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Collaboration between schools and enterprises in vocational education and training (VET) is a challenge in many countries, Norway included. There is a tendency to organise VET in separate theoretical and practical learning arenas that lack mutual coherence. This article presents the findings of a four-year action research study in which 30 vocational teachers, who were taking an in-service master’s degree programme in vocational pedagogy, completed systematic research-based projects on developing partnerships between schools and enterprises in the school-based part of Norwegian VET. The goal was to strengthen the relevance of vocational education by creating stronger links between the content of the education and the content of the vocation. The study was based on a pragmatic, holistic perspective on vocational competence and education where essential, authentic vocational tasks to which theory is related are regarded as the core educational content, both in the enterprises and in schools. The findings are based on an analysis of 30 master’s degree theses documenting each of the teachers’ development projects. The results show examples of and principles for how collaboration between schools and enterprises can be organised around vocational tasks. Core principles include formal agreements on collaboration between schools and enterprises, regular dialogues between vocational teachers, instructors and students about educational tasks and content, joint planning and follow-up of students’ placements in enterprises, and exchanges of experience and competence between teachers and instructors. The results show that, according to students, instructors and vocational teachers, the application of such principles contributed to vocational relevance and students’ motivation and learning outcomes. © 2022, The Author(s).

The digitalization and globalization of society and the corresponding impact on the rules of the labor market is shifting the education sector toward new pedagogical approaches that integrate wholly online methodologies. Sustainable Development Goal 4 advocates for inclusive and equitable quality education that promotes lifelong learning opportunities, and, as we have seen during the COVID-19 lockdown, online learning can play a key role. In a context where lifelong learning becomes crucial to maintaining graduates’ employability, the innovative teaching methodologies that promote employable competencies in online environments are especially desirable. With the purpose of improving the employability of students, this article analyses the impact of introducing the Authentic Learning Scenarios (ALS) paradigm in an online environment. We develop a quasi-experimental design. Based on the nine ALS criteria and their application to e-learning, we redesign a course in a business degree program. Data from 135 students were collected, with special focus on achieving general competences. We compare the perception of the competency profile attained between a group of students who took the course before incorporating the ALS paradigm and another group that took it once it had been redesigned. Results show that redesigning the course enables students to perceive the learning process as more authentic, as well as acquiring a more advanced competence profile. Besides this, it has been shown that technology can contribute to building cognitive authenticity in virtual classrooms, without the need for face-to-face internships, which are often not a feasible option for students of online programs. © 2022, The Author(s).

Objective: This article analyzes the implementation of two state grant programs in Tennessee aimed at improving the quality of in-demand postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) programming at community and technical colleges. We use insights from our findings to propose a conceptual framework for understanding how external funding can reduce institutional capacity constraints in similar contexts. Method: Building off a previous study, we leverage in-depth interview data with 43 participants across Tennessee’s workforce development system to better understand how administrators perceived state grant goals, what processes they used to address institutional capacity constraints, and what challenges they experienced while implementing grant-funded programs. Results: We find strong alignment of perceived grant goals between the state, which developed the program, and the practitioners who implemented it. We find that the implementation strategies employed included purchasing new equipment, investing in facilities, developing work-based learning opportunities, hiring new faculty and staff, and building collaborations with outside stakeholders. Finally, our data suggest that practitioners faced challenges optimizing the use of funds to address capacity constraints. Contributions: Developing and maintaining high quality CTE credential programs is a challenge for community and technical colleges across the United States. We describe how this has been done successfully in Tennessee and use insights from this context to propose a general framework for building capacity in postsecondary CTE. © The Author(s) 2023.

Objective: To comment upon the potential for alignment of medical student assessment and vocational specialist training through the RANZCP-CanMEDS model of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and Workplace-Based Assessments (WBAs). We discuss a specific post hoc example of such an alignment in an Australian graduate medical school in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Conclusions: Vocational training models of assessment, such as the RANZCP specialist training program for psychiatrists, can potentially be mapped to medical student education in formative and summative assessment through CanMEDs-based EPAs and WBAs, to assist in transition to specialist training. © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2023.

