Purpose - This paper aims to establish the profile of an excellent facility manager in The Netherlands.Design/methodology/approach − As part of a large-scale study on profiles of excellent professionals, a study was carried out to find the key characteristics of an excellent facility manager. Three panel sessions were held in different regions of The Netherlands. Sixteen facility management (FM) professionals with various work experiences participated in the conversations, led by a non-FM moderator. All material was recorded, transcribed, and labelled independently by three assessors. The concept profile that was derived from these analyses was administered in a survey twice to FM experts following a Delphi method.Findings – Outcomes suggest a combination of the following five characteristics defines an excellent facility manager: he or she (1) possesses communication skills; (2) acts results-oriented; (3) is entrepreneurial; (4) is sensitive to the needs of the organisation; (5) demonstrates personal leadership.Paper_Profile Excellent Facility ManagerAll characteristics were consistent with the nine FM Bachelor competencies of the Dutch standard (LOOFD). However, regarding the fifth domain (personal leadership), the observed profile of an excellent FM professional seems more challenging than the Dutch Bachelor standard.Practical implications − The observed profile can be used to further strengthen the Dutch (Honours) Bachelor Programmes in FM. Exploring international (dis)similarities, possibly leading to an international profile of an excellent facility manager, is a future ambition.Originality/Value − This study describes the systematic design of a research-based profile of an excellent FM professional from a practice point of view.
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Paper presentation at the European Council of High Ability, Vienna, Austria. 2-5 March 2016.
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PurposeHonours programs prepare talented students to become future excellent professionals . However, competences defining an excellent professional have not been elucidated yet. We investigated how professionals characterize an excellent communication professional, aiming to develop a competence profile to guide honours education at Communication Institute of Hanze University of Applied Sciences.Conceptual frameworkThe amount of freedom in honours education is an important aspect distinguishing honours from regular programms. However, also for honoursstudents an amount of structure is needed. Explicit learning goals are an effective way to offer structure and enhance performance (Locke & Latham, 2006). Competence profiles can direct these learning goals in honours education. Research questions and designWe performed empiric research to understand how professionals characterize an excellent communication professional and implemented this competence profile in honours education. One year after implementation, perceptions of students and staff on the profile and its implementation were analysed.Using a mixed-method approach, three focus group discussions were conducted with communication professionals (N=16), followed by a Delphi panel with experts (N=30). In each focus group, professionals discussed competences and behaviors characterizing an excellent communication professional. After validation, the profile was implemented in the honours programme. One year after implementation, students and staff evaluated the use of the profile.Data collection and analysisAll focus group sessions were recorded and transcribed. Analysis was done by two researches independently, using open coding on ATLAS ti., based on the grounded theory method. In a consensus meeting, a concept profile was developed. This concept profile was validated through a Delphi survey with Dutch experts to achieve a quantifiable consensus. One year after implementation, perceptions of students and staff on the profile and its implementation were collected and analysed.Results Data clarify that in addition to possessing solid technical skills and practical knowledge, excellent communication professionals are differentiated by their capacity to be strategic, empathic, expressive, decisive and to see patterns and interrelationships. In a second phase, honours faculty used the excellent professional profile as a benchmark to develop a set of six undergraduate level learning outcomes to structure the honours programme and assessment standards. For each of these learning outcomes, smaller developmental milestones were defined to help students gauge their development and reflect on their progress during three honours years. A digital assessment tool was created to monitor student growth and structure annual summative assessment processes. One year following creation and application, students and staff were asked to evaluate the implementation of the excellence profile and learning outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of implications for both curriculum design, operational effects and assessment quality. Conclusions This research promotes an connection between the professional field and educators, resulting in curricular changes. The implemmentation of competence profiles of excellent professionals in honours curricula offer clear learing goals to guide student’s development and, furhtermore, improves the transition from educational programs to professional practice, allowing students to develop (or strengthen) competences and behaviors which are, according to professionals themselves, essential for that profession. This exchange between professional field and educators can lead to new standards needed to face future challenges.Theoretical/Practical implications This is the first empiric study profiling the excellent communication professional. Practical relevance of this profile is twofold. For the work field, it describes competences which could be used for strategic selection of high potential candidates. For educators, it offers guidelines for assessment and curricular development, especially in honours education. In this presentation we explain 1) the research conducted to develop a competence profile for the excellent communication professional, 2) how it was subsequently used to guide curricular development and 3) the experiences concerning implementation by staff and students one year following implementation.
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New universities on the European mainland were mostly teaching oriented until the start of this century. Current national and local management intends to better connect research and teaching through the increase of lecturers' research capacity, often defined through their master's degrees or PhDs. However, this strategy is complex due to the needed combination of didactical expertise, professional practise, and research competencies in lecturers' professional profiles, which are not captured by the notion of formal degrees. This study considers the professional profiles of new lecturers through a thematic analysis and a correlation analysis of tasks and competencies in job openings (N = 126). The findings show that two professional profiles underpin the hiring of new lecturers: the teaching lecturer and the research-active lecturer. These profiles do not imply a better connection between research and teaching. To reach this goal, higher education policy should explicitly define lecturers' professional profiles beyond their formal degrees.
