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"education"

The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) became operational nationally in September 1983. In May 1990, Youth Training (YT) was introduced to replace YTS. Throughout the economy, substantial numbers of new entrants to the labour market were subsidized by both schemes. In professional football in England and Wales, the former ad hoc system of “apprenticeship” was replaced by a more uniform systemic programme of both “specific” and “general” training, operating under the aegis of the Footballers' Further education and Vocational Training Society. Examines data to show how, subsequent to the implementation of the YTS/YT schemes in professional football, the number of registered contract professionals has increased: the ratio of contract professionals to trainees has decreased and the inter–divisional distribution of apprentices/trainees has changed, with proportionately more trainees than before now registered with clubs in the lower divisions. Additionally, describes the “specific” (i.e. football club–based) and “general” (i.e. college–based) components of the training programme. © 1996, MCB UP Limited

Introduces the traditional German apprenticeship training approach which has been received favourably in US governments (federal and state) and in industry, but suggests that certain conditions in America do not favour heavy investment in such training. Shows that the educational transfer