Category / Fusion themes

Coaching At-Risk Young People CPD by Bournemouth University Business School

Fusion, Fusion themes

Practitioners in the education, welfare and youth sectors possess invaluable and unparalleled experience. Still, they need to reinforce this with continuing professional development (CPD) involving specialised training courses to expand their knowledge and evaluate their practices.

The importance of CPD is linked to lifelong learning, which champions continuous learning for all, regardless of age or profession and beyond compulsory levels of education. Lifelong learning boosts well-being and confidence at work. However, it could be challenging to promote among individuals with a fixed mindset towards learning who perceive their abilities as unchangeable and are typically reluctant to embrace opportunities to upskill or tasks that require extra effort.

However, one’s mindset is not always the problem. Many adults cite excessive work demands as a barrier to professional development, implying that employers have a shared responsibility to create the time for employees to undertake CPD training.

According to the annual Adult Participation in Learning Survey in the UK, adult learning has increased post-pandemic, with fewer adults choosing to learn because it is a job requirement and more adults motivated to learn to improve their knowledge and skill. Results from the survey, however, indicate sub-regional differences in adult learning participation rates, with the highest percentage in London (56% in 2022) and the lowest percentages so far in the North East (37%) and South West (35%) of England.

Bridging the regional and adult skills gap requires investment in more CPD opportunities that are accessible, high-quality, and relevant, like the Coaching At-risk Young People CPD delivered by the SPEED-You-UP team at Bournemouth University.

Participants at the SPEED-You-UP Training Programme, Fusion Building, Talbot Campus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPEED-You-UP is a project aimed at improving the employability and entrepreneurship skills of young people in disadvantaged coastal communities across England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, through entrepreneurship education for young people at risk of early school leaving and those currently not in employment, education or training (NEET). The project tackles unemployment and economic inactivity among young people by considering individual-level factors like socioeconomic backgrounds, low motivation and confidence and structural-level constraints like inadequate investments in professional development for teachers and youth sector professionals.

On 22 November 2022 at Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, practitioners from the welfare, business, and creative sectors engaged in three workshops on the following topics: The Value of Entrepreneurship Education for (at-risk) NEET Young people, Developing a Coaching Approach for Young People, and Stakeholder Management & Collaboration. The training programme was led by Dr Carly Stewart, Associate Professor, Head of Department for People and Organisations and Principal Investigator of the SPEED-You-UP project, Dr Esther Anwuzia, and Ms Preethi Rajaprakasam.

In meeting the accessibility criteria, the training programme was free and open to experienced and aspiring professionals. The sessions were also designed to be interactive and enlightening. On the one hand, it leveraged the unique experiences of participants by encouraging group discussions and, on the other, equipped participants with evidence-based knowledge and skills to work with vulnerable young people. In attendance were representatives from SWRAC, Young Enterprise, Dorset Growth Hub, West Howe Community Enterprises, and Bournemouth University’s Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Department. Entrepreneurs from the creative industry were also present.

Participants discussed the challenges of working with NEET young people, the causes of early school leaving, the benefits of coaching for young people, and stakeholder collaboration.

The key takeaways from the training were:

  • For CPD to engender sustained engagement and impact, it must be relevant to the needs of practitioners.
  • CPD can foster reciprocity between universities and non-academic stakeholders, enriching research and practice.
  • Professionals in the youth sector are passionate about their work, and employers, universities, and the government should support their personal development to enhance their motivation and productivity.
  • CPD opportunities are avenues for self-assessment, potential partnerships and connections.
  • Adults can also be enthusiastic learners!

___________________________________________

Dr Esther Anwuzia, Postdoctoral Researcher, Entrepreneurship and Youth Employability, on behalf of the SPEED-You-UP team at Bournemouth University. 

Financial Worries while at University

Fusion themes, international, REF Subjects, staff profile pages

Financial Worries of Young People 

In a recent survey conducted by one of the Big-4 accounting firms, 41% of millennials and 46% of Gen Z respondents said they were stressed all or most of the time. About two-thirds of each group identified day-to-day finances and job/career prospects as significant worries. While financial stress is nothing new, the economic impact of the cost-of-living crises, the pandemic and the growing generational wealth gap is exacerbating and complicating the picture in many countries. It’s best to hire a wealth manager who specializes in the type of planning you need, visit https://vigilantwm.com/managing-your-wealth/ to learn more.

