Academic literature on the topic 'National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition'

INTRODUCTION: Given the diversity of practice and understanding of social work across the globe and its distinctive shape in specific national settings, practitioners working in a new country encounter different community, professional and workplace cultures which may pose challenges. This current study contributes to a larger programme of work undertaken to address the transnational nature of the social work profession in Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere. METHOD: The study aim was to explore the experiences of Aotearoa New Zealand qualified social workers who have practised in another country and have returned home. Participants in an online survey were recruited via an invitation to all members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers. The questionnaire was designed to obtain broad data about the experiences of social workers in their overseas employment and perceptions on their return home. FINDINGS: Many participants had layers of transnational experience having practised as social workers in multiple countries. Participants reported overall satisfaction with overseas experiences which had provided professional opportunities for learning and development, and better pay and conditions. Coming home presented new challenges and interesting perceptions of social work in Aotearoa. IMPLICATIONS: Adjustment to new practice locations and, as shown in this small exploratory study, returning “home” can be disruptive to professional perspectives. While overseas practice is enriching, it carries with it both relocation benefits and costs, confirming earlier research. Better employer recognition of the challenges of returning social workers, and the enhanced skills they bring home may offset any dislocation experienced.

“Research, no matter how ‘good’, is incomplete, until it has been published.”1 In my opinion, otolaryngology residents, fellows and consultants do not lack in research or scholarly capability. However, “the proof of the pudding is (indeed) in the eating,” and scholarly societies are recognized not so much for what goes on within their hallowed halls, but for what are made public outside those walls. Indeed, “publishing” means to make something public.2 And though we may not lack in research, we certainly still lag in publication. I would therefore not be amiss in address the need for PSOHNS fellows, diplomates and trainees to publish, in electronic or hard-copy, in print or other media, including the social media. Because of my background, much of my reflections will deal with writing—but by no means do I mean to limit publication to that of the written word. Why write and publish? “Start Where You Are: Taking Your Place in the History of Scholarship”2 “Similar to others who write (historians and poets), scientists and those involved in research need to write … to leave behind a documented legacy of their accomplishments.”1 Whatever we discover or unearth in the laboratory, clinic or in the field; whether from samples, specimens, subjects, patients or participants; utilizing theoretical or applied instruments, materials and methods; simply “did not happen” unless it is documented and disseminated. In Filipino,“kung hindi nakasulat, hindi nangyari.” How often do we hear comments like “naisip ko na iyan,” or “na-presenta ko na iyan” or even “sinulat ko na iyan” at a scientific meeting where a speaker presents a study. The sad fact of the matter is that many of these colleagues may indeed have had similar thoughts, or delivered previous oral presentations, or even written reports. But because none of these had been properly published, they remain inaccessible to subsequent scholars, and are therefore neither cited nor acknowledged. “While ‘doing’ the research is important, ‘writing’ about why and how it was done, what was found, and what it means is far more important as it serves as a permanent record of scientific work that has been completed and accepted by peers.”1 And writing and publishing are an entirely different ball game from researching alone. Publication, or “making ideas public,” allows “scholars (to) provide each other with the opportunity to build on each other’s contributions, create dialogue (sometimes heated) with one another and join the documented and ongoing history of their field.”2 It is by participating in this “documented and ongoing history” of whatever field we may be in, that we and our specialty society gain international recognition and become internationally competitive. Taking your place in the history of scholarship starts where you are, as an author. Publication involves communication between the author and his or her audience via the written article.3 Unlike public speakers or performing artists, the author’s interaction with the audience is limited by the written and published work. Hence, “a successful researcher is usually a good communicator who has the ability to maximize the transmission of research findings to his or her chosen audience.”1 Setting the Stage: Advantages of Writing and Publication A few may write “for the pleasure derived from the creative activity of writing and intellectual sharing, and the desire to advance knowledge and benefit mankind” and for these individuals, “writing may act as a channel for expressing the joy of scientific discovery, and may even be regarded as a leisurely pursuit.”1 An historical article on Jose Rizal4 that I researched for a year and a half before the occasion of his 150th anniversary and another on the evolution of indirect laryngoscopy5 that I researched for two years are personal examples of these. For most everyone else, there are career, professional, institutional and practical advantages that can be gained from writing and publication.6 As far as career benefits are concerned, “getting published in prestigious, scholarly journals may have the most direct bearing on your appointment, promotion, tenure and advancement within your institution, organization and discipline.”2 The “up or out” situation faced by many young to mid-career academics would have been easily avoided by publishing early. Moreover, publications are the primary basis for promotion and advancement in academe. Professional benefits are just as important. For junior consultants and younger faculty, “having published articles in reputable international journals are a great help when applying for positions in foreign institutions, and when applying for competitive overseas fellowships.”1 As editor of our specialty scholarly journal, I receive numerous urgent requests from postgraduate residents and young diplomates (unaware of the tedious editing and peer review process) to rush-publish research they undertook in training, in fulfillment of publication requirements for overseas positions or fellowships they are applying for. Had they realized this earlier, they would have been much better-prepared. For more established consultants, “gaining recognition as experts in a particular field at regional and international levels leads to invitations to lecture at scientific meetings and refresher courses, and appointments as consultants to external agencies, expert panels and advisory boards, reviewer and editorial boards.”1 Much of my local and international travels are direct offshoots of previous research, lectures and publications. These generate further research and publication opportunities in turn, as track records in research and publication are considered in “applications for, extension of, and further research funding.”1 Closer to home, publication “increases (the) depth of knowledge in a particular subject that complements and hones clinical (practical) skills, and enables better teaching of students, clinical trainees and postgraduates.”1 Indeed, a true professor must have something to profess, and a well-published professor can certainly profess what he or she does more authoritatively. Of course, the practical benefits gained from engaging in the research and publication process cannot be overlooked. The “inherent training gained during the process of manuscript preparation,” the “discipline of performing a thorough literature search, collating and analyzing data and drafting and repeatedly revising the manuscript”1 during the editing and review process, provide undeniable practical benefits to the author. Researchers who have published are much better positioned to evaluate scholarly publications, having themselves experienced the writing, editing and review process. In this era of “information overload” the published researcher can more effectively evaluate and utilize available evidence. Because of institutional benefits, it is in the best interests of our scholarly society to encourage scholarly writing, as “publication in peer-reviewed journals is arguably the most important means to achieve international recognition for an individual, department, hospital, and university.”1 Various international survey and ranking systems place a premium on such publication, explaining why Philippine academic institutions lag behind their counterparts in Asia and the rest of the world. It is also in the best interests of the Philippines that her clinicians, scientists, artists and scholars publish, as “the author’s country, and even the region, may also derive benefit from published work, particularly if it is on a topic of major importance.”1 At least in the medical field, Filipino publications have made their mark, albeit sparsely. The UP College of Medicine and National Health Sciences Journal Acta Medica Philippina is the source of material indelibly inscribed in the world medical map, and we certainly look forward to the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery doing the same. The generous research allocation for Fellows and full support for our journal by the PSOHNS Board of Trustees are a step in the right direction, as are the annual awarding of the Outstanding ENT Specialist in Research and Editors’ Pick Outstanding Research Publication. In keeping with international practice, we should accord due public recognition to our excellent Reviewers and Editors at official PSOHNS functions such as Annual Conventions, if but for the recognition they reciprocally bring to the society. The American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery has journal Editors and Star Reviewers wear special ribbons at their Annual Meeting, and openly campaigns for participants to thank these reviewers for their contribution. On another note, I was elected President 2014-2016 of the Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors during the recent Joint Meeting of APAME and the Western Pacific Region Index Medicus and Index Medicus of the South East Asia Region of WHO in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia last August 15 – 17, 2014. This is fortuitous as we prepare to host the APAME Convention 2015 and Joint Meeting with WPRIM and IMSEAR at the WHO Western Pacific Region Office, Sofitel Hotel and Philippine International Convention Center from August 24-26, 2015 in conjunction with FORUM 2015. The other officers are: Executive Vice President Prof. Jeong-Wook Seo (Korea), Vice President for Internal Affairs is Prof. Kiichiro Tsutani (Japan), Vice President for External Affairs Prof. Dai Tao (China), Secretary-General Prof. Wilfred Peh (Singapore). The Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery is now indexed in the HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme of the World Health Organization www.who.int/hinari making us readily available to a multitude of users from developing countries and increasing our accessibility tremendously. Our society and journal can be accessed via http://extranet.who.int/hinari/en/browse_publisher.php?pub=695 In addition, APAMED Central (on which the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery is indexed) has been formally ratified for indexing in the worldwidescience.org database during the World Wide Science Alliance annual meeting in Tokyo last October 2014. Henceforth, all articles from Oct 19 2014, including this issue, will be searchable on this database. Finally, I am especially thankful to our President and my friend, Howard M. Enriquez, MD and the PSOHNS Board of Trustees (especially the Scientific Committee Chair and my friend Elmo R. Lago, Jr., MD) for the support given to me, and our journal on my ninth year as Editor-in-Chief.

