Social welfare services staff burnout in Cyprus: Who is responsible?

This is the first study to explore among social welfare services staff in Cyprus the main stress factors that lead to burnout. Using focus groups, the study explored and analysed the perceptions of 120 social welfare services staff members. The aim of the focus group meetings was to identify methods that could minimise the risk of employee burnout. The main stressors that participants experienced were: inadequate appreciation from the management, lack of support and guidance, lack of autonomy, complex responsibilities, lack of recognition and respect in their workplace, low self‐confidence, low self‐respect and feelings of rejection. Participants suggested that continuous education and training could reduce work stress; for example, new knowledge, the development of new skills, the improvement of their ability to prioritise tasks and become organised and the improvement of self‐criticism and self‐knowledge.     

Factors Influencing Migrant Workers' Employment and Earnings—The Role of Education and Training

在城市劳动力市场上,农村劳动力根据个人的人力资本积累状况和当地的劳动力 市场条件,在成为自我经营者和工资收入者之间进行就业选择。简单的Mincer工资方 程回归结果显示,工资收入者比自我经营者的教育回报率高出2个百分点左右。在矫 正了样本选择偏差之后,拓展的Mincer工资方程对工资收入者的教育回报率估计结果 在5.3%-6.8%之间。从培训角度看,简单培训、短期培训和正规培训对农民工再流动 都有显著作用,但简单培训对农民工的工资收入作用不显著,而短期培训和正规培训 则对其工资收入有着重要的决定作用。此外,工资拖欠等权益保护问题也对农村劳动 力再流动有重要影响。在处理农民工的个人异质性和教育内生性问题时,本文还发现 父母受教育年限不是一个理想工具变量。

关键词: 农民工?就业选择?再流动?教育与培训的回报率?处理效应模型

In the urban labor market, the rural labor force can choose whether to become self‐employed or work for wages depending on their stock of human capital and local labor market conditions. A simple Mincer earnings regression shows that the rate of return to schooling for wage earners is two percentage points higher than that for the self‐employed. After correcting for bias in sample selection, the expanded Mincer earnings equation estimated the rate of return to schooling for wage earners at between 5.3 and 6.8 percent. From the standpoint of training, we found that the simplest form of training, short‐term training and formal training played an important role in promoting migrant workers' repeat mobility. However, the simplest form of training did not have a significant effect on earnings, whereas short‐term and formal training played an important determining role in this respect. Moreover, rights protection issues such as wage arrears also had an important effect on migrant workers' repeat mobility. In handling heterogeneity and endogenous educational variables among migrant workers, the authors found that the years of schooling of the parents of migrant workers were not an ideal instrumental variable.     

Women's Wages: Cohort Differences in Returns to Education and Training Over Time*

Objective. This article examines the effects of education and work‐related training on wage‐growth trajectories for two cohorts of women as they aged from their early 20s and 30s into their early 30 s and 40 s. I test whether occupational training compensates for an earlier lack of education, thereby decreasing earnings inequality over time within cohorts. Because the broader economic context may influence the relationship between wages, education, and training, I test the assumption that the experiences of a given cohort may be generalized to others. Methods. Following NLS Young Women between 1977 and 1987 and NLSY79 Women between 1988 and 1998, growth‐curve analyses test whether returns to investments in human capital vary over time, across and within cohorts. Results. Women who did not update their skills over time experienced stagnation or declines in real wages, leading to growing wage inequality within education levels. However, women without a high school degree who engaged in on‐the‐job training experienced the greatest returns to training, thus reducing the initial education‐based wage gap. Conclusion. Education and training in adulthood can deflect the accumulation of disadvantage, but can also solidify an already uneven distribution of resources across social strata.     

Grass,Sweat, and Sun: An Exploratory Study of the Labor Market for Gardeners in South Texas*

Objective. This article takes a first exploratory step in understanding the market for home gardeners in the southwest borderlands (Laredo, Texas). Methods. A questionnaire was administered by a household member familiar with the present study who employed at least one gardener utilizing the snowball method of sample selection. Usable data (surveys) were collected from 244 individuals: 122 gardeners and 122 employers. Results. Gardeners in Laredo are almost exclusively male, Hispanic, Spanish speaking, and heads of household. Gardeners tend to be Mexican by birth and nationality, work full time as a gardener, be middle aged, and possess a middle school education. Distinctions between full‐time and part‐time gardeners (employment status) as well as formal and informal gardeners (employment process) are discussed. Cross‐tabulation analyses suggest a strong relationship between employment status and process (relationship) with health insurance coverage, enrollment in Social Security, and year‐around work. Logistic regression results also indicate previous work experience as a gardener, medical insurance, and year‐around work as a gardener are the significant variables in determining full‐time employment as a gardener. For informality, logistic regression results suggest Mexican citizenship, Mexican birthplace, and lack of Social Security are the significant explanatory variables. Conclusion. Gardening enables a mostly informal workforce from Mexico to work in south Texas in pursuit of the American dream—the ability to make a living in a way of one's own choosing.     

