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Objectives: This paper outlines the development of family medicine in South Africa with special reference to the process leading to the recognition of this discipline as a medical specialty. It also examines the constraints under which the discipline has had to function, considers where the discipli…

This paper begins by describing the nature of problems encountered by the present system of providing 'vocational' education to the youth in India. It then proceeds to describe the vocational education in place in Germany and Japan in particular, and the contrasting experience of South Korea to some…

Increasingly the importance of developing an appropriate learning environment in order to foster workplace learning is dominating organizational agendas. Yet much of the literature often lacks empirical support to underpin those conditions suggested as comprising an effective learning climate or suf…

The background to the work reported in this chapter is an educational reform which seemed to contain unpromising elements of managerial control and prescription, namely the 'competence-based' format for vocational education initiated in the UK by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (N…

Policy making in the English-speaking world has been increasingly bedevilled by the unrealistic expansion of the meaning of ‘skill’. In this process generic skills have emerged as of considerable importance, while the concept of lifelong learning has become a policy mantra. The current focus upon ge…

This article reports on a series of interviews held with individuals in the middle of a Foundation Degree, during which they were asked for their views of studying for this qualification. It draws on a research project conducted with part-time students involved in work-based learning. The research i…

This paper examines the socio-moralistic justification of vocational education in colonial and contemporary Ghana. In the international arena, vocational education has been justified in various ways (mostly in economic terms), but in Ghana, the primary reason for introducing vocational education has…

It is widely accepted that the vocational and professional training system has a major impact on national competitiveness. In this paper a number of German-British studies in manufacturing and services are examined in order to show how skill systems have affected the comparative strengths and weakne…

This article explores the state of skills development for smaller enterprises in South Africa through a consideration of two recent empirical studies of very small and micro enterprises (VSMEs–those with 2-10 employees). It provides new evidence about the complexity of the VSME sector and the mixed …

Research produced within the setting of an operating agency runs the risk of being subverted by the operational priorities and political practicalities facing the agency. Researchers and managers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have successfully balanced the tension between the objectivity re…