<p dir="ltr"><span>The telematics industry that is included in the national industry development policy. Electronic and Telematic Industries projected growth twice in 2025. The telematics industry is also included in the Nine SMEs that are a priority to be developed. The telematics industry is even part of the creative industry that absorbs about 13,000 workers. The national telematics industry is grouped into five groups, namely the office equipment industry, software, animation, games, and embedded. The strategy for developing Telematics SME’s is based on the position of the industry in its strength map. The five industry groups have been mapped into 4 developing quadrants. The office equipment industry is included in quadrant 1, with an expansive strategy such as increasing production and market share. </span><span>The game and embedded industries map into quadrant 2, the strategy developed is proactive such as strengthening promotion and innovation. </span><span>The software industry enters quadrant 3, the strategy developed is consolidation, such as strengthening human resources, infrastructure, and business institutions. While the animation industry entered quadrant 4, the strategy developed was to defensive, namely managing production cost efficiency, strengthening the domestic market, and increasing the competency of human resources. Human resource development has received special attention in the development of SME’s telematics. The skills of human resources in the telematics business may not be doubted, but recognition of competencies is a distinguishing factor in efforts to provide quality assurance to customers.</span></p>

Based on the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), all industries are preparing for a paradigm shift as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, it is necessary to study the importance and diffusion of technology and, through this, the development and direction of core technologies. Leading countries such as the United States and China are focusing on artificial intelligence (AI)’s great potential and are working to establish a strategy to preempt the continued superiority of national competitiveness through AI technology. This is because artificial intelligence technology can be applied to all industries, and it is expected to change the industrial structure and create various business models. This study analyzed the leading artificial intelligence technology to strengthen the market’s environment and industry competitiveness. We then analyzed the lifecycle of the technology and evaluated the direction of sustainable development in industry. This study collected and studied patents in the field of artificial intelligence from the US Patent Office, where technology-related patents are concentrated. All patents registered as artificial intelligence technology were analyzed by text mining, using the abstracts of each patent. The topic was extracted through topic modeling and defined as a detailed technique. Promising/mature skills were analyzed through a regression analysis of the extracted topics. In addition, the Bass model was applied to the promising technologies, and each technology was studied in terms of the technology lifecycle. Eleven topics were extracted via topic modeling. A regression analysis was conducted to identify the most promising/mature technology, and the results were analyzed with three promising technologies and five mature technologies. Promising technologies include Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), Image Recognition and Identification Technology. Mature technologies include pattern recognition, machine learning platforms, natural language processing, knowledge representation, optimization, and solving. This study conducts a quantitative analysis using patent data to derive promising technologies and then presents the objective results. In addition, this work then applies the Bass model to the promising artificial intelligence technology to evaluate the development potential and technology diffusion of each technology in terms of its growth cycle. Through this, the growth cycle of AI technology is analyzed in a complex manner, and this study then predicts the replacement timing between competing technologies.

BackgroundNearly 50% of all deaths in the UK occur in hospitals.1 The majority of these patients die in a generalist setting2 where their medical care is predominately provided by junior doctors. There is a growing recognition of a need to embed palliative care into doctors’ training.3Little evidence exists, however, concerning junior doctors’ current experiences of palliative care.AimsTo review the empirical literature between 2000 and 2018 concerning junior doctors experience of and preparation for palliative and end of life care.MethodsSystematic review and narrative synthesis of qualitative and quantitative studies within six databases to find empirical studies on junior doctors experience of adult palliative care in inpatient hospital or hospice settings.ResultsFrom the initial 6308 titles identified, 32 studies met the inclusion criteria with a further five identified from reference searching.Three key themes were identified:‘Significance of death and dying’‘Thrown into the deep end’‘Addressing the gaps’. All the studies provided evidence that junior doctors care for many dying patients very early in their career. Junior doctors do not feel adequately prepared to care for dying patients and feel unsupported when doing so. Junior doctors report emotional distress when caring for their first few dying patients, memories of which continue to affect them throughout their careers. Their attitudes towards end–of–life care varied: some reported it as a privilege while others associated it with a culture of disengagement that stigmatised dying patients.ConclusionsJunior doctors need further support, education and preparation for their exposure to palliative care. Experiential learning, reflective practice and role modelling are described as the most effective ways to learn palliative care and this also teaches them other transferrable skills such as communication, teamwork and professionalism that are vital for their future careers.References. Office for National Statistics Deaths Registered in England and Wales2016.. Gomes B, Higginson I. Where people die (1974–2030): Past trends, future projections and implications for care. Palliative Med2008;22:33–41.. General Medical Council. Tomorrow’s doctors: Recommendations on undergraduate medical education 2002 (2nd ed.). London: GMC.