Education and employment opportunities among staff in Aboriginal family service agencies

The purpose of the study was to describe ways that successful culture‐based Aboriginal preventive family service agencies offer employment and education opportunities for staff. Staff in three inner‐city, culture‐based Aboriginal family agencies were asked about their employment and educational opportunities. Forty‐four individuals were asked the question: ‘what employment and education opportunities have you had while in this job?’ A total of 81 unique responses were received. Participants grouped the responses into eight themes including: planning for services, promotion within the agency, specific skill development, enhanced self‐confidence, cultural awareness, teaching others, workshops as well as certified training. Differences between the experiences of study participants and the existing literature indicate that practices within culture‐based Aboriginal family agencies are distinct in relation to funding, staff mobility, strengths‐base, practical training and cultural knowledge, and that these should be understood and recognized formally in funding decisions and in future research.     

Employment relations and dismissal regulations: Does employment legislation protect the health of workers?

Sociologists have long acknowledged that being in a precarious labour market position, whether employed or unemployed, can harm peoples' health. However, scholars have yet to fully investigate the possible contextual, institutional determinants of this relationship. Two institutions that were overlooked in previous empirical studies are the regulations that set minimum compensation for dismissal, severance payments, and entitlements to a period of notice before dismissal, notice periods. These institutions may be important for workers' health as they influence the degree of insecurity that workers are exposed to. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining whether longer notice periods and greater severance payments protect the health of labour market participants, both employed and unemployed. We constructed two cohorts of panel data before and during the European recession using data from 22 countries in the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (person years = 338,000). We find more generous severance payments significantly reduce the probability that labour market participants, especially the unemployed, will experience declines in self‐reported health, with a slightly weaker relationship for longer notice periods.     

Once a NEET always a NEET? Experiences of employment and unemployment among youth in a job training programme in Taiwan

Chen Y‐W. Once a NEET always a NEET? Experiences of employment and unemployment among youth in a job training programme in Taiwan Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 33–42 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. Ten previous participants in a job training programme, ages between 15 and 20, were interviewed face‐to‐face to determine why they were not employed, in education or in vocational training (represented by the acronym NEET) at the time, as well as their related experiences. They were also asked about their experiences and opinions regarding the training programme and their ideas about work in general. Results of the study indicate that most of the respondents did not become NEETs by choice; they did so for economic reasons. Most thought the programme was of little practical help to them and did not increase their chances of employment, but that it did give them social and emotional support and helped them feel better about themselves. Many agreed that the monetary allowance offered by the programme was a good incentive for participation. Implications of the findings for social policy and programme development, especially to the socio‐cultural context of Taiwan, are discussed.     

Unemployment and education mismatch in the EU before and after the financial crisis

This paper investigates whether general formal education still helps youth avoid situations of unemployment and inactivity in favour of other labour force statuses (dependent employment, self-employment, education) across EU countries over the period 2006–2010. In a second step, we analyse whether the relationship between education and the labour statuses above is affected by different degrees of country-level education mismatch. Our results show that after the outbreak of the crisis and in countries with high educational mismatch there is an additional reduction in unemployment risk for highly educated people that is accompanied by a higher probability of being an employee than of remaining in education.     

Free,free, set them free? Are programmes effective that allow job centres considerable freedom to choose the exact design?

Active labour market programmes are expected to be quite effective if job centres have a substantial degree of freedom to deliver tailor‐made individual services. For Germany, we studied the effectiveness of Schemes for Activation and Integration (SAI), which were introduced in 2009 to grant such freedoms to implement short training and private placement services. We estimated SAI participation effects on welfare recipients’ earnings and employment rate using propensity score matching and rich administrative data. We distinguished between participation in in‐firm training or training in other settings, and considered effect heterogeneity by gender, region and non‐employment duration. Participation substantially improved the participants’ earnings and employment rate, in‐firm training more so than training in other settings. Our employment effect estimates were not considerably larger than those previously found for comparable pre‐reform programmes. A lack of experience with SAI and a still inadequate client focus in the period studied might explain this.     