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Non-professional runners make extensive use of consumer-available wearable devices and smartphone apps to monitor training sessions, health, and physical performance. Despite the popularity of these products, they usually neglect subjective factors, such as psychosocial stress, unexpected daily physical (in)activity, sleep quality perception, and/or previous injuries. Consequently, the implementation of these products may lead to underperformance, reduced motivation, and running-related injuries. This paper investigates how the integration of subjective training, off-training, and contextual factors from a 24/7 perspective might lead to better individual screening and health protection methods for recreational runners. Using an online-based Ecological Momentary Assessment survey, a seven-day cohort study was conducted. Twenty participants answered daily surveys three times a day regarding subjective off-training and contextual data; e.g., health, sleep, stress, training, environment, physiology, and lifestyle factors. The results show that daily habits of people are unstructured, unlikely predictable, and influenced by factors, such as the demands of work, social life, leisure time, or sleep. By merging these factors with sensor-based data, running-related systems would be able to better assess the individual workload of recreational runners and support them to reduce their risk of suffering from running-related injuries
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As societies age, the development of resources and strategies that foster healthy ageing from the beginning of life become increasingly important. Social and healthcare professionals are key agents in this process; therefore, their training needs to be in agreement with societal needs. We performed a scoping review on professional competences for social and health workers to adequately promote healthy ageing throughout life, using the framework described by Arksey and O’Malley and the Joanna Briggs Institute Guidelines. A stakeholder consultation was held in each of the participating countries, in which 79 experts took part. Results show that current literature has been excessively focused on the older age and that more attention on how to work with younger population groups is needed. Likewise, not all disciplines have equally reflected on their role before this challenge and interprofessional approaches, despite showing promise, have not been sufficiently described. Based on our results, health and social professionals working to promote healthy ageing across the lifespan will need sound competences regarding person-centred communication, professional communication, technology applications, physiological and pathophysiological aspects of ageing, social and environmental aspects, cultural diversity, programs and policies, ethics, general and basic skills, context and self-management-related skills, health promotion and disease prevention skills, educational and research skills, leadership skills, technological skills and clinical reasoning. Further research should contribute to establishing which competences are more relevant to each discipline and at what level they should be taught, as well as how they can be best implemented to effectively transform health and social care systems.
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The importance of professional skills in future engineering jobs is beyond discussion. Increasing numbers of universities have integrated training for such skills in their engineering curricula to prepare students to become highly qualified employees. HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht also implemented professional skills training in the IT Bachelor program to help our students develop towards successful and highly demanded IT engineers. However, these courses consistently score low in our student satisfaction surveys. To find the cause of this negative evaluation, we previously studied the motivation, attitude and anxiety of IT students towards learning soft, or professional, skills. This former quantitative study indicates that our IT students tend to have a positive motivation and attitude toward learning professional skills, while ’anxiety’ in learning professional skills increases from the first to the third year. In this qualitative study, we try to find causes for the increasing anxiety among IT students. We interviewed six third and fourth year IT students and after analysing these interviews we found that these students have experienced the need for professional skills during their internship. Besides, they emphasize the need of obtaining these skills for future employment. From the analysis of the interviews, it also appears that IT students rather felt difficulty in obtaining communication skills then anxiety. A possible cause for this difficulty mentioned by students was the character of students and the influence of the teacher. To overcome this difficulty obtaining communication skills, students suggested that training skills in an authentic engineering situation is more effective than doing exercises with simulated cases. However, the results of this study did not yield a conclusive insight in the cause of increased anxiety, hence further research is needed.
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Honours programs are selective programs that offer challenging educational opportunities for talented students who are willing and able to do more than regular programs offer them (Wolfensberger et.al.,2012). For optimal learning, these programs should focus on three dimensions of teaching approaches: community building; enhancing academic competence, and offering freedom. The amount of freedom in honours education is the most distinguishing aspect from regular programs (Wolfensberger,2012), however, also for honoursstudents an amount of structure is needed to enhance engagement (Lang et.al.,2010) and performance (Locke & Latham,2006; DeShon & Alexander,1996). Explicit learning outcomes can be a way to provide this strucure. In the Netherlands, honours programs of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) aim to prepare students to become the excellent professional of the future. Since it is not clear which competencies define this excellent professional, each institution determines the learning outcomes for their honours students. For instance, Hanze University of Applied Sciences (UAS) focusses on how the working field defines an excellent professional, developing an evidence-based competency profile specific for each discipline. Rotterdam UAS, developed the profile for Innovative Action for all disciplines, and Saxion UAS established the Reflective Professional profile to define learning outcomes for their honours students, both based on literature research. In a collaborative project, these three aforementioned HEI gathered honours programs descriptions of 8 HEI to assess overlapping competences they adopt as learning outcomes for honours students. Preliminary results indicate substantial overlap and an alignment between working field perceptions and available literature.In this session, the following issues will be discussed: •The added value and content of competency profiles defining learning outcomes in honours education;•how specific these profiles should be (discipline-specific or general);•the added value and possibility of a shared (inter)national honours competency profile;•potential risks: limiting freedom in honours education, cultural differences regarding definition of excellence. Description of the session (100 words): the session starts as focus group discussion facilitated by a moderator and concentrating on the question: Which competences / learning outcomes should honours programs concentrate on? Aim is to explore opinions and views of the participants. Afterwards three higher education institutes present shortly the competencies and learning goals they adopt. Next, a round table discussion takes place, based on statements. Participants choose their position (pro or con) before the discussion starts, discus their views, and indicate afterwards whether their opinion is changed. Aim is to indicate pro’s and con’s for (inter)national uniform honours competences and learning goals.
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Foundation and principles of the professional Social Worker in the Netherlands.
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