The authors of this study seek the answer to the question how to develop, in the first decade or decades of the 21st century, the university-levelhorticultural scientific training, the horticultural innovation and the scientific co-operation between companies and universities in Debrecen andin the North Great Plain Region and – in a wider sense – in Hungary to a standard being competitive even in European terms. With the synthesisof the prospects of past, present and future, they drew the following conclusions. The reconstruction of agriculture, horticulture and food industryis a part of reforming Hungary's countryside. Horticulture, producing high added value, will be able to decisively contribute to the plan whereasthe value presently produced in an agriculturally cultivated area of 1,000 euros/hectare can reach 2,000 to 3,000 euros in the next two decades.A necessary and indispensable precondition to achieving this is the strengthening of the innovation output of the Hungarian horticultural sector.Despite the numerous technical criticisms formulated in connection with the serious problems of Hungarian agricultural and horticulturalscientific innovation, no progress has been made in this field for the past one and a half decade. The scientific research of this topic hardlycontinued or did not continue at all, the up-to-date surveys and in-depth analyses were missing. The objective, basic principles and tasks of theAct CXXXIV of 2004 (TTI) enacted concerning research-development and technological innovation are clear and progressive. The co-operationbetween the National Research Technology Office and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the setting up of the Innovation Fund are hearteningopportunities. These – along with the new Higher Education Bill to be passed – may as well be suitable for restarting the Hungarian agriculturaland horticultural scientific innovation. In our opinion, this requires a new, well-considered national agricultural programme, which can beconceived in the framework of the "Ferenc Entz National Horticultural Plan" proposed by us for horticulture. In the most eastern Hungarianuniversity knowledge centre, at the University of Debrecen, the continuing of the horticultural scientific innovation strategy started in the lastdecade may be the focal point and generator of the development of the so-called "Hungarian Horticultural Triangle”, or "HungarianHorticultural Cluster". This region comprises the Northern and Southern Great Plain Regions and the area between the Danube and TiszaRivers. Here, about 70 to 75% of the total Hungarian horticultural commodity stock is produced. The objective of the HORT-INNOTECHDEBRECEN programme planned in 2004 by the University of Debrecen, Centre of Agricultural Science is to establish the horticultural scientificresearch-development and technological innovation structure and knowledge base of the Hungarian Horticultural Triangle / HungarianHorticultural Cluster. In harmony with this, the objectives are to bring about competitive, new horticultural products, to improve the conditionsof utilising them, to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises based on technological innovation, to make use of the research-development andinnovation opportunities available in the regions in an efficient manner, to as full extent as possible, to encourage the creation of places ofemployment producing high added value in the field of horticulture, to improve the technical skills of those employed in horticultural researchdevelopment and to promote their enhanced recognition by the society.

Abstract Background There is a growing recognition that the main population health challenges of sustaining universal healthcare coverage (UHC), and responding to the growing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden in all countries of the WHO European Region requires that each Member State has an effective, responsive and adaptive approach to human resources for health (HRH). However, there is a worldwide shortage of health workers and the situation is becoming more challenging globally and regionally. This presentation introduces the WHO Framework for Action, which builds on the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030. The aim is to provide guidance to health policymakers, planners, analysts and others with a responsibility for health workforce issues. Methods The WHO Global Strategy was adopted in 2018 by the 69th World Health Assembly. It has identified four strategic objectives, which have been adapted to the regional context as follows: to transform education and performance, to align planning and investment, to build capacity, and to improve analysis and monitoring. Results The WHO Regional Office for Europe is working with Member States across the Region and supporting efforts to achieve sustainable health workforces. This includes promoting the use of the Labour Market Framework approach and maximising the utility of the National Health Workforce Accounts for national use and as a contributor to sustainable human resources for health planning. Conclusions Having a sustainable health workforce in place with the right skills and competencies is critical to making progress towards achieving UHC. Effective implementation of a labour market framework approach, including multisectoral workforce governance, can support effective, responsive and adaptive approaches to human resources for health.

IntroductionThree broad stages of Australia’s arts and culture sectors may be discerned with reference to the Northern Hemisphere. The first is in Australia’s early years where artists travelled to the metropoles of Europe to learn from acknowledged masters, to view the great works and to become part of a broader cultural scene. The second is where Australian art was promoted internationally, which to some extent began in the 1960s with exhibitions such as the 1961 ‘Survey of recent Australian painting’ at the Whitechapel gallery. The third relates to the strong promotion and push to display and sell Indigenous art, which has been a key area of focus since the 1970s.The Allure of the NorthFor a long time Australasian artists have mostly travelled to Britain (Britain) or Europe (Cooper; Frost; Inkson and Carr), be they writers, painters or musicians for example. Hecq (36) provides a useful overview of the various periods of expatriation from Australia, referring to the first significant phase at the end of the twentieth century when many painters left “to complete their atelier instruction in Paris and London”. Many writers also left for the north during this time, with a number of women travelling overseas on account of “intellectual pressures as well as intellectual isolation”(Hecq 36). Among these, Miles Franklin left Australia in “an open act of rebellion against the repressive environment of her family and colonial culture” (37). There also existed “a belief that ‘there’ is better than ‘here’” (de Groen vii) as well as a “search for the ideal” (viii). World War I led to stronger Anglo-Australian relations hence an increase in expatriation to Europe and Britain as well as longer-term sojourns. These increased further in the wake of World War II. Hecq describes how for many artists, there was significant discontent with Australian provincialism and narrow-mindedness, as well as a desire for wider audiences and international recognition. Further, Hecq describes how Europe became something of a “dreamland”, with numerous artists influenced by their childhood readings about this part of the world and a sense of the imaginary or the “other”. This sense of a dream is described beautifully by McAuliffe (56), who refers to the 1898 painting by A.J. Daplyn as a “melancholic diagram of the nineteenth-century Australian artist’s world, tempering the shimmering allure of those northern lights with the shadowy, somnolent isolation of the south”.Figure 1: The Australian Artist’s Dream of Europe; A.J. Daplyn, 1898 (oil on canvas; courtesy artnet.com)In ‘Some Other Dream’, de Groen presents a series of interviews with expatriate Australian artists and writers as an insight into what drove each to look north and to leave Australia, either temporarily or permanently. Here are a few examples:Janet Alderson: “I desperately wanted to see what was going on” (2)Robert Jacks: “the dream of something else. New York is a dream for lots of people” (21)Bruce Latimer: “I’d always been interested in America, New York in particular” (34)Jeffrey Smart: “Australia seemed to be very dull and isolated, and Italy seemed to be thrilling and modern” (50)Clement Meadmore: “I never had much to do with what was happening in Melbourne: I was never accepted there” (66)Stelarc: “I was interested in traditional Japanese art and the philosophy of Zen” (80)Robert Hughes: “I’d written everything that I’d wanted to write about Australian art and this really dread prospect was looming up of staying in Australia for the rest of one’s life” (128)Max Hutchison: “I quickly realised that Melbourne was a non-art consuming city” (158)John Stringer: “I was not getting the latitude that I wanted at the National Gallery [in Australia] … the prospects of doing other good shows seemed rather slim” (178)As the testimony here suggests, the allure of the north ranges from dissatisfaction with the south to the attraction of various parts of the world in the