The number of student enrolments in computer-related courses remains a serious concern worldwide with far reaching consequences. This paper reports on an extensive survey about career choice and associated motivational factors amongst new students, only some of whom intend to major in computer-related courses, at two South African universities. The data were analyzed using some components of Social Cognitive Career Theory, namely external influences, self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations. The research suggests the need for new strategies for marketing computerrelated courses and the avenues through which they are marketed. This can to some extent be achieved by studying strategies used by other (non-computer) university courses, and their professional bodies.However, there are also distinct differences, related to self-efficacy and career outcomes, between the computer majors and the "other" group and these need to be explored further in order to find strategies that work well for this group. It is not entirely clear what the underlying reasons are for these differences but it is noteworthy that the perceived importance of "Interest in the career field" when choosing a career remains very high for both groups of students.
Expatriate adjustment research has identified a number of challenges that expatriates experience when adjusting to the host country such as spousal influence, cultural training/understanding, fluency in the host language and personality or emotional readiness of the expatriate need to be accounted for. These challenges are amplified when it is considered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which has large cultural distance when compared to an average Western culture and therefore provides a setting for an interesting study. This ongoing study has thus far proposed a theoretical model derived by following Glaser's Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). This paper will report on a specific aspect of this proposed model namely the substantive category "degree of flow" which extends the previous discussion of "degree of isolation". This paper describes how the Flow Theory was operationalized at affective level to aid the understanding of the emotional relationship expatriates in KSA have with the Internet. An expatriate flow model was developed based on the generally accepted three stages of Flow Theory namely: Antecedents to Flow, Experience of Flow and Consequences of Flow.
World wide, a number of far-reaching decisions regarding ways to address the ICT skills shortage are made by both the public and private sectors. These are based on information obtained from various sources and in various ways including quantitative research reports commissioned by government authorities. This paper reports on findings of a systematic textual examination of existing ICT skills shortage research reports with the South African reports receiving particular attention. This analysis shows that the collection of accurate data on ICT skills availability is extremely difficult, if not impossible, as the skills categories used in a diverse, ever-changing ICT environment are ill-defined, the data collection procedures are flawed and the results are difficult to interpret. In addition, successive reports frequently note the weaknesses of the data, but then use it as the basis for their findings. A recommendation from this research is that a Research Methodologies group be formed specifically to discuss this and with the brief to suggest some guidelines and to monitor and endorse future data collection and analysis.
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