Research

Dr Phyllis Alexander, Associate Professor in Accounting and Taxation in the Business School, is currently collecting data for cross-country research into university students’ financial anxiety, financial socialisation, financial literacy, financial behaviour, loss aversion and personality traits.

Survey

This is an open invitation to all BU students interested in participating in the study into financial management behaviour and anxiety of university students. The online survey should only take 5-7 minutes to complete. The data will be used only for statistical analysis and will be treated with strict confidentiality. Thanks to those for taking time to contribute to the research project.

 

BU and SUBU Financial Support Teams

If students would like to speak with someone about concerns, BU and SUBU offer free independent and confidential advice on housing, money and personal matters:

BU’s Student Money Advice Team can be contacted through AskBU by phone, by email or in person from Monday to Friday, between 9am – 5pm (4.30pm Fridays).

  • Call 01202 969696 – option 1
  • Email askbu@bournemouth.ac.uk​
  • Visit us at The Base in Poole House on Talbot Campus, or at the Helpzone in Bournemouth Gateway Building, on Lansdowne Campus.

SUBU – drop in sessions Monday to Friday from 2-4pm or you can email them to request an appointment at subuadvice@bournemouth.ac.uk

BURO and Open Access Week

When a publication is submitted to BURO and made available Open Access, it opens part of our university free of charge to anyone who may be interested and benefit from the work of our researchers. As we mark Open for Climate Justice week, the availability of so much of our research into the environment and climate change is a reminder that out library is not just a physical space, but also a digital one which can be entered from anywhere in the world.  

Recent articles on BURO on the environment range from post-COVID green recovery plans; the role of international tourist arrivals on pollutant emissions, and how the restoration of agricultural land can aid economic development.  

As well as the published output, there are huge potential benefits to making the research data available too. BORDaR is BU’s interdisciplinary research data repository, hosting important work on the environment such as this dataset on microplastic patterns in urban streams.  

There are of course many areas where BU research is making a major impact, but with the urgency of our climate crisis we can see how Open Access extends the influence of BU’s researchers in areas of the greatest political, ecological and social changes in our world.  

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis contributed to the EU Smart Tourism Podcast LISTEN AT https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hgvIrhZOtxnSxZdXNmDrK  

BU Challenges

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis contributed to the EU Smart Tourism Podcast

LISTEN AT https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hgvIrhZOtxnSxZdXNmDrK

In this third episode of the EU Smart Tourism Podcast, we explore the digital space in smart tourism and begin to ask: what drives this digital move, how does it find implementation and what does this mean for the future of European tourism?

Misa Labarile, Policy Officer at the European Commission, DG GROW discusses with past winners of the competition as well as cities within the EU Smart Tourism network about how digitalisation can enhance and drive innovation in the tourism industry.

Speakers:

Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis: expert on digitalisation and smart tourism at Bournemouth University, United Kingdom

Dejan Ristić: Project Manager at Ljubljana Tourism (Slovenia)

Jukka Punamaki: Senior Tourism Advisor, Helsinki (Finland)

Host: Misa Labarile, Policy Officer of the European Commission, DG GROW

 

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis contributes to the EU Smart Tourism Podcast LISTEN

NIHR Grant Applications Seminar ONLINE – 22 November 2022

Funding opportunities, NHS

  

Dear colleagues

– Do you have a great idea for research in health, social care or public health?
– Are you planning to submit a grant application to NIHR?

Our popular seminar continues online and will take place on Tuesday 22nd November 2022 from 10.00am – 12.30pm.

The seminar provides an overview of NIHR funding opportunities and research programme remits, requirements and application processes. We will give you top tips for your application and answer specific questions with experienced RDS South West advisers.

We will also be hearing from Jane Fearnside about the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme. She will be giving an overview of the programme, the assessment process and what the funding panels are looking for.

We also have a limited number of 20-minute 1-to-1 appointments available after the seminar should you wish to discuss your proposed study with an RDS adviser.

Find out more and book a place.

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU)

We can help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

Prof John Oliver appointed to Horizon & Foresight Scanning Board

BRIAN, Business Engagement

Prof John Oliver has been appointed to the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology’s new Advisory Board responsible for Horizon & Foresight Scanning. The new board has been set up in response to an inquiry into the effectiveness and influence of the Select Committee system by the 2017–19 House of Commons Liaison Committee.

