Careers work is a very political business. Since the early 1990s, successive governments in England and the Netherlands have persistently challenged those working in the careers sector to demonstrate the educational, social and economic value and impact of their work. In this context, the marketisation of career guidance policies and practices has expanded, with a growing assumption that market-based goods and services ensure greater responsiveness to consumer choice and offer better and/or more innovative services for lower prices. In this article, we do not intend to give a comparison of trends in England and the Netherlands. We only examine the impact of market principles applied to career guidance provision in both countries. Findings indicate such provision for young people is on a steady decline. Lessons learned from these two nations indicate that a market for quality career services does not exist in schools and colleges. As a result, marketisation and privatisation of career services have led to an impoverished and fragmented supply of services. Greater attention by governments in career guidance policies for young people (and adults) is necessary to reduce the widening gap between ‘the haves and have nots’ in society. Failure to reduce labour market mismatch through new forms of careers dialogue is not only damaging and costly for individuals, families and employers, but for the taxpayer too.
Assistive technology supports maintenance or improvement of an individual’s functioning and independence, though for people in need the access to assistive products is not always guaranteed. This paper presents a generic quality framework for assistive technology service delivery that can be used independent of the setting, context, legislative framework, or type of technology. Based on available literature and a series of discussions among the authors, a framework was developed. It consists of 7 general quality criteria and four indicators for each of these criteria. The criteria are: accessibility; competence; coordination; efficiency; flexibility; user centeredness, and infrastructure. This framework can be used at a micro level (processes around individual users), meso level (the service delivery scheme or programme) or at a macro level (the whole country). It aims to help identify in an easy way the main strengths and weaknesses of a system or process, and thus guide possible improvements. As a next step in the development of this quality framework the authors propose to organise a global consultancy process to obtain responses from stakeholders across the world and to plan a number of case studies in which the framework is applied to different service delivery systems and processes in different countries.
Verschillende onderzoeken laten een verband zien tussen de toegenomen keuzemogelijkheden om online gebruik te maken van alternatieve nieuwsbronnen en wantrouwen tegenover de journalistiek. Ondanks dat alternatief mediagebruik geen nieuw fenomeen is weten we nog heel weinig over de nieuwsgebruikers van deze media.
Mkb-bedrijven in de maakindustrie vragen steeds meer om de-assemblage oplossingen, voor het uit elkaar halen van producten als deze End-of-Life zijn. De wens van bedrijven om ‘het goede’ te doen voor mens en klimaat, speelt een rol, maar duurzaamheid wordt natuurlijk ook steeds meer afgedwongen door CSRD, CSDDD, ESPR en andere regelgeving. Gezien de tekorten op de arbeidsmarkt zal dit (deels) geautomatiseerd en m.b.v. digitalisering aangepakt moeten worden. Veel bestaande producten zijn ontwikkeld zonder aandacht te besteden aan de-assemblage (ook wel demanufacturing). Werkvoorbereiding voor demanufacturing is nog niet geprofessionaliseerd. ‘Disassemblability’ ofwel de mate waarin een product gemakkelijk uit elkaar gehaald kan worden is een belangrijke variabele (Turkbay Romano et al., 2024). Kennis hierover, die wel door praktijkervaring aanwezig is, is niet geparametriseerd of gekoppeld aan specifieke producteigenschappen, waardoor elk demanufacturing plan ‘to-order’ gemaakt moet worden. Ook triage (Moeten we dit doen? Hoe gaan we het doen?) bij intake van productseries of individuele producten is belangrijk, maar criteria om te bepalen of hergebruik op product, component of materiaalniveau de moeite waard is ontbreken vaak. De stakeholders van dit project zien de noodzaak om stappen te zetten richting het vormgeven van de ‘demanufacturing guide’ in een productpaspoort, en het slim vullen hiervan, zodat ze benodigde de-assemblage handelingen en tools ‘smart’ kunnen bepalen, op basis van de -nu vaak beperkte- beschikbare productinformatie. Het doel van het project is dan ook te komen tot een gestandaardiseerde beschrijving voor de-assemblage, op basis van o.a. het fysieke product zelf, als onderdeel van een digitaal productpaspoort. Zo’n aanpak draagt bij aan hogere productiviteit, maar ook aan het beter voorspellen van de-assemblage kosten en daarmee het selecteren van producten met een interessante circulaire business case.
Fontys University of Applied Science’s Institute of Engineering, and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER) are proposing to set up a professorship to develop novel sensors for fusion reactors. Sensors are a critical component to control and optimise the unstable plasma of Tokamak reactors. However, sensor systems are particularly challenging in fusion-plasma facing components, such as the divertor. The extreme conditions make it impossible to directly incorporate sensors. Furthermore, in advanced reactor concepts, such as DEMO, access to the plasma via ports will be extremely limited. Therefore, indirect or non-contact sensing modalities must be employed. The research group Distributed Sensor Systems (DSS) will develop microwave sensor systems for characterising the plasma in a tokamak’s divertor. DSS will take advantage of recent rapid developments in high frequency integrated circuits, found, for instance, in automotive radar systems, to develop digital reflectometers. Access through the divertor wall will be achieved via surface waveguide structures. The waveguide will be printed using 3D tungsten printing that has improved precision, and reduced roughness. These components will be tested for durability at DIFFER facilities. The performance of the microwave reflectometer, including waveguides, will be tested by using it to analyse the geometry and dynamics of the Magnum PSI plasma beam. The development of sensor-based systems is an important aspect in the integrated research and education program in Electrical Engineering, where DSS is based. The sensing requirements from DIFFER offers an interesting and highly relevant research theme to DSS and exciting projects for engineering students. Hence, this collaboration will strengthen both institutes and the educational offerings at the institute of engineering. Furthermore millimeter wave (mmWave) sensors have a wide range of potential applications, from plasma characterisation (as in this proposal) though to waste separation. Our research will be a step towards realising these broader application areas.
