Search Results for
"education"

The United Kingdom has devised a set of National Learning Targets to be achieved by 2002. Revised from an earlier set of National Targets for education and Training (NTETs), the latest ones embrace 11-21-year-olds, adults and employers and promote a credentialist approach to both economic and social development. Their primary purpose, according to the National Advisory Council for education and Training Targets (NACETT) is to make the country more competitive internationally and to promote social cohesion. This paper draws on a study of how one occupational sector, the steel industry, measures up to the national targets for the adult workforce. The findings of the study question the appropriateness of using qualifications-based targets as a proxy for adult capability in the workplace and industrial viability. The paper argues that this credentialist approach detracts from the real challenges which the UK faces in becoming a learning society. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Provides an overview of the research undertaken through the EU Leonardo EUROPROF project. Describes the aims of the project and outlines the methodologies undertaken in the work. Surveys the development of vocational education and training (VET) in Europe over the past two decades in relation to changing forms of work organization and the development of the economies of Europe. First, looks at the changing role of VET, second, examines the corresponding changes in the roles and occupational profiles of vocational teachers and trainers, drawing on empirical studies undertaken by researchers in different countries as part of the EUROPROF project. Finally, proposes a new framework for the education of VET professionals in response to the changing roles and responsibilities. © 1999, MCB UP Limited

Lifelong learning within work environments is a complex and yet increasingly important issue in today's rapidly changing society. This article highlights the shift in meaning in the notion(s) of lifelong education in the early 1970s and the notion(s) of lifelong learning in the late 1990s. This shift can be largely accounted for by the changed milieu in which these terms have emerged and from which they derive their meaning. Within the current economic-technological climate, the learning that occurs in workplaces is an important phenomenon to research if we are to understand the possibilities in lifelong learning. The article analyses several key elements of current Australian policy in terms of their potential contribution to the fostering of a training (or learning) culture, seen officially as a support for lifelong learning. The article also draws on a number of research studies into the nature of workplace learning and the role of the workplace ‘trainer’ as key ingredients in this process. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The main focus of this paper is a case study of the progression links onto a new undergraduate business programme (Business Enterprise) that have been established for modern apprentices between Coventry Business School and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, Training and Enterprise. The context of the relationship between the two is initially established and this leads to an overview of the findings generated by a research study designed to highlight the views and expectations of major stakeholders in the apprenticeship scheme. In turn, this subsequently leads to an exploration of the implications for the design of higher education programmes targeted at apprentices. © 1999, MCB UP Limited

Puts forward the author's view of key issues affecting hospitality education into the new millennium. Issues identified as particularly impacting on UK centres are graduate standards, quality and quality assessment, research assessment, key skills and learning and teaching including the impact of information technology. Amongst these issues, information technology is identified as having the greatest potential impact to bring about radical change. It is suggested that there is now the capability to develop global hospitality education brands. This capability is not confined to existing education suppliers. Corporations, business schools and commercial management development organisations may also be attracted by this opportunity. © 1999, MCB UP Limited

education systems can be characterized on the basis of whether the academic and occupational/vocational education and training they provide is compartmentalized (tracked systems), systematically connected (linked systems) or fully integrated (unified systems). This paper describes how such a typology might be used to model strategic change at the higher levels of the UK system for education and training. Successive governments have pursued a number of separate agendas (e.g. massification of HE, public accountability, standards in HE, key/employability skills, lifelong learning…) the net result of which is leading to a more unified system. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The role of education and training historically was to prepare men and women for different roles beyond schooling. Despite equality legislation in 1975, designed to secure wider opportunities for women in society and in the workplace, progress towards achieving equality in employment–with the exception of entry into the lower levels of some professions–has been slow and traditional patterns of occu- pational segregation remain. Traditional attitudes and expectations have proved diffi- cult to change. This is reflected in the participation rates of men and women in vocational education and training programmes currently on offer to young people. The compulsory education system has seen the removal of structural barriers to equality and access to all subjects has provided girls with the opportunity to achieve well and outperform boys even in non-traditional subjects such as maths, science and technology. Disappointingly, however, academic gains have not been marked by wider vocational choice within and beyond schooling where stereotyping in option, subject, training and employment decisions is still overt. In this article, we use the examples of Part 1 GNVQs, further education, Modern Apprenticeships and National Traineeships to illustrate the current extent of stereo- typing and segregation in vocational education and training. We argue that it is of par- ticular concern that these recent policy initiatives reinforce rather than challenge stereotyping and that 25 years after the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), vocational education and training provide young people with narrow and segregated routeways while delivering to industry limited and gender-based pools of talent. We recognize that young people, women particularly, are disadvantaged as a result, and their poten- tial for career development and economic independence is reduced. We argue that gender stereotyping is a barrier to equality which should be addressed in all new education and training policy development, such as the review of the National Curriculum, and should be included in government policy direction to vocational education and training providers. We use the example of TVEI to show how good practice can be promoted in education and training in schools and we identify and recommend the use of good practice strategies in vocational education and training, particularly the positive action provisions of the SDA. © 1999, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The Maine Technical College System (MTCS) has a 50 – year history of preparing skilled workers for an occupationally diverse and geographically dispersed region. Established as a vocational training institute under the “GI Bill” to help returning servicemen, the System now includes seven colleges and provides education, training, and retraining in the state’s most advanced technological fields. The System increasingly provides a vital bridge between schools and work, offering career awareness and internship programs to secondary school students and widening access to higher education for a population that traditionally has not sought further education or training. Four innovative programs serve as the foundation of this bridge: (1) Maine Quality Centers, resources that help expanding employers identify workforce needs and provide workers with skills tailored to those specific needs; (2) Maine Tech Prep, an applied high school curricula and academic guidance philosophy that initiates career and skills development; (3) articulation agreements, the genesis of a seamless educational experience from high school through two-and four-year college; and (4) Maine Career Advantage, a nationally recognized school - to - career internship program. Individually and collectively, these programs position MTCS, Maine's most affordable postsecondary option, as a viable avenue toward education and training in a state where college attainment levels are among the lowest in the nation. The system is experiencing steadily increasing enrollment and high graduate placements. © 1999 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This article focuses on the evolving concept of the training market and views about those factors which necessitate intervention in the market. User choice in apprenticeships and traineeships is the latest policy initiative in Australia to increase the responsiveness of the vocational education and training system to the needs of clients. It does so by channelling the flow of public funds to individual training providers to reflect the choice of training provider made by the client (employer and/or apprentice or trainee). The introduction of user choice raises several policy issues. Concerns have been expressed about providing continuous access to training in rural and remote areas. Also, there is considerable uncertainty about how user choice will impact on equity groups. Other issues that are considered in the article include: Will user choice increase the choices available to apprentices and trainees? How competitive will training markets be under user choice? How will private training providers and the publicly funded vocational education and training (VET) system adjust to user choice? What tensions between stakeholders are likely to be experienced in the introduction of user choice? The ways in which these policy issues are resolved is likely to determine whether user choice succeeds in creating a training system that is more responsive to the needs of stakeholders. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

In Hong Kong the secondary school curriculum has long been criticized for its heavy emphasis on academic performance and examination-oriented approaches to subject learning. As a consequence, pupils in Hong Kong only possess knowledge and skills that could carry them through examinations. They lack qualities and dispositions as well as related skills and understandings which will help them to make sense of this complicated society. It is noted that time has come for a reflection of the secondary curriculum and this article argues for the introduction of Personal and Social education in secondary schools in Hong Kong which can bring relevance, breath, and balance to the curriculum from three aspects - aims of education, change in society, and nature of work. © NAPCE 1999.