The advisory board aims to improve the efficacy of horizon and foresight scanning processes to inform the identification of Areas of Research Interest (ARI). ARIs are lists of policy issues or questions used by Select Committees, parliamentarians and by parliamentary staff to produce more research evidence in certain topics to scrutinize the government and to inform future policy work.

The advisory board will also be responsible for developing ‘futures thinking’ capabilities by developing training opportunities and resources for parliamentarians and staff to enable them to think more long-term and manage the uncertainty in policy-making.

Prof John Oliver commented that “the world is becoming more and more uncertain with Covid-19, Brexit, Russia-Ukraine War and global economic uncertainty. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund’s World Uncertainty Index recently reported that global uncertainty has reached “unprecedented levels” in recent years. This makes horizon and foresight scanning more of a priority for many policy-makers and organisations as it helps them manage the uncertainty around future dynamics”.

This new role builds on Prof Oliver’s previous scenario planning research and work with the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology and the House of Commons.

Report on the British Academy Writing Workshop at UABC Tijuana, Mexico

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Knowledge Exchange, writing

The UK-Mexico Leisure and Tourism Academic Writing Workshop at UABC, Tijuana

After two years of postponing the British Academy-funded ‘UK-Mexico Leisure and Tourism Academic Writing Workshop: Supporting Mexican ECRs in writing for publication’ due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers Dr Paola Vizcaino (Bournemouth University, Department of Sport and Event Management) and Dr Isis Arlene Díaz- Carrión (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Facultad de Turismo y Mercadotecnia), were able to deliver a successful face-to-face workshop at the UABC campus in Tijuana this summer.

The event took place from 8-12 August 2022 with the aim to support the career development of up to 20 PhD students and early career researchers (ECRs) from Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) and seven other Mexican universities (Universidad de Guanajuato, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Universidad Anáhuac, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Colegio de Postgraduados and Universidad Veracruzana).

 

The workshop was designed to provide participants access to the academic requirements of high-ranking leisure and tourism journals in English, and to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to publish in these journals.

The brilliant speakers included:

Nancy Gard McGehee, PhD, Professor at Virginia Tech, USA and Co-editor of the Journal of Travel Research, the 2021 top-ranked impact factor journal in the area of tourism;

Donna Chambers, PhD, Professor of Tourism at the University Sunderland, UK and Managing Editor of Leisure Studies and Resource Editor of Annals of Tourism Research;

Jayne Caudwell, PhD, Associate Professor in Social Sciences, Gender and Sexualities at Bournemouth University, UK and former Managing Editor of Leisure Studies;

Xavier Font, PhD, Professor in Sustainable Marketing at the University of Surrey, UK and Co-editor of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism;

Philipp Wassler, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of Bergamo, Italy and reviewer for a number of high-ranking tourism journals.

The workshop offered networking sessions to allow participants to discuss their research interests and start conversations about potential research collaborations, as well as personalised mentoring with journal editors and established academics in the fields of leisure and tourism management.

Finally, participants also learned about the British Academy’s international funding schemes and were particularly interested in the Newton International Fellowships and Visiting Fellowships, which can facilitate collaborative research projects between academics based overseas  (i.e. Mexico) and UK higher education institutions.

Please find below some of the workshop highlights.

Welcome

Dr Marisa Reyes-Orta, Research and Postgraduate Coordinator at the Facultad de Turismo y Mercadotecnia, welcomed speakers and participants to the UABC, Tijuana on behalf of the faculty’s Director, Dr Martha Ofelia Lobo Rodríguez.

Dr Reyes-Orta highlighted the importance of the British Academy-funded workshop to build collaboration networks between Mexico and the United Kingdom, to develop the competitiveness of the academic outputs written by Mexican PhD students and ECRs and to contribute to the internationalisation of the UABC’s postgraduate programmes, particularly the recently validated PhD in Tourism.

Welcome to the workshop. Left to right: MC, Jesús Amparo López Vizcarra (UABC), Dr Paola Vizcaino (BU), Dr Isis Díaz-Carrión (UABC) and Dr Marisa Reyes-Orta (Research and Postgraduate Coordinator at UABC, Tijuana)

 

Academic Writing Tips from Journal Editors

After a brief introduction to the workshop and an ice-breaker activity led by Dr Paola Vizcaino (BU) and Dr Isis Arlene Díaz-Carrión (UABC, Tijuana), the journal editors presented the publication requirements of top-ranking leisure and tourism journals and shared insightful writing tips with participants.