农村剩余劳动力转移中的职业教育研究

我国农村剩余劳动力的数量正在不断扩大,如何成功实现农村剩余劳动力的转移是一个迫切需要解决的问题。通过加强职业教育培训,增强农村剩余劳动力的文化素质和就业能力是推动我国农村剩余劳动力转移的一个有效方式。本文主要探讨了农村剩余劳动力转移与职业教育的关系、农村职业教育的困境以及加强农村职业教育的对策等问题。     

Examining the Relationship between Domestic Violence and Depression among Koreans: The Role of Self‐esteem and Social Support as Mediators

Domestic violence is a prevalent social issue in Korea affecting a significant number of people every day. It is thus important to examine how the experience of domestic violence affects their mental health to better address their needs. Using stress‐coping theory as a theoretical framework, this study examines the domestic violence and depression relationship among Korean men and women. Two aspects of self‐esteem and informal and formal social support are examined as potential mediators of this relationship. The data was the first wave of Korean Welfare Panel Study data including 2477 individuals with experiences of abuse. Structural equation modeling procedures were used for analyses. Domestic violence was significantly associated with self‐worth, self‐deprecation, and depression. The experiences of violence eroded self‐worth while reinforcing self‐deprecation and those with more exposure to violence showed a higher level of depression. Self‐deprecation played a significant role in mediating the effect of domestic violence on depression. However, different findings were yielded for social support. While informal social support was significantly associated with domestic violence, formal social support was not associated with domestic violence. Findings suggest for mental health interventions targeting self‐esteem, particularly the diminution of self‐deprecation in working with the victims. Suggestions for future research and implications for social work are also discussed.     

可持续发展的校企合作模式研究——以广州城市职业学院物流管理专业为例

校企合作在高职教育中越来越重要,是高等职业院校标志性内涵的体现,是培养高职学生职业技能的最重要途径。通过借鉴其他院校的成功经验以及7年的校企合作探索,广州城市职业学院物流管理专业逐步形成可持续发展的合作模式,在建立学长导师制、优秀毕业生"帮传带"、"交叉订单"培养模式方面形成值得借鉴的经验。文章还提出应提倡校园文化与企业文化共存的多元、兼容的文化氛围,提出建立因时因地制宜的柔性校企合作运行机制的建议。     

Expediting youth's entry into employment whilst overlooking precariousness: Flexi‐employability and disciplinary activation in Hong Kong

With an emphasis placed on supply‐side interventions such as skills training and incentives enhancement, active labor market polices (ALMPs) are strongly promoted by international organizations and widely adopted across different welfare regimes to boost employment rates. This article first presents the under‐examined relationship between ALMPs and employment precariousness, which has posed a challenge to the neoliberal notion of employability and activation. Youth‐focused employment policies tend to speed up employment entry whilst downplaying the risk of precariousness and the importance of job quality, and thus further reinforcing the belief that engaging in precarious employment is tolerable if not inevitable. The article then examines the case of Hong Kong, which illustrates that its relatively low rate of youth unemployment may conceal the unfavorable employment conditions confronted by youth. It is argued that the service‐led employment policies and short‐term vocational training define the employability of young workers in terms of labor flexibilities. The coined phase of “flexi‐employability” is characterized by promoting youth's readiness for, and adaptability to, the volatilities and changing demands of the labor market. Arguably, the disciplinary approach to youth activation would only strengthen the work‐first principle by enforcing young people to take up jobs available and leave welfare as soon as possible, but without thoroughly addressing the risks and insecurities generated by the labor market in undermining their well‐being.     

Upskilling as integration policy: Making the most of refugees' human capital in a context of skill shortage

The integration of refugees is a serious social policy problem in many advanced countries, and current trends suggest that this issue is unlikely to disappear soon. At the same time, these countries are also experiencing skill shortages in expanding sectors. These twin pressures create an opportunity to use education as a tool to pursue refugee integration. We investigate how refugees are trained in a country, Switzerland, where employers play an important role in vocational training. We discuss the national strategy for refugee integration and then focus on the implementation in one French speaking Canton (Vaud) on the basis of a qualitative vignette survey among case workers in charge of supporting refugee integration. At implementation, we do not find much evidence of a generalised upskilling strategy being applied in Switzerland. On the contrary, the main emphasis is on quick access to employment, supported by vocational training mostly in the low-skill segment. We conclude that the lack of an upskilling strategy is due to lack of coordination among policy areas and limited interest by employers.     

Parenting stress and behavior among single mothers of preschoolers: The mediating role of self‐efficacy

Abstract

This study examines the role of perceived self‐efficacy in mediating relations between mothers’ parenting behavior and variables such as maternal employment status, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and child behavior problems. Subjects were 93 employed and 95 nonemployed, single, black mothers of a 3–5‐year‐old child who were current and former welfare recipients. Using linear structural relations modeling (LISREL), the findings support a model whereby (a) the more behavior problems the child is perceived to have, the more depressive symptoms the mother feels; (b) the more depressive symptoms the mother feels, the more likely she is to rate herself high in parenting stress; (c) the more depressive symptoms and parenting stress the mother experiences, the lower is the mother's estimate of her self‐efficacy; and (d) the lower the mother's self‐efficacy, the less competent is her parenting. The findings for employment status are similar; i.e., maternal employment predicted a trajectory leading to somewhat better parenting. In addition, child behavior problems were associated with less competent parenting both directly and indirectly through their effect on parenting stress and self‐efficacy. These results suggest that self‐efficacy has import as a mediator of the relations between maternal parenting and other psychosocial variables. There is no evidence, based on these findings, that employment in the low‐wage market is harmful either for single black mothers or their preschool children. However, job availability and an increase in the minimum wage are important policy considerations.     