north.More recently, McAuliffe describes a shift in the impact of the overseas experience for many artists. Describing them as business travellers, he refers to the fact that artists today travel to meet international art dealers and to participate in exhibitions, art fairs and the like. Further, he argues that the risk today lies in “disorientation and distraction rather than provincial timidity” (McAuliffe 56). That is, given the ease and relatively cheap costs of international travel, McAuliffe argues that the challenge is in adapting to constantly changing circumstances, rather than what are now arguably dated concepts of cultural cringe or tyranny of distance. Further, given the combination of “cultural nationalism, social cosmopolitanism and information technology”, McAuliffe (58) argues that the need to expatriate is no longer a requirement for success.Australian Art Struggles InternationallyThe struggles for Australian art as a sector to succeed internationally, particularly in Britain, Europe and the US, are well documented (Frost; Robertson). This is largely due to Australia’s limited history of white settlement and established canon of great art works, the fact that power and position remain strong hence the dominance of Europe and North America in the creative arts field (Bourdieu), as well as Australia’s geographical isolation from the major art centres of the world, with Heartney (63) describing the “persistent sense of isolation of the Australian art world”. While Australia has had considerable success internationally in terms of its popular music (e.g. INXS, Kylie Minogue, The Seekers) and high-profile Hollywood actors (e.g. Geoffrey Rush, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman), the visual arts in particular have struggled (O’Sullivan), including the Indigenous visual arts subsector (Stone). One of the constant criticisms in the visual art world is that Australian art is too focussed on place (e.g. the Australian outback) and not global art movements and trends (Robertson). While on the one hand he argues that Australian visual artists have made some inroads and successes in the international market, McAuliffe (63) tempers this with the following observation:Australian artists don’t operate at the white-hot heart of the international art market: there are no astronomical prices and hotly contested bidding wars. International museums acquire Australian art only rarely, and many an international survey exhibition goes by with no Australian representation.The Push to Sell Australian Cultural Product in the NorthWriting in the mid-nineties at the time of the release of the national cultural policy Creative Nation, the then prime minister Paul Keating identified a need for Australia as a nation to become more competitive internationally in terms of cultural exports. This is a theme that continues today. Recent decades have seen several attempts to promote Australian visual art overseas and in particular Indigenous art; this has come with mixed success. However, there have been misconceptions in the past and hence numerous challenges associated with promoting and selling Aboriginal art in international markets (Wright). One of the problems is that a lot of Europeans “have often seen bad examples of Aboriginal Art” (Anonymous 69) and it is typically the art work which travels north, less so the Indigenous artists who create them and who can talk to them and engage with audiences. At the same time, the Indigenous art sector remains a major contributor to the Australian art economy (Australia Council). While there are some examples of successful Australian art managers operating galleries overseas in such places as London and in the US (Anonymous-b), these are limited and many have had to struggle to gain recognition for their artists’ works.Throsby refers to the well-established fact that the international art market predominantly resides in the US and in Europe (including Britain). Further, Throsby (64) argues that breaking into this market “is a daunting task requiring resources, perseverance, a quality product, and a good deal of luck”. Referring specifically to Indigenous Australian art, Throsby (65) reveals how leading European fairs such as those at Basel and Cologne, displaying breath-taking ignorance if not outright stupidity, have vetoed Aboriginal works on the grounds that they are folk art. This saga continues to the present day, and it still remains to be seen whether these fairs will eventually wake up to themselves.It is also presented in an issue of Artlink that the “challenge is to convince European buyers of the value of Australian art, even though the work is comparatively inexpensive” (Anonymous 69). Is the Rite of Passage Relevant in the 21st Century?Some authors challenge the notion that the rite of passage to the northern hemisphere is a requirement for success for an Australian artist (Frost). This challenge is worthy of unpacking in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and particularly so in what is being termed the Asian century (Bice and Sullivan; Wesley). Firstly, Australia is far closer to Asia than it is to Europe and North America. Secondly, the Asian population is expected to continue to experience rapid economic and population growth, for example the rise of the middle class in China, potentially representing new markets for the consumption of creative product. Lee and Lim refer to the rapid economic modernisation and growth in East Asia (Japan to Singapore). Hence, given the struggles that are often experienced by Australian artists and dealers in attempting to break into the art markets of Europe and North America, it may be more constructive to look towards Asia as an alternative north and place for Australian creative product. Fourthly, many Asian countries are investing heavily in their creative industries and creative economy (Kim and Kim; Kong), hence representing an opportune time for Australian creative practitioners to explore new connections and partnerships.In the first half of the twentieth century, Australians felt compelled to travel north to Europe, especially, if they wanted to engage with the great art teachers, galleries and art works. Today, with the impact of technology, engaging with the art world can be achieved much more readily and quickly, through “increasingly transnational forms of cultural production, distribution and consumption” (Rowe et al. 8). This recent wave of technological development has been significant (Guerra and Kagan), in relation to online communication (e.g. skype, email), social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) as well as content available on the Web for both informal and formal learning purposes. Artists anywhere in the world can now connect online while also engaging with what is an increasing field of virtual museums and galleries. For example, the Tate Gallery in London has over 70,000 artworks in its online art database which includes significant commentary on each work. While online engagement does not necessarily enable an individual to have the lived experience of a gallery walk-through or to be an audience member at a live performance in an outstanding international venue, online technologies have made it much easier for developing artists to engage from anywhere in the world. This certainly makes the ‘tyranny of distance’ factor relevant to Australia somewhat more manageable.There is also a developing field of research citing the importance of emerging artists displaying enterprising and/or entrepreneurial skills (Bridgstock), in the context of a rapidly changing global arts sector. This broadly refers to the need for artists to have business skills, to be able to seek out and identify opportunities, as well as manage multiple projects and/or various streams of income in what is a very different career type and pathway (Beckman; Bridgstock and Cunningham; Hennekam and Bennett). These opportunity seeking skills and agentic qualities have also been cited as critical in relation to the fact that there is not only a major oversupply of artistic labour globally (Menger), but there is a growing stream of entrants to the global higher education tertiary arts sector that shows no signs of subsiding (Daniel). Concluding RemarksAustralia’s history features a strong relationship with and influences from the north, and in particular from Britain, Europe and North America. This remains the case today, with much of Australian society based on inherited models from Britain, be this in the art world or in such areas as the law and education. As well as a range of cultural and sentimental links with this north, Australia is sometimes considered to be a satellite of European civilisation in the Asia-Pacific region. It is therefore explicable why artists might continue this longstanding relationship with this particular north.In our interesting and complex present of the early twenty-first century, Australia is hampered by the lack of any national cultural policy as well as recent significant cuts to arts funding at the national and state levels (Caust). Nevertheless, there are opportunities to be further explored in relation to the changing patterns of production and consumption of creative content, the impact of new and next technologies, as well as the rise of Asia in the Asian Century. The broad field of the arts and artists is a rich area for ongoing research and inquiry and ultimately, Australia’s links to the north including the concept of the rite of passage deserves ongoing consideration.ReferencesAnonymous a. "Outposts: The Case of the Unofficial Attache." Artlink 18.4 (1998): 69–71.Anonymous b. "Who’s Selling What to Whom: Australian Dealers Taking Australian Art Overseas." Artlink 18. 