the labour market. While employability is individualsʼ responsibility, governments, employers and educational bodies simply provide opportunities for its development. Higher education is a key site for this process, as employability rhetoric increasingly informs policy and practice. It is founded on rhetoric that emphasises flexibility, skills and marketability, shaping students in certain ways with the risk of being deemed unemployable as the consequence of disengagement. At the same time, there has been a rise in employer presence on university campuses. Recruitment is no longer its key feature. Traditional ʻmilkroundʼ recruitment has been replaced by year round marketing campaigns. As a result, students are continually exposed to a selection of employers promoting a specific image of work and work orientations. The theoretical framework of this study is informed by works of Antonio Gramsci and Mikhail Bakhtin. Gramsciʼs notion of ʻcommon senseʼ is central to analysing the rhetoric on work and employability present on campus. I also give voice to students by recounting how they as ʻdialogical selvesʼ engage with such ʻcommon senseʼ. These issues are explored through an analysis of data gathered during seventeen months of fieldwork. This includes longitudinal interviews with students, participant observation, documents, interviews with careers advisors and non-participant observation of career consultations. From this, I argue that there was a strongly normative image of work constructed around an orientation I term ʻconsumption of workʼ. This image was closely associated with consumption opportunities, marketed to students through corporate presence on campus. ʻConsumption of workʼ was central to shaping studentsʼ work orientations and only few of them resisted the ʻcommon senseʼ. Those who made ʻalternativeʼ choices articulated doubt about these, with the challenge to employability as a key reason for it. Employability was presented to students as a lifelong project of the self, where constant acquisition, development and selling of skills were necessary to maintain a position in the labour market. Many students embraced the rhetoric of skill ʻpossessionʼ, but were ʻplaying the gameʼ when ʻdemonstratingʼ skills. Conforming to what the employers were willing them to ʻdemonstrateʼ and understanding how to do this became the primary condition for achieving employability.
The Trend of Today-In Our Young Generation Today’s youth are more aware of how brands impact their lives than ever before. And the smartest brands are using the digital social sphere, pop culture, and new technologies to reach these young customers. Although a majority of 16- to 34-year-olds say pop culture has influenced their personalities and attitudes.
This is an unpublished collection of 19 recommendations, written specifically for undergraduates and post-baccalaureates, who possess the ambition to apply to graduate school in psychology. I have mentored some 100 undergraduate students throughout my career, over 40 of whom have successfully gained entry into competitive graduate programs in clinical psychology, social work, law, social sciences, etc. This is a distillation of advice that I have dispensed during hundreds of hours of lab meetings and one on one mentorship meetings with students.
Royal Roads University, Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) Dissertation
Articulating the GEMINI Model of Entrepreneurial Innovation in Canada2018 •
This research used a comparative case study methodology to closely examine an emergent phenomenon in the field of entrepreneurship. The literature review examined interconnected shifts in social values, evolving technology, and economic geography systems that have contributed to this emergent phenomenon. The study sought to better understand the qualities, goals, and perceived needs of a purposive sample of entrepreneur business founders in Canada, as well as the drivers guiding the formation and characteristics of their advanced technology enabled organizations, to determine if a distinct model of entrepreneurial innovation existed. The study results affirmed many aspects of the observed phenomenon and provided new details about this distinctive model of entrepreneurship. Given the name GEMINI (an acronym meaning global entrepreneurial micro-niche innovation), this model comprises independent-minded founders with a keen sense of vocation who derive deep meaning from work-life integration, collaborative business building, personal development, and community legacy. Their typically bootstrapped, world-class organizations are formed through an iterative effectuation path to business model refinement, resourceful product design, solid business performance metrics, and a lasting impact on their international industries and communities. Although the stereotype of the young, Silicon Valley–style, high-tech-startup founder and his fast-growth company is still a prevailing discourse in media, political, business, and educational circles, the lived reality in this new model of entrepreneurial innovation is distinctly different from almost all aspects of this construct. Furthermore, public funds continue to be funnelled into a myriad of entrepreneurship strategies and programs—often without significant or sustainable economic community impact. Eighteen recommendations are made to reform related Canadian public policy, programs, and funding to support the development of more GEMINI model founders and businesses.
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