Search Results for
"education"

UK higher education institutions are now expected to be able to demonstrate that they are adhering to the Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher education in Placement Learning. The responsibility for ensuring that a placement provides an adequate opportunity for its intended learning outcomes rests with the educational institution. This paper draws on the author's experience of the management and evaluation of placements in the construction sector. In recognition of the increasingly global nature of the business, a placement programme has been developed to meet the particular challenges of students operating in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments. Participation in the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci Vocational Training Programmes and pilot projects has enabled the identification of further criteria for evaluating and disseminating experience gained in work-based learning across the frontiers of language and culture. However, the paper also identifies problems peculiar to the UK market for construction professions and higher education programmes in construction-related disciplines. A study by Northumbria University highlighted challenges for both industry and higher education arising from economic pressures on students and the positioning of construction-related courses in the higher education market. Given the global nature of the construction business, it is clear that there are significant benefits to be gained from taking a global view of relevant issues. © 2004, © 2004 SAGE Publications.

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Increasing emphasis is being placed in dentistry, as in other areas, on outcome-based education and on the specification of learning outcomes. This paper describes the adaptation for dentistry of the medical three circle model as described by Harden to specify learning outcomes. The model offers an effective and user-friendly format based on the three dimensions of the work of a dentist. What the dentist is able to do ('doing the right thing'), how the dentist approaches their practice ('doing the thing right'), and the dentist as a professional ('the right person doing it'). The model also facilitates curriculum and examination planning, reconciles tensions between vocational and academic education and is readily understood and accepted by students and teachers.

Business skills, particularly in the areas of science, engineering and technology (SET) and small firm development are becoming increasingly important. The vocational skills student learns can be augmented by an understanding of how business operates as well as an appreciation that enterprise skills can be applied within an organisation i.e. acting as an “intrapreneur”. Universities prepare students for many of the “professions” such as medicine, engineering, law and accountancy. Many other disciplines such as healthcare, social sciences and the sciences also require a professional attitude to be adopted. However, new graduates generally begin their post-university career in a form of apprenticeship where their professional skills are developed, often via a pre-registration period before achieving, for example, for engineers, chartered status. After that stage is reached, and with a few years work experience, they may move on to form practices or partnerships of their own. Based on the principle that business skills development, particularly in the SET disciplines, is likely to have a positive impact on the competitiveness of existing SET organisations, as well as encourage the creation of new, innovative knowledge firms, this paper aims to document the experience of introducing and embedding entrepreneurship education into vocational disciplines at Heriot-Watt University, with a key objective being to provide a model which other institutions may find useful. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

This paper is based on the project ‘Recognition of Tacit Skills and Knowledge in Work Re-entry’ carried out as a part of the ESRC-funded Research Network ‘Improving Incentives to Learning in the Workplace’. The network aims to contribute to improved practice among a wide range of practitioners. The study has investigated the part played by tacit forms of personal competences in the education, training and work re-entry of adult learners. The models of learning produced within this study with the assistance of the Dynamic Concept Analysis method are used to provide a better understanding of individual case studies. © 2004, John Wiley and Sons Inc. All rights reserved.

The paper provides an analysis of the take-up of modern apprenticeships in Scotland for the period 1999-2001. The methodology includes secondary data sources and a case study. The findings indicate that, although the numbers participating in the MA scheme have increased, there remain major concerns both with completion rates and the quality of the programme. The authors also question the relevance of using pedagogically driven theoretical models to understand the complex and dynamic nature of work-based employment practices.

Over the last 20 years, the voice of business and its impact upon Australian vocational education have transformed. These changes comprise the reluctance of enterprise to be involved; industry determining what is taught and assessed, and how; the principles for administering vocational education; and attempts to use vocational education to reform the schooling system. These transformations and government complicity in them are enmeshed in the restructuring of the Australian economy, allegedly in response to an increasingly competitive and globalised economy. They were also facilitated by vocational education continuing to be misunderstood and having low status. However, the expanded leadership role afforded to Australian business has not been matched by its purchase on the complexity of educational issues and practice, including the need to encompass other interests (e.g. small business and students). While vocational education has become the business of business, it seems it is business not understood. Even in addressing its own purposes (i.e. work readiness), business has demonstrated a preference for ideological and näive imperatives that have proved inadequate. Along the way, the goals for vocational education and standing of its institutions, practitioners and students have all been transformed, probably to their detriment.

In the past decade employers, market and private sector influences have had a marked impact on vocational education and training (VET) policy. This article critically examines the effect of such impact on the relationship between employers, state and education in England. It is argued that largely unfettered de-regulation practices have gifted employers a 'voice without accountability' that has shifted regulation and responsibility for VET onto the State and education and away from the workplace. The article considers the consequences of this for future VET reform in terms of 14-19, further and higher education, and social inclusion policies, alongside wider changes in economy and society. Looking beyond critique, the article argues for clearer rules of engagement for employer, state and education partnerships, where power and accountability is a shared rather than a privileged option.