4 (1998): 66–68.Australia Council for the Arts. Arts Nation: An Overview of Australian Arts. 2015. <http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/arts-nation-final-27-feb-54f5f492882da.pdf>.Beckman, Gary D. "'Adventuring' Arts Entrepreneurship Curricula in Higher Education: An Examination of Present Efforts, Obstacles, and Best Practices." The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 37.2 (2007): 87–112.Bice, Sara, and Helen Sullivan. "Abbott Government May Have New Rhetoric, But It’s Still the ‘Asian Century’." The Conversation 2013. <https://theconversation.com/abbott-government-may-have-new-rhetoric-but-its-still-the-asian-century-19769>.Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.Bridgstock, Ruth. "Not a Dirty Word: Arts Entrepreneurship and Higher Education." Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 12.2–3 (2013,): 122–137. doi:10.1177/1474022212465725.———, and Stuart Cunningham. "Creative Labour and Graduate Outcomes: Implications for Higher Education and Cultural Policy." International Journal of Cultural Policy 22.1 (2015): 10–26. doi:10.1080/10286632.2015.1101086.Britain, Ian. Once an Australian: Journeys with Barry Humphries, Clive James, Germaine Greer and Robert Hughes. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.Caust, Josephine. "Cultural Wars in an Australian Context: Challenges in Developing a National Cultural Policy." International Journal of Cultural Policy 21.2 (2015): 168–182. doi:10.1080/10286632.2014.890607.Cooper, Roslyn Pesman. "Some Australian Italies." Westerly 39.4 (1994): 95–104.Daniel, Ryan, and Robert Johnstone. "Becoming an Artist: Exploring the Motivations of Undergraduate Students at a Regional Australian University". 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I am pleased to welcome readers to Volume 8(1) of the International Journal for Educational Integrity. Academic integrity has been in the headlines in Australia this year, with the national Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) calling for commissioned projects on academic integrity for the first time. The last issue of the IJEI included refereed papers from the 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (Perth, Australia) and highlighted the work of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded project, Australian academic integrity standards: Aligning policy and practice in Australian universities. The preliminary results of that project have resulted in the OLT providing $299,000 for an additional 12 month project entitled, Embedding and extending exemplary academic integrity policy and support frameworks across the higher education sector. The new project will begin in December 2012, and aims to extend and embed the five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy identified by the ALTC project– access, approach, responsibility, detail and support – across the Australian higher education sector. Central to these elements is a commitment by providers to fostering a culture of academic integrity. As support is crucial to enact exemplary policy, the OLT project will develop resources accessible to both public and private higher education providers to embed these elements. Two critical areas identified by the ALTC project will be addressed in the new project. First, support systems will be developed for vulnerable student groups including international English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, and educationally "less prepared" students who struggle to understand the concept of academic integrity without assistance. Second, the lessons about exemplary academic integrity policy and support frameworks will be extended to include higher degree by research (HDR) students. It is apparent that policy makers at the highest levels, and across the various education sectors, are beginning to put academic integrity at the centre of teaching and learning. This, of course, is excellent news for all of us working in this important field. The current issue of the journal, like every issue published to date, includes commentary, research and recommendations for good practice from around the globe. The issue opens with an invited piece by Eric Duff Wrobbel from Southern Illinois University in the USA, which many of our North American readers may recall was in the news for, of all things, plagiarising the definition of plagiarism in their new plagiarism policy! Wrobbel takes a light-hearted approach to responding to the scandal, and conducts three informal studies which he shares with our readers. Of interest to Australian researchers on the ALTC project who are currently grappling with definitions of academic integrity, Wrobbel conducted a workshop with colleagues to come up with an original definition of plagiarism and found the task to be almost impossible. I think you will find Wrobbel's contribution both engaging and informative. Steve Williams, Margaret Tanner, Jim Beard and Georgia Hale, all from the University of Arkansas, USA, provide the first refereed paper in this issue. Williams and colleagues conducted a survey of 46 faculty members and 562 undergraduates. They found that 74% of faculty members believed academic misconduct had recently occurred in their classes, and this paralleled the 67% of undergraduates who admitted to academic misconduct in the past year. Not surprisingly, those students who admitted to having cheated viewed cheating as being significantly less serious than those who had not cheated. Williams et al provide some useful recommendations for addressing academic integrity issues on campus which are well supported by other researchers and practitioners working in this area. Lucia Zivcakova, Eileen Wood, Mark Baetz and Domenica De Pasquale, all from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, also explored university teaching staff perceptions of academic integrity. The authors used an innovative methodology of interviewing staff following their observation of their students engaged in a 45-minute interactive presentation on academic integrity. They then conducted a qualitative analysis of faculty members' perceptions, beliefs and instructional concerns regarding academic integrity in their classrooms. Key findings from the analysis suggest that faculty members perceived themselves to be confident in their own understanding of what constitutes academic integrity; however, there were inconsistencies regarding whether their students had the requisite knowledge to make appropriate decisions. Only half of the faculty found that the presentation content enhanced their own knowledge of academic integrity. Faculty identified several methods they use to safeguard against academic misconduct, and identified the importance of both faculty and the institution providing a consistent and clear model to promote academic integrity in students. The final two refereed papers in this issue come from the United Kingdom. Neil Wellman and Julian Fallon (Cardiff Metropolitan University) report the preliminary findings of an action research project designed to address academic misconduct amongst postgraduate students in an international MBA programme. A two-pronged approach was implemented, beginning with a zero-tolerance policy requiring that all MBA assignments be submitted to the Turnitin text matching software and penalties resulting from any identified misconduct be widely publicised. The second, crucial element of the approach was a strengthening of the induction and study skills elements of the programme. In keeping with generally agreed best practice, the authors conclude that the dual strategy of prevention and cure was effective, resulting in an overall reduction in the rate of academic misconduct. Sharon McCulloch from Lancaster University provides the final paper in the issue. McCulloch makes the compelling case that although much of the research into source use by international students has tended to focus on issues of plagiarism, there has recently been recognition that their difficulties may be more pedagogical than moral. McCulloch reports on a small case study involving a group of Japanese postgraduate students. Analysis of five Pre-Master's dissertations written by these students, as well as interviews conducted with the writers, revealed that they varied in their ability to handle source material effectively. In many cases, their use of source material appeared to be symptomatic of weak authorial stance and apparent lack of a clear argument. Based on these findings, the study concludes with the recommendation that instruction on the use of source material focus to a greater extent on its rhetorical function in constructing knowledge. All the papers in this issue aim to share research findings with the clear intention of improving practice in all levels of the educative process, beginning with undergraduate students and extending to postgraduate scholars and teaching staff. I trust you will enjoy reading these articles and sharing the lessons with your colleagues. Tracey Bretag, Editor.