金融危机对中等职业教育毕业生就业影响研究

从国际经验看，金融危机下职业教育机遇大于挑战。中等职业教育已占中国高中阶段教育“半壁江山”，但其毕业生仍存在就业率低、就业上眼高手低，以及金融危机使得很多人对就业前景产生悲观情绪等诸多问题。要解决这些问题，必须使课程设置更合理、树立正确的区域观和择业观、加强对学生的综合素质的培养，并正确看待金融危机背景下中等职业教育毕业生的就业前景。     

Contextualising institutional complementarity. How long‐term unemployment depends on employment protection legislation,active labour market policies and the economic climate

This study investigated if and how active labour market policies (ALMPs) and employment protection interact with each other in light of long‐term unemployment reduction. We argue that how well the interaction between both labour market institutions reduces long‐term unemployment depends on the level of economic growth. To improve analytical clarity, two types of ALMPs were differentiated, namely training and employment programmes. Using data on 20 European countries over 16 years, our results suggest that employment protection moderates the relationship between employment programmes and long‐term unemployment. The combination of high spending on employment programmes and less strict employment protection is associated with less long‐term unemployment. This moderation effect is stronger during an economic downturn. A moderation effect from employment protection on the relationship between training programmes and long‐term unemployment was not found, even when the economic climate was taken into account as a contextual factor.     

‘Replacement Care’ for Working Carers? A Longitudinal Study in England, 2013–15

In the context of rising need for long‐term care, reconciling unpaid care and carers’ employment is becoming an important social issue. In England, there is increasing policy emphasis on paid services for the person cared for, sometimes known as ‘replacement care’, to support working carers. Previous research has found an association between ‘replacement care’ and carers’ employment. However, more information is needed on potential causal connections between services and carers’ employment. This mixed methods study draws on new longitudinal data to examine service receipt and carers’ employment in England. Data were collected from carers who were employed in the public sector, using self‐completion questionnaires in 2013 and 2015, and qualitative interviews were conducted with a sub‐sample of respondents to the 2015 questionnaire. We find that, where the person cared for did not receive at least one ‘key service’ (home care, personal assistant, day care, meals, short‐term breaks), the carer was subsequently more likely to leave employment because of caring, suggesting that the absence of services contributed to the carer leaving work. In the interviews, carers identified specific ways in which services helped them to remain in employment. We conclude that, if a policy objective is to reduce the number of carers leaving employment because of caring, there needs to be greater access to publicly‐funded services for disabled and older people who are looked after by unpaid carers.     

Workfare under Ontario Works: Making Sense of Jobless Work

Ontario Works is a provincial income assistance programme of last resort, operating under a workfare policy structure. Based on interviews with clients and staff (case managers, supervisors, managers and administrators), as well as an examination of policy directives, this article explores the work of workfare including claims making, training and resocialization, and employment internships. This article asks particularly how the work of workfare and the complex and costly workfare infrastructure is justified in the face of its failure to lead to employment. Findings include a contrast between the official story of an employment‐focused programme and workers' reports of spending far more time on eligibility than employment readiness. In addition, applying Gramsci's notion of ‘common sense’, an argument is developed that the normative justification for workfare is based not on the effectiveness of workfare programmes, but on the belief that clients need to exchange their work for welfare and self‐improvement so that they appear ‘employment ready’ even if not employed.     

农民工的就业与工资决定：教育与培训的重要性

在城市劳动力市场上,农村劳动力根据个人的人力资本积累状况和当地的劳动力市场条件,在成为自我经营者和工资收入者之间进行就业选择。简单的Mincer工资方程回归结果显示,工资收入者比自我经营者的教育回报率高出2个百分点左右。在矫正了样本选择偏差之后,拓展的Mincer工资方程对工资收入者的教育回报率估计结果在5.3%-6.8%之间。从培训角度看,简单培训、短期培训和正规培训对农民工再流动都有显著作用,但简单培训对农民工的工资收入作用不显著,而短期培训和正规培训则对其工资收入有着重要的决定作用。此外,工资拖欠等权益保护问题也对农村劳动力再流动有重要影响。在处理农民工的个人异质性和教育内生性问题时,本文还发现父母受教育年限不是一个理想工具变量。