A review of twenty years of competency‐based training in the Australian vocational education and training system

In this paper, the author reflects, both as an academic researcher and as a senior practitioner, on the experience of competency‐based training (CBT) in the Australian vocational education and training system. She seeks to draw conclusions about the Australian experience using a typology drawn from the academic literature which focuses on the philosophical, educational, technical and market aspects of CBT. She concludes that, despite many improvements over the past 10 years, some potential problems remain. The system is controlled overly tightly by the interests of industry and it also exhibits some inflexibilities. Both of these act to disadvantage some groups of learners. Teachers and trainers do not have adequate skills to work skilfully and critically with CBT, leading to thin pedagogy and a narrow focus on assessment of individual items of performance.     

A shift to external alliances for product development in the pharmaceutical industry

For a number of years, pharmaceutical companies have been departing from a tradition of strict vertical integration, looking to external sources for at least some of their novel technology and products. The aim of this study was to determine whether (1) this is a long term, industry-wide trend, or (2) merely a temporary or local response to acquire the technical capabilities of the biotechnology revolution of the 1970's, after which, with the new generation of technology in-house, they will revert to primarily in-house innovation. Analysis of secondary data on a representative sample of the fifteen largest drug companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland indicated that between 1977 and 1987, these pharmaceutical companies increased their external R&D alliances nearly six-fold on average. A large and growing proportion of pharmaceutical companies' R&D alliances are formed with biotechnology firms which have proprietary technology, due to financial and innovative pressures. Far from being temporary, this resort to external sources of technology in the pharmaceutical industry follows the trends of the wider industrial world towards functional specialization. Thus, biotechnology companies are increasingly taking on the role of suppliers of innovation.     

Multiple Information Signals in the Market for Charitable Donations

We find evidence indicating that donors use third‐party rating information when they donate to U.S. nonprofit organizations (nonprofits). Specifically, using a sample of over 3,800 unique nonprofits rated by the three largest charity rating organizations in 2007, and over 12,000 unrated control nonprofits, we find that rated nonprofits have significantly higher direct donations than unrated charities. We also hypothesize and find that nonprofits with ratings from multiple rating organizations receive incrementally higher levels of donations. In addition, although charities that receive a positive rating have higher levels of donor support than those receiving a negative rating, both positively and negatively rated nonprofits receive a higher level of direct donations than unrated nonprofits. Finally, we find that nonprofits with consistently good ratings receive higher donations than those with mixed or consistently negative ratings, indicating the donor community values consistency across the three rating agencies.