This article examines the current preoccupation with enhancing the employability of graduates through the adoption of generic key skills into the undergraduate curriculum. It looks at the evidence for seven assumptions commonly made by those who promote the 'employability' agenda, and raises questions about the security of these assumptions including the transferability of key skills to employment contexts, the cost effectiveness of developing key skills in Higher Education rather than in employment and the competitive market advantage that individual students are believed to obtain. It concludes that in the absence of major changes to the funding regime there is unlikely to be a radical change to the curriculum and that more attention should now be paid to the post-graduation/induction period than to the pre-graduation stages.

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Computer-assisted learning (CAL) is a relatively new method of teaching. Few evaluations have been made which compare the new CAL methods with conventional teaching. This study used a text-based CAL package designed to teach orthodontic assessment and basic principles of treatment planning. It assessed the knowledge gain of 49 dental undergraduate students when taught orthodontic assessment and treatment planning by either CAL or conventional tutorial. Both groups made significant gains in knowledge. However, students who were taught by the conventional tutorial made a significantly greater gain than those taught by CAL.

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This article discusses the inter‐professional collaborative experiences of professionals working with children and their families in two areas of high social need. The findings suggest that, although the way that professionals conceptualise their practice may hinder attempts to collaborate effectively, a complex interplay of several factors is involved. A typology of the various collaborations reported is then constructed. Finally, integrating this work with the findings of other studies, an explanatory model is developed. These have particular relevance given the current rhetoric of ‘joined‐up government’. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Ref. R000221542). Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.