The school climate plays a substantial part in student development. A positive and nurturing school climate encourages the growth of all-rounders and holistic individuals. Past literature has highlighted several domains related to the school climate, including academic performance, well-being, student engagement, attendance in school, delinquent behaviors, bullying, and school safety. However, little is known about the development of other related domains, like non-cognitive skills, in school. The purpose of the study is to review the linkages of school climate with the development of students' non-cognitive skills. The current study employs a systematic literature review that adheres to PRISMA to determine the association between school climate and students' non-cognitive skills. First, this study conducted three stages of rigorous and systematic searching: identification, screening, and eligibility. As a result of the search, this study identified 65 relevant articles from Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect as the leading databases and Google Scholar and Dimension. ai as supporting databases. Next, the current study highlights five clusters based on the analysis of network visualization by the VOSviewer software. These clusters are: the non-cognitive skills' intrapersonal and interpersonal key characteristics, a nurturing school climate and the presence of non-cognitive skills mitigate deviant behaviour in school settings, the non-cognitive skills as a predictor of academic outcomes, the multifaceted antecedents of school climate in promoting the development of student non-cognitive skills, the role of school domains and non-cognitive attributes towards students' cognitive development. This systematic literature review contributes a novel framework and an in-depth understanding of the relationship between school climate and students' non-cognitive skills. The current research serves as a starting point for future researchers to delve deeper into this subject matter to provide educational organisations with valuable guidance when navigating for better educational outcomes. In addition, the current review will shed light on the school climate and students' non-cognitive skills to further examine what has already been learnt and the missing links, contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic. © 2023

Scratch is an educational software based on visual programming blocks. It was created in 2003 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab (MIT) and it develops computational thinking (CT) skills from an early age in schools and allows STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) projects to be carried out. The aim of this research is to know the development of the scientific production of the Scratch programme in the educational field in scientific articles in WoS and its link with the STEM field. The methodology used in this study is of a bibliometric nature with an analysis of the development in the scientific literature and co-words. The Scratch in Education (Scratch-EDU) programme has been studied using the Web of Science (WoS) database. WoS, Vosviewer and SciMAT were used to extract the results and a total of 579 manuscripts were analysed. The results of the study show that the first scientific article on Scratch published in WoS dates back to 2004, although it is from 2011 when a considerable volume of studies began to appear in the scientific literature, and moreover, in recent years the scientific literature relates Scratch-EDU with topics and keywords related to the STEM field. The conclusions of the study are that the Scratch programme has had a progressive evolution in the scientific field related to education from 2012 to 2020, mainly in proceedings papers, with a decrease in manuscripts in the last two years. The emerging themes and keywords that have most influenced Scratch-EDU manuscripts in recent years are related to the terms “Implementation” and “Curriculum”, connected in turn, with terms such as “pedagogy”, “public school” or “students”. Another term that stands out in the development of scientific evolution is “Computational Thinking”, associated with topics such as “Primary Education”, “Learning” or “Problem Solving”. Finally, a discussion and conclusion of the results has been carried out, which can serve as a turning point for future lines of research on programming and CT in the STEM field from an early age in education. © 2023 by the author.

In 2019, a decline in apprenticeship starts prompted the London Borough of Hounslow to make an apprenticeship pledge in its Corporate Plan 2019–2024, committing to create 4,000 new apprenticeships and training opportunities to help young people into work. This article investigates experiences of young apprentices in Hounslow before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploring the perspectives of two apprentices, two employers and one training provider in a small-scale qualitative study, the authors identify key hindering and supporting factors affecting entry into and sustainability of apprenticeships, and progression towards professional employment. They found that labour market entry was intensely hindered by competition (with peers who had better maths and English qualifications, for a small number of apprenticeships) and organisational barriers (such as managers with prejudices against young people, stigmatising apprentices and apprenticeships). Supportive factors identified include personal characteristics (such as a positive mindset, enabling young people to persevere despite a disadvantaged socioeconomic background and lack of family support, for example) and supportive relationships (e.g. mentoring) between apprentices and their training providers or employers. © 2023, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Springer Nature B.V.

