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"education"

Vocational educators and trainers directly face the challenges of changing structures of work and economy in “new times”. This paper discusses changing relations of competence, learning and innovation in contemporary workplaces and the implications these have for vocational education and training (VET) policy and provision. Using empirical material collected in the course of a recent research project on competency-based training (CBT), the argument is made that CBT, as currently constituted in policy, limits possibilities for the creation of certain kinds of competence, learning and innovation by emphasising the development of outcomes rather than processes. The conclusion is drawn that new principles of competence, learning and innovation need to be promoted in VET in order for policy to better represent emerging understandings of these processes and their relations and actively encourage workplaces not only to adapt to the new socio-economic environment but also take a proactive approach with an ability to reshape this environment. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Several studies into the response of Australian teachers, in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, to the implementation of competency-based education (CBE) have identified the role of judgement in competency-based assessment as a source of confusion and distress for assessors. This article explores the role of judgement from a philosophical perspective drawing on the work of Ryle, Geach and Polanyi. It is seen that judgement plays a pivotal role in all learning and assessment. The large component of tacit knowledge and judgement associated with vocational education requires high levels of vocational and educational expertise on the part of assessors. The implications of this for professional development of VET teachers are discussed briefly. The model of CBE that emerges from this article emphasises the exchange of tacit knowledge and the exercise of tacit judgement in learning. This model throws new light on many of the old debates in CBE and training and these are discussed. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

Post-compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post-compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article reports on a case study to evaluate a variety of learning models, currently being implemented within vocational education, at a large private boys’ College located near Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. This programme was designed to enable students to complete a traineeship or apprenticeship, and their senior certificate in accordance, with a variety of combined school and work programmes. including the New Apprenticeship Scheme. A multi-method approach was adopted which includes interviews with students, vocational educators and employers regarding their perceptions of: competencies, learning outcomes and training acquired during the programme. This paper presents the results of the first stage, i.e. vocational educators’ perspectives of workplace learning. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

The plight of students with disabilities has been in the spotlight for several years now. Recent legislation has made vocational training, including students with disabilities, a mainstay in most secondary schools. While there are studies that prove that training in a vocational setting does have a positive influence on students with learning disabilities, there are still ways in which the results are less impressive. With the increased number of students with learning disabilities not being able to maintain adequate time on the job, concerned parents and educators seek answers to unending questions. Some questions that come to the minds of many are such as (a) when a student with a learning disability cannot find a job or keep a job, what does he/she do with their time, and (b) how does this affect their life (i.e. physically or mentally)? In as much as the effort to overcome disability is actively sought for by many, the effects of learning disabilities on young peoples’ lives are unlikely to be eliminated entirely. Whereas disability implies a reduction in function that may influence the outcomes of people for a lifetime, this article reveals interviews from three students who have discussed their own problems with unemployment or underemployment, their dreams of success, and their worries about the future. The conclusion examines implications for teacher education and special education in general. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training. All right reserved.

Apprenticeship has a long history of success in developing skills. Despite this potential for adult education, the tacit core of apprenticeship has made it difficult to derive educational principle. This paper addresses the nature of this tacit core by intuiting generic principles from case studies of apprenticeship. Cases are taken from the Japanese tea ceremony, traditional crafts, and strategic thinking. The cases highlight a novice's cumulative growth in internal knowledge from reflectively practising a prescribed skilful process. The implications of the principles of internal knowledge and skilful process for adult education centre on instructors who are skilled experts engaged in continually improving the skilful processes they model. Implications for theory centre on an emphasis on a demand for worker participation and cooperation with management in on-the-job training. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A number of approaches to occupational analysis are reviewed and categorised. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are illuminated by considering a number of critiques of each approach. The concept of role is introduced and defined, a distinction being drawn between a functionalist and an interactionist view of role. Role strain and role conflict are defined, showing how the concept of role may be used to illuminate some of the complexities of working in an organisation. The concept of function is briefly defined and several of the inherent difficulties of functional analysis are listed. A fuller treatment of the concept of skill follows. A broad definition is offered, followed by exploration of: management research into ‘soft skills’; developments in cognitive psychology that attempt to represent superior performance; and the work on transferable skills, that is taking place largely in an education context. The author notes the need for more effective forms of occupational analysis that permit balanced consideration not only of performance, but also of the intellectual processes that inform it, here highlighted by discussion on skills, and of the social phenomena that interactionist approaches to role can explore. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

The purpose of this article is to present current international and national understandings of competence, and to present research examples which are relevant to vocational education. The article presents ‘competence’ as a critical field for research and practice in vocational education, and argues for an interpretative-relational approach to the development of competence, to include all elements of a workplace environment that impact on vocational learning and practice, and one which places the meaning of engagement in practice for the student and/or worker at the centre stage. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training. All right reserved.

A broad consensus has emerged in Scotland of the need to invest in the expansion of post-16 education and training. This renewed interest in Lifelong Learning has, however, become increasingly associated with expanding student numbers in full-time tertiary education. In this article, it is argued that the credentialist policies pursued in Scotland over the past 10 years, based on simple notions of economic instrumentalism and education ‘markets’, are in danger of creating greater social and economic divisions within society. An alternative policy agenda is proposed emphasising ‘work-based’ education and training, delayed entry to full-time initial post-16 education, and a strategic rethink of the role played by the Enterprise Network in creating and sustaining a skilled workforce. © 1999 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.