Key note by Prof Nancy McGehee

Professor Nancy Gard McGehee (Virginia Tech, USA, Co-editor of the Journal of Travel Research, JTR) highlighted the need for PhD students and ECRs to develop a solid research plan by: a) studying the literature to look for gaps, b) examining the tourism industry and current environment to look for problems that need solutions, c) finding the best theory (or theories) to solve the problem, and d) letting the problem direct the method.

She also recommended assessing tourism journals to find the right match for participants’ research and the importance of translating local research to a global audience in the case of international journals. Furthermore, she emphasised how top-ranked impact factor journals only consider manuscripts for publication when they demonstrate substantive and leading edge research, a sound methodology and a strong theoretical foundation / contribution.

 

Presentation by Prof Donna Chambers

Professor Donna Chambers (University of Sunderland, UK, Managing Editor of Leisure Studies) explained the type of papers that are welcome by Leisure Studies, including papers that examine the inter-relationships between leisure and work, civic engagement, health and wellbeing, major
resources of social inequality and forms of social (in)justice.

As Prof Chambers was aware that most of the workshop participants had a focus on tourism management and some are developing projects on natural and cultural heritage, she mentioned that research that addresses tourism as a leisure activity or examines the leisure aspects of events and festivals are also a good fit for the journal. Finally, she expressed that Leisure Studies seeks to develop culturally diverse and nuanced understandings of leisure and that research which examines leisure in the Global South is welcomed alongside studies of leisure in the Global North.

 

Presentation by Associate Prof Jayne Caudwell

Associate Professor Jayne Caudwell (BU) shared some practical tips for PhD students and ECRs to enhance their research and written outputs. She highlighted the need for strong theoretical underpinning, sound methodology and critical analysis of findings (demonstrating rigor in every section), a clear structure to the paper, logical and coherent (to meet scholarship requirements), and to explain the original aspects of the research or demonstrate an original contribution to the body of knowledge (originality).

 

Professor Xavier Font

Professor Xavier Font (University of Surrey, UK, Co-editor of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism), joined remotely from the UK to deliver an online presentation in Spanish to ensure maximum rapport with participants. He recognised that less than 1% of the submissions to the Journal of Sustainable Tourism come from academics ascribed to Latin American universities or research centres and offered sound advice on how to overcome the language barriers to publish in English-speaking journals, as well as to develop a work plan to publish in top-ranked impact factor journals.

He also emphasised the need for ECRs to specialise in an area of leisure or tourism research, whilst building collaborative networks to gain access to the theoretical and methodological expertise of more senior colleagues to develop stronger research proposals and outputs.

 

Presentation by Dr Philipp Wassler

To close the first two days of guest speaker presentations, Dr Philipp Wassler (University of Bergamo, Italy) shared his perspective as a journal reviewer, and provided practical examples on how to structure a strong research article before submitting to a top-ranked impact factor journal. He highlighted the need to write a sharp abstract and introduction section to capture the readers’ interest; a strong literature review that demonstrates a thorough understanding of the theories that have been employed to examine the problem; a detailed methodology section with clear justification of choices; and a findings / discussion section that tackle the research questions / objectives.

The second part of the report will follow suit on a separate blog post to summarise the creation of the UK-Mexico Leisure and Tourism Academic Network and the initial collaborations that are stemming from the workshop.

 

 

 

Media coverage of BU workshops in Nepal

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Publishing, writing

Earlier this week the Chitwan Post Daily in southern Nepal reported on our Writing Workshops conducted in Pokhara and Kathmandu.  The headline photo of this newspaper article focuses on the keynote speech delivered by Prof Dr Prem Narayan Aryal, Vice Chancellor of Pokhara University. He highlighted many key issues around gender and development in Nepal and the importance of academic writing and publishing.  This British Academy funded series of BU workshops is is led by Dr. Shovita Dhakal Adhikari (Dept of Sociology & Social Work), Dr. Pramod Regmi (Department of Nursing Sciences) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences), Dr. Emma Pitchforth from the University of Exeter UK, and Dr. Rashmee Rajkarnikar from the Central Department of Economics at Tribhuvan University (Nepal’s oldest and largest university) with the support of local partners in Nepal, namely Social Science Baha and Green Tara Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)