This research aims to conduct an integrative review to identify the contributions of active learning methodologies to the development of student's skills in accounting disciplines, as well as to present possibilities for future research. The articles were collected from the Scopus database, using the expressions "Accounting" and "Active Learning" and "Accounting" and "Active Methodology", linked by the connector "and". The final sample consists of 79 papers, and an integrative review is used to analyze the articles. The results revealed that: i) most studies were developed after 2011; ii) researchers are applying active methodologies in countries from 5 continents, predominantly in the United States of America; iii) the most used active methodologies were case studies, Problem-Based Learning (PBL), flipped classroom, and methodologies focused on technologies. It is concluded that active methodologies are valid and effective in developing a context that enhances students' professional and emotional competencies. This study contributes to researchers by presenting the results of previous research as well as indicating possibilities for future research and constant gaps in the literature, using the integrative review, which is a little methodology explored in the accounting area and can synthesize knowledge and present the applicability of results from existing studies. © 2023 FEA-RP/USP. Todos os direitos reservados.

Disadvantaged young people in Sub-Saharan Africa are the most stricken by unemployment because of their socio-economic background. Technical and vocational training programmes appear to be a remedy for their situation because the approaches of training delivery are practice-oriented. Using experiential learning theory, the article examines the enabling factors for the effectiveness of non-school-based technical and vocational training on skills acquisition. To get a full picture of the enabling factors for the effectiveness, the study used mixed methods research approach. Mixed methods research is an approach that involves a combination or association of both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study used self-completion questionnaires, one-on-one semi-structured interviews and site observations to collect data from 512 young trainees, 24 training managers and 32 trainers. The findings reveal that the facilitation methods mostly used were the practical sessions in workshops, on-the-job training and workplace-based training. The author concludes that the practice-oriented methods were useful to empower the young trainees to acquire skills and abilities required for immediate employment. The article demonstrates how useful is the experiential learning theory in the delivery of the programmes for skills acquisition. The significant element of this article is the application of four stages of experiential learning theory to non-school-based technical and vocational training. The practical and social implications of the findings are that, while disadvantaged youths cannot access and afford higher education, public and private sectors can remedy their situation by providing nonschool-based technical and vocational training to help them entre the labour market. The article is significant because youth growing up in poor households, and without access to opportunities to acquire skills, will have challenges to take care of their families in their adulthood. © Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Publisher’s Office.

In our information age, written communication has become increasingly important in many professions. As a result, university faculty and administrators need to develop specific curricula and pedagogies that will facilitate the process of equipping students with the required writing knowledge and skills to meet the demands of their workplace environments. In this article, we argue that Writing Across the Professions (WAP) as a curricular model meets that requirement, particularly in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) contexts, which we believe are conducive to fostering writing transfer in university students. WAP foregrounds the importance of writing in workplace contexts and aims to facilitate the transfer of students’ knowledge and practices by focusing on rhetorical genre theory and analysis, discourse community theory and analysis, providing engaged feedback on students’ writing, and inviting students to critically reflect on their previous and current writing knowledge and practices. In this article, we propose four conceptual foundations that university faculty and administrators can utilize to implement WAP programs at their institutions. The first concept is that professional (writing) knowledge and practices are contextual and require lifelong learning; WIL faculty and students thus need to be informed about what is involved in learning to write across professions. Secondly, as the transfer of professional (writing) knowledge and practices goes beyond disciplinary boundaries, both faculty and students need to build contextual awareness. Thirdly, as problem-solving is an integral part of writing in the professions, faculty and students need to engage in critical reflection. Finally, professional (writing) knowledge and practices impact identities and therefore require mentoring. In outlining these shared concepts from WIL and writing transfer research, this article offers examples of how they can inform curricular approaches and pedagogical practices in WAP. © 2024, EQUINOX PUBLISHING.