As China’s urbanisation continues, the building area is expanding, of which the occupancy of rural residential buildings is also very large. However, most rural buildings have poor thermal performance. This paper analyses the energy-saving potential of green facades for rural buildings in China by simulating typical buildings with different types of facades in rural China. The simulation results show that indirect green façades can achieve good energy savings. Buildings with four types of facades: red brick, rubble, hollow brick, and concrete achieve energy savings of 18.39%, 17.85%, 14.47%, and 11.52%, respectively, after retrofitting with green facades.

This study examines the impact of education quality and innovative activities on economic growth in Shanghai through international trade and fixed asset formation. The study examines how higher education quality and innovation activities drive regional economic growth, with a focus on the mediating effects of international trade and fixed asset formation in Shanghai. The study adopts a quantitative approach utilizing panel data from 31 provinces in China covering the period from 1999 to 2022. The study incorporates variables such as education quality, innovation capacity, and GDP per capita, as well as control variables like labor, capital, and infrastructure. The methodology involves multiple regression models and robustness tests to verify the relationships between and effects of education quality and innovation with regard to economic growth. This study analyzes the direct and indirect effects of university R&D expenditure and innovation on economic growth using a regression model, based on data from 2014 to 2022 in relation to Shanghai. The model introduces variables such as international trade, capital formation, and urbanization to analyze the relationship between higher education quality and economic growth.

This study investigates the critical skills required for new entrants to succeed in today’s workforce, focusing on both soft and hard skills. Through a comprehensive systematic review of existing literature using the PRISMA method, we analyzed 12 selected journals from an initial pool of 870, sourced from major databases such as Scopus, Science Direct, and Emerald Insight. Our research uncovers four key insights. First, we provide a clear and precise definition of employability skills, establishing the foundation for what competencies are essential for workforce readiness. Second, our analysis identifies a distinct separation between soft and hard skills, with soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, ethics, and leadership being universally critical across all industries. Third, while soft skills have broad applicability, hard skills are highly specialized, varying significantly depending on industry and job role. To simplify their understanding and application, we categorized these hard skills into specific groups. Finally, the study highlights the urgent need for further empirical research to validate these findings in real-world settings, as the current conclusions are drawn solely from literature. This potential gap between academic preparation and industry expectations underscores the necessity for ongoing collaboration between educational institutions and employers, which will be a primary focus of our future research.

Despite the efforts of public institutions and government spending, progress on the SDGs is mixed at the midpoint of the 2030 timeframe-some targets are off track and some have even regressed. ICT-related indicators, on the other hand, stand out for their strong progress. The author notes this progress, but questions its relationship to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. He argues that the growth in internet and mobile network penetration is due to the economic characteristics of communications development. The objectives of the article are to review the impact of the ICT sector on economic growth, to consider the role of government spending in the development of this sector in the context of fostering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to identify the prerequisites for significant progress towards SDG targets in communications. Achievement of these objectives will make it possible to determine whether this progress is a consequence of targeted efforts to achieve the SDGs, or whether, in accordance with the author’s hypothesis, it is based on the specifics of the ICT sector’s development, allowing for the accelerated spread of mobile communications and the Internet, which is reflected in the SDG indicators.