Page 150 - A Handbook for Academia, Industry and Policymakers: Reinforcing the Innovation-Employability Nexus in the Mediterranean

150 REINFORCING THE INNOVATION-EMPLOYABILITY NEXUS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
Glossary
Alumni origin, cultural, political or religious affiliation, physical
Graduates of a particular university. or mental condition and health’, and across all of these,
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socio-economic status .
Career Services
Career services offer support to students (and in Employability
some cases alumni) studying at that university. This The International Labour Organization defines
includes help with exploring career ideas, jobs search, employability as related to portable competencies and
developing CVs, giving interviews, networking, further qualifications that enhance an individual’s capacity to
study and help with finding work after graduation. when make use of the education and training opportunities
you graduate. It may also include help with finding a available in order to secure and retain decent work, to
part-time or summer job whilst you are studying. A progress within the enterprise and between jobs, and
student resource department that helps students and to cope with changing technology and labour market
alumni job-search, develop resumes, give interviews conditions .
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and network.
Entrepreneurship
Closed innovation Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of
Closed innovation relies on the idea that internal value 135,136 . With this definition, entrepreneurship is
expertise (ideas), along with an iterative process for viewed as change, which may include other values than
managing that expertise, can sustainably produce economic ones. More narrow definitions have described
new business. Closed innovation companies operate entrepreneurship as the process of designing, launching
under a self-contained innovative environment, that is, and running a new business, which is often initially a
information is kept within the confines of the company small business, or as the capacity and willingness to
and is not shared with external parties. develop, organise and manage a business venture along
with any of its risks to make a profit. People who create
Collaborative doctoral training these businesses are often referred to as entrepreneurs.
Collaborative doctoral training is a generic term to While definitions of entrepreneurship typically focus
cover doctoral degrees that involve research projects in on the launching and running of businesses, due to
collaboration or partnership with non-higher education the high risks involved in launching a start-up, a high
organisations or industry. These occur across all percentage of start-up businesses do not survive in the
disciplines. long term. A somewhat broader definition of the term is
sometimes used, especially in the field of economics. In
Credentialism this usage, an entrepreneur is an entity which has the
Overemphasis on diplomas or degrees in giving jobs or ability to find and act upon opportunities to translate
conferring social status. inventions or technologies into products and services.
Decoupling strategies Erasmus+
A decoupling strategy is a coping mechanism that The European Union's Erasmus+ programme is a
happens when organisations decide to implement a funding scheme to support activities in the fields of
programme without implementing expected practices Education, Training, Youth and Sport. The Programme
that would go along with it. Decoupling is a way of is mainly made up of three so-called ‘Key Actions’ (KA):
reconciling conflicting institutional demands, or ‘avoiding’ (1) Learning Mobility of Individuals, (2) Cooperation
conforming to institutional pressures by covering up for Innovation and Good Practice, and (3) Support to
‘nonconformity behind a façade of acquiescence’ . Policy Reforms. In terms of organisational capacity
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The concept explains how organisations deal with development, the actions under KA2 make it possible
conflicting demands, especially when they are imposed for organisations from different participating countries
by constituents that control critical material or symbolic to work together, to develop, share and transfer best
resources. Decoupling might not always be deliberate practices and innovative approaches in the fields of
or strategic . Researchers have demonstrated that education, training and youth. Three theme areas are of
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it can be non-intentional, can serve as a well-meant particular interest:
buffering mechanism, and can be motivated by one’s (a) Sector Skills Alliances ensuring cooperation
ideology or profession 131–134 . between education and employment in tackling skills
gaps with regard to one or more occupational profiles
Diversity in a specific sector
Diversity refers to ‘individual or group-social (b) Knowledge Alliances supporting cooperation
differences among persons such as gender and gender between higher education institutions and enterprises
identity, age, sexual orientation and identity, ethnic (c) Capacity Building in the field of higher education
supporting cooperation with partner countries
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Experiential learning an existing good, the introduction of new methods of
production (process innovation), the creation of a new
Experiential learning is learning by doing and can be
undertaken through internship, field study, practicum, market, the conquest of a new supply source and the
work placement, cooperative learning, apprenticeship, creation of a new type of organisation (i.e. administrative
research, fellowship, clinical experience, simulations, innovation). Innovations thus include a level of newness.
service learning, study abroad, and volunteering. Yet, innovation is not synonymous with invention
as innovation includes both aspects of creation or
discovery and diffusion . Pragmatic definitions define
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Faculty innovation as a successful implementation of creative
Academic staff including professors, both full-time and ideas or ‘as a process that provides added value and a
adjunct. degree of novelty to the organisation and its suppliers
and customers through the development of new
procedures, solutions, products and services as well
Fourth or 4th Industrial Revolution as new methods of commercialisation’ . It is safe to
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a say that an innovation’s starting point normally is an
fundamental change in the way we live, work and invention followed by exploitation. However, without
relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human successful commercialisation, the invention cannot
development, enabled by extraordinary technology become an innovation. It is estimated that more than
advances commensurate with those of the first, 60% of economic growth derives from technological
second and third industrial revolutions. It refers to progress, which has led to technology advances being
the convergence of digital, biological, and physical closely identified with innovations .
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innovations that will result in disruptive changes. These
disruptions can be positive, leading to an empowering,
collaborative and sustainable social and economic Institutional Ambidexterity
environment if the underlying changes that cause While the aspirations of university-industry
them are based on shared values of the common good, partnerships can be easily described, it is often
human dignity, and intergenerational stewardship . challenging to establish and run these partnerships
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effectively, even when the resources are available.
The challenge is amplified in an ecosystem where the
Gender Gap various stakeholders operate with their own ambitions
Rising educational attainment, yet low labour force and logics. These need to be properly aligned to achieve
participation impact and avoid frustration that derive from marked
Despite the reversal of the gender gap in education, differences in culture and governance . Whereas
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labour force participation rates for women in the MENA academic culture is characterised by a high degree
region have remained very low, a phenomenon that has of distributed autonomy and governance, corporate
come to be known as the ‘MENA paradox’. Participation culture tends to emphasise central decision making
in the labour force among well educated women in North and strategic alignment . But even if the cultural
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Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean is constrained by divide between academia and industry runs deep, it
adverse structural developments on the demand side can be overcome through strong leadership, incentives,
such as lack of support for family leave and childcare structures, and boundary spanners that can operate in
by employers . Reduced public sector employment both ‘worlds’ (institutional ambidexterity), focusing on
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opportunities has not been counterbalanced by an the possible benefits of operating across coexisting and
increase in jobs in the formal private sector, leading contradictory logics .
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to a decrease in overall participation, and in particular,
women’s participation in the work force.
Institutional logics
Institutional logics are systems of cultural elements
Gross Domestic Product (values, beliefs, and normative expectations) by which
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the monetary value of people, groups, and organisations make sense of and
all finished goods and services made within a country evaluate their everyday activities, and organise those
during a specific period. GDP provides an economic activities in time and space .
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snapshot of a country, used to estimate the size of an
economy and growth rate. GDP can be calculated in
three ways, using expenditures, production, or incomes. Internationally mobile student
UNESCO defines an internationally mobile student as an
individual who has physically crossed an international
Innovation border between two countries with the objective to
One of the most referenced definitions of innovation participate in educational activities in a destination
goes back to Joseph Schumpeter which includes the country, where the destination country is different from
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introduction of a good or a significant improvement of his or her country of origin .
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