On May 18, 2003, the Australian Minister for Education, Brendon Nelson, appeared on the Channel Nine Sunday programme. The Yoda of political journalism, Laurie Oakes, attacked him personally and professionally. He disclosed to viewers that the Minister for Education, Science and Training had suffered a false start in his education, enrolling in one semester of an economics degree that was never completed. The following year, he commenced a medical qualification and went on to become a practicing doctor. He did not pay fees for any of his University courses. When reminded of these events, Dr Nelson became agitated, and revealed information not included in the public presentation of the budget of that year, including a ‘cap’ on HECS-funded places of five years for each student. He justified such a decision with the cliché that Australia’s taxpayers do not want “professional students completing degree after degree.” The Minister confirmed that the primary – and perhaps the only – task for university academics was to ‘train’ young people for the workforce. The fact that nearly 50% of students in some Australian Universities are over the age of twenty five has not entered his vision. He wanted young people to complete a rapid degree and enter the workforce, to commence paying taxes and the debt or loan required to fund a full fee-paying place. Now – nearly two years after this interview and with the Howard government blessed with a new mandate – it is time to ask how this administration will order education and value teaching and learning. The curbing of the time available to complete undergraduate courses during their last term in office makes plain the Australian Liberal Government’s stance on formal, publicly-funded lifelong learning. The notion that a student/worker can attain all required competencies, skills, attributes, motivations and ambitions from a single degree is an assumption of the new funding model. It is also significant to note that while attention is placed on the changing sources of income for universities, there have also been major shifts in the pattern of expenditure within universities, focusing on branding, marketing, recruitment, ‘regional’ campuses and off-shore courses. Similarly, the short-term funding goals of university research agendas encourage projects required by industry, rather than socially inflected concerns. There is little inevitable about teaching, research and education in Australia, except that the Federal Government will not create a fully-funded model for lifelong learning. The task for those of us involved in – and committed to – education in this environment is to probe the form and rationale for a (post) publicly funded University. This short paper for the ‘order’ issue of M/C explores learning and teaching within our current political and economic order. Particularly, I place attention on the synergies to such an order via phrases like the knowledge economy and the creative industries. To move beyond the empty promises of just-in-time learning, on-the-job training, graduate attributes and generic skills, we must reorder our assumptions and ask difficult questions of those who frame the context in which education takes place. For the term of your natural life Learning is a big business. Whether discussing the University of the Third Age, personal development courses, self help bestsellers or hard-edged vocational qualifications, definitions of learning – let alone education – are expanding. Concurrent with this growth, governments are reducing centralized funding and promoting alternative revenue streams. The diversity of student interests – or to use the language of the time, client’s learning goals – is transforming higher education into more than the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The expansion of the student body beyond the 18-25 age group and the desire to ‘service industry’ has reordered the form and purpose of formal education. The number of potential students has expanded extraordinarily. As Lee Bash realized Today, some estimates suggest that as many as 47 percent of all students enrolled in higher education are over 25 years old. In the future, as lifelong learning becomes more integrated into the fabric of our culture, the proportion of adult students is expected to increase. And while we may not yet realize it, the academy is already being transformed as a result. (35) Lifelong learning is the major phrase and trope that initiates and justifies these changes. Such expansive economic opportunities trigger the entrepreneurial directives within universities. If lifelong learning is taken seriously, then the goals, entry standards, curriculum, information management policies and assessments need to be challenged and changed. Attention must be placed on words and phrases like ‘access’ and ‘alternative entry.’ Even more consideration must be placed on ‘outcomes’ and ‘accountability.’ Lifelong learning is a catchphrase for a change in purpose and agenda. Courses are developed from a wide range of education providers so that citizens can function in, or at least survive, the agitation of the post-work world. Both neo-liberal and third way models of capitalism require the labeling and development of an aspirational class, a group who desires to move ‘above’ their current context. Such an ambiguous economic and social goal always involves more than the vocational education and training sector or universities, with the aim being to seamlessly slot education into a ‘lifestyle.’ The difficulties with this discourse are two-fold. Firstly, how effectively can these aspirational notions be applied and translated into a real family and a real workplace? Secondly, does this scheme increase the information divide between rich and poor? There are many characteristics of an effective lifelong learner including great personal motivation, self esteem, confidence and intellectual curiosity. In a double shifting, change-fatigued population, the enthusiasm for perpetual learning may be difficult to summon. With the casualization of the post-Fordist workplace, it is no surprise that policy makers and employers are placing the economic and personal responsibility for retraining on individual workers. Instead of funding a training scheme in the workplace, there has been a devolving of skill acquisition and personal development. Through the twentieth century, and particularly after 1945, education was the track to social mobility. The difficulty now – with degree inflation and the loss of stable, secure, long-term employment – is that new modes of exclusion and disempowerment are being perpetuated through the education system. Field recognized that “the new adult education has been embraced most enthusiastically by those who are already relatively well qualified.” (105) This is a significant realization. Motivation, meta-learning skills and curiosity are increasingly being rewarded when found in the already credentialed, empowered workforce. Those already in work undertake lifelong learning. Adult education operates well for members of the middle class who are doing well and wish to do better. If success is individualized, then failure is also cast on the self, not the social system or policy. The disempowered are blamed for their own conditions and ‘failures.’ The concern, through the internationalization of the workforce, technological change and privatization of national assets, is that failure in formal education results in social exclusion and immobility. Besides being forced into classrooms, there are few options for those who do not wish to learn, in a learning society. Those who ‘choose’ not be a part of the national project of individual improvement, increased market share, company competitiveness and international standards are not relevant to the economy. But there is a personal benefit – that may have long term political consequences – from being ‘outside’ society. Perhaps the best theorist of the excluded is not sourced from a University, but from the realm of fictional writing. Irvine Welsh, author of the landmark Trainspotting, has stated that What we really need is freedom from choice … People who are in work have no time for anything else but work. They have no mental space to accommodate anything else but work. Whereas people who are outside the system will always find ways of amusing themselves. Even if they are materially disadvantaged they’ll still find ways of coping, getting by and making their own entertainment. (145-6) A blurring of work and learning, and work and leisure, may seem to create a borderless education, a learning framework uninhibited by curriculum, assessment or power structures. But lifelong learning aims to place as many (national) citizens as possible in ‘the system,’ striving for success or at least a pay increase which will facilitate the purchase of more consumer goods. Through any discussion of work-place training and vocationalism, it is important to remember those who choose not to choose life, who choose something else, who will not follow orders. Everybody wants to work The great imponderable for complex economic systems is how to manage fluctuations in labour and the market. The unstable relationship between need and supply necessitates flexibility in staffing solutions, and short-term supplementary labour options. When productivity and profit are the primary variables through which to judge successful management, then the alignments of education and employment are viewed and skewed through specific ideological imperatives. The library profession is an obvious occupation that has confronted these contradictions. It is ironic that the occupation that orders knowledge is experiencing a volatile and disordered workplace. In the past, it had been assumed that librarians hold a degree while technicians do not, and that technicians would not be asked to perform – unsupervised – the same duties as librarians. Obviously, such distinctions are increasingly redundant. Training packages, structured through competency-based training principles, have ensured technicians and librarians share knowledge systems which are taught through incremental stages. Mary Carroll recognized the primary questions raised through this change. If it is now the case that these distinctions have disappeared do we need to continue to draw them between professional and para-professional education? Does this mean that all sectors of the education community are in fact learning/teaching the same skills but at different levels so that no unique set of skills exist? (122) With education reduced to skills, thereby discrediting generalist degrees, the needs of industry have corroded the professional standards and stature of librarians. Certainly, the abilities of library technicians are finally being valued, but it is too convenient that one of the few professions dominated by women has suffered a demeaning of knowledge into competency. Lifelong learning, in this context, has collapsed high level abilities in information management into bite sized chunks of ‘skills.’ The ideology of lifelong learning – which is rarely discussed – is that it serves to devalue prior abilities and knowledges into an ever-expanding imperative for ‘new’ skills and software competencies. For example, ponder the consequences of Hitendra Pillay and Robert Elliott’s words: The expectations inherent in new roles, confounded by uncertainty of the environment and the explosion of information technology, now challenge us to reconceptualise human cognition and develop education and training in a way that resonates with current knowledge and skills. (95) Neophilliacal urges jut from their prose. The stress on ‘new roles,’ and ‘uncertain environments,’ the ‘explosion of information technology,’ ‘challenges,’ ‘reconceptualisations,’ and ‘current knowledge’ all affirms the present, the contemporary, and the now. Knowledge and expertise that have taken years to develop, nurture and apply are not validated through this educational brief. The demands of family, work, leisure, lifestyle, class and sexuality stretch the skin taut over economic and social contradictions. To ease these paradoxes, lifelong learning should stress pedagogy rather than applications, and context rather than content. Put another way, instead of stressing the link between (gee wizz) technological change and (inevitable) workplace restructuring and redundancies, emphasis needs to be placed on the relationship between professional development and verifiable technological outcomes, rather than spruiks and promises. Short term vocationalism in educational policy speaks to the ordering of our public culture, requiring immediate profits and a tight dialogue between education and work. Furthering this logic, if education ‘creates’ employment, then it also ‘creates’ unemployment. Ironically, in an environment that focuses on the multiple identities and roles of citizens, students are reduced to one label – ‘future workers.’ Obviously education has always been marinated in the political directives of the day. The industrial revolution introduced a range of technical complexities to the workforce. Fordism necessitated that a worker complete a task with precision and speed, requiring a high tolerance of stress and boredom. Now, more skills are ‘assumed’ by employers at the time that workplaces are off-loading their training expectations to the post-compulsory education sector. Therefore ‘lifelong learning’ is a political mask to empower the already empowered and create a low-level skill base for low paid workers, with the promise of competency-based training. Such ideologies never need to be stated overtly. A celebration of ‘the new’ masks this task. Not surprisingly therefore, lifelong learning has a rich new life in ordering creative industries strategies and frameworks. Codifying the creative The last twenty years have witnessed an expanding jurisdiction and justification of the market. As part of Tony Blair’s third way, the creative industries and the knowledge economy became catchwords to demonstrate that cultural concerns are not only economically viable but a necessity in the digital, post-Fordist, information age. Concerns with intellectual property rights, copyright, patents, and ownership of creative productions predominate in such a discourse. Described by Charles Leadbeater as Living on Thin Air, this new economy is “driven by new actors of production and sources of competitive advantage – innovation, design, branding, know-how – which are at work on all industries.” (10) Such market imperatives offer both challenges and opportunity for educationalists and students. Lifelong learning is a necessary accoutrement to the creative industries project. Learning cities and communities are the foundations for design, music, architecture and journalism. In British policy, and increasingly in Queensland, attention is placed on industry-based research funding to address this changing environment. In 2000, Stuart Cunningham and others listed the eight trends that order education, teaching and learning in this new environment. The Changes to the Provision of Education Globalization The arrival of new information and communication technologies The development of a knowledge economy, shortening the time between the development of new ideas and their application. The formation of learning organizations User-pays education The distribution of knowledge through interactive communication technologies (ICT) Increasing demand for education and training Scarcity of an experienced and trained workforce Source: S. Cunningham, Y. Ryan, L. Stedman, S. Tapsall, K. Bagdon, T. Flew and P. Coaldrake. The Business of Borderless Education. Canberra: DETYA Evaluation and Investigations Program [EIP], 2000. This table reverberates with the current challenges confronting education. Mobilizing such changes requires the lubrication of lifelong learning tropes in university mission statements and the promotion of a learning culture, while also acknowledging the limited financial conditions in which the educational sector is placed. For university scholars facilitating the creative industries approach, education is “supplying high value-added inputs to other enterprises,” (Hartley and Cunningham 5) rather than having value or purpose beyond the immediately and applicably economic. The assumption behind this table is that the areas of expansion in the workforce are the creative and service industries. In fact, the creative industries are the new service sector. This new economy makes specific demands of education. Education in the ‘old economy’ and the ‘new economy’ Old Economy New Economy Four-year degree Forty-year degree Training as a cost Training as a source of competitive advantage Learner mobility Content mobility Distance education Distributed learning Correspondence materials with video Multimedia centre Fordist training – one size fits all Tailored programmes Geographically fixed institutions Brand named universities and celebrity professors Just-in-case Just-in-time Isolated learners Virtual learning communities Source: T. Flew. “Educational Media in Transition: Broadcasting, Digital Media and Lifelong Learning in the Knowledge Economy.” International Journal of Instructional Media 29.1 (2002): 20. There are myriad assumptions lurking in Flew’s fascinating table. The imperative is short courses on the web, servicing the needs of industry. He described the product of this system as a “learner-earner.” (50) This ‘forty year degree’ is based on lifelong learning ideologies. However Flew’s ideas are undermined by the current government higher education agenda, through the capping – through time – of courses. The effect on the ‘learner-earner’ in having to earn more to privately fund a continuance of learning – to ensure that they keep on earning – needs to be addressed. There will be consequences to the housing market, family structures and leisure time. The costs of education will impact on other sectors of the economy and private lives. Also, there is little attention to the groups who are outside this taken-for-granted commitment to learning. Flew noted that barriers to greater participation in education and training at all levels, which is a fundamental requirement of lifelong learning in the knowledge economy, arise in part out of the lack of provision of quality technology-mediated learning, and also from inequalities of access to ICTs, or the ‘digital divide.’ (51) In such a statement, there is a misreading of teaching and learning. Such confusion is fuelled by the untheorised gap between ‘student’ and ‘consumer.’ The notion that technology (which in this context too often means computer-mediated platforms) is a barrier to education does not explain why conventional distance education courses, utilizing paper, ink and postage, were also unable to welcome or encourage groups disengaged from formal learning. Flew and others do not confront the issue of motivation, or the reason why citizens choose to add or remove the label of ‘student’ from their bag of identity labels. The stress on technology as both a panacea and problem for lifelong learning may justify theories of convergence and the integration of financial, retail, community, health and education provision into a services sector, but does not explain why students desire to learn, beyond economic necessity and employer expectations. Based on these assumptions of expanding creative industries and lifelong learning, the shape of education is warping. An ageing population requires educational expenditure to be reallocated from primary and secondary schooling and towards post-compulsory learning and training. This cost will also be privatized. When coupled with immigration flows, technological changes and alterations to market and labour structures, lifelong learning presents a profound and personal cost. An instrument for economic and social progress has been individualized, customized and privatized. The consequence of the ageing population in many nations including Australia is that there will be fewer young people in schools or employment. Such a shift will have consequences for the workplace and the taxation system. Similarly, those young workers who remain will be far more entrepreneurial and less loyal to their employers. Public education is now publically-assisted education. Jane Jenson and Denis Saint-Martin realized the impact of this change. The 1980s ideological shift in economic and social policy thinking towards policies and programmes inspired by neo-liberalism provoked serious social strains, especially income polarization and persistent poverty. An increasing reliance on market forces and the family for generating life-chances, a discourse of ‘responsibility,’ an enthusiasm for off-loading to the voluntary sector and other altered visions of the welfare architecture inspired by neo-liberalism have prompted a reaction. There has been a wide-ranging conversation in the 1990s and the first years of the new century in policy communities in Europe as in Canada, among policy makers who fear the high political, social and economic costs of failing to tend to social cohesion. (78) There are dense social reorderings initiated by neo-liberalism and changing the notions of learning, teaching and education. There are yet to be tracked costs to citizenship. The legacy of the 1980s and 1990s is that all organizations must behave like businesses. In such an environment, there are problems establishing social cohesion, let alone social justice. To stress the product – and not the process – of education contradicts the point of lifelong learning. Compliance and complicity replace critique. (Post) learning The Cold War has ended. The great ideological battle between communism and Western liberal democracy is over. Most countries believe both in markets and in a necessary role for Government. There will be thunderous debates inside nations about the balance, but the struggle for world hegemony by political ideology is gone. What preoccupies decision-makers now is a different danger. It is extremism driven by fanaticism, personified either in terrorist groups or rogue states. Tony Blair (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6535.asp) Tony Blair, summoning his best Francis Fukuyama impersonation, signaled the triumph of liberal democracy over other political and economic systems. His third way is unrecognizable from the Labour party ideals of Clement Attlee. Probably his policies need to be. Yet in his second term, he is not focused on probing the specificities of the market-orientation of education, health and social welfare. Instead, decision makers are preoccupied with a war on terror. Such a conflict seemingly justifies large defense budgets which must be at the expense of social programmes. There is no recognition by Prime Ministers Blair or Howard that ‘high-tech’ armory and warfare is generally impotent to the terrorist’s weaponry of cars, bodies and bombs. This obvious lesson is present for them to see. After the rapid and successful ‘shock and awe’ tactics of Iraq War II, terrorism was neither annihilated nor slowed by the Coalition’s victory. Instead, suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Indonesia and Israel snuck have through defenses, requiring little more than a car and explosives. More Americans have been killed since the war ended than during the conflict. Wars are useful when establishing a political order. They sort out good and evil, the just and the unjust. Education policy will never provide the ‘big win’ or the visible success of toppling Saddam Hussein’s statue. The victories of retraining, literacy, competency and knowledge can never succeed on this scale. As Blair offered, “these are new times. New threats need new measures.” (ht tp://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6535.asp) These new measures include – by default – a user pays education system. In such an environment, lifelong learning cannot succeed. It requires a dense financial commitment in the long term. A learning society requires a new sort of war, using ideas not bullets. References Bash, Lee. “What Serving Adult Learners Can Teach Us: The Entrepreneurial Response.” Change January/February 2003: 32-7. Blair, Tony. “Full Text of the Prime Minister’s Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet.” November 12, 2002. http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6535.asp. Carroll, Mary. “The Well-Worn Path.” The Australian Library Journal May 2002: 117-22. Field, J. Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books, 2000. Flew, Terry. “Educational Media in Transition: Broadcasting, Digital Media and Lifelong Learning in the Knowledge Economy.” International Journal of Instructional Media 29.1 (2002): 47-60. Hartley, John, and Cunningham, Stuart. “Creative Industries – from Blue Poles to Fat Pipes.” Department of Education, Science and Training, Commonwealth of Australia (2002). Jenson, Jane, and Saint-Martin, Denis. “New Routes to Social Cohesion? Citizenship and the Social Investment State.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 28.1 (2003): 77-99. Leadbeater, Charles. Living on Thin Air. London: Viking, 1999. Pillay, Hitendra, and Elliott, Robert. “Distributed Learning: Understanding the Emerging Workplace Knowledge.” Journal of Interactive Learning Research 13.1-2 (2002): 93-107. Welsh, Irvine, from Redhead, Steve. “Post-Punk Junk.” Repetitive Beat Generation. Glasgow: Rebel Inc, 2000: 138-50. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Brabazon, Tara. "Freedom from Choice: Who Pays for Customer Service in the Knowledge Economy?." M/C Journal 7.6 (2005). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0501/02-brabazon.php>. APA Style Brabazon, T. (Jan. 2005) "Freedom from Choice: Who Pays for Customer Service in the Knowledge Economy?," M/C Journal, 7(6). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0501/02-brabazon.php>.

This study originated from a professional interest of the researcher in competency standards and their implementation in the professions. The study was conducted with the aim of informing policy development and implementation in Namibia in this area by drawing lessons from the Australian experience. It set out to identify the factors that influenced the implementation of this policy in Australia, the importance of these factors and the strategies employed by implementors to enhance successful implementation. The study is grounded in policy implementation theory. Twenty professions have been involved in developing and implementing competency standards in Australia under the guidance and with the support of a national government organisation called the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (NOOSR). The main objectives of the Australian government in implementing this policy were the improvement of migrant skills recognition and the achievement of recognition for professional qualifications across state and territory borders. Time and budgetary constraints would not allow the involvement of all the professional groups in this study, so four groups were selected based on their size and progress made in developing and implementing the standards. The groups ranged from a very large professional group (more than 250 000 members) to a very small professional group (approximately 3 500 members). Eleven respondents from NOOSR and the professional groups participated in the study. Data was gathered by structured interview, a rating schedule and document analysis. The study found that there were seventeen factors that influenced this process as perceived by the respondents. These factors were classified into five categories: technical, political, economic, administrative and political, and then placed on a matrix with the levels at which they exerted their greatest pressure: external, internal to the professional body, and on the steering group. This classification of factors gave indications of the types of strategies and the level of intervention which may address implementation problems best. The study compiled a list of the factors in order of importance as rated by the respondents. This ranking showed that leadership was the most important factor, followed by experience and expertise of the steering group and the need for and appropriateness of the standards for the professions. The study also found that the Australian government employed inducement, capacity building and facilitation strategies to enhance the successful vii implementation of the standards, while the professional bodies employed mainly staff development and training as strategies. The study concluded that Namibian policy makers and implementors can draw the following lessons from the Australian experience: 1. there is a need for a balance between pressure and support from government; 2. there is a role for a national implementation plan; 3. the main attraction of national competency standards is still the many uses it can be put to and the many purposes it serves for different organisations; 4. assessment strategies need to be considered from the beginning; 5. the methodology of using a representative steering group to lead standards development is one of the best features of the Australian approach; 6. Over time, the original objectives of the policy became low priority for NOOSR and the government; 7. the classification matrix can be used as a planning tool; and 8. the ranking of the factors indicates the importance of organisational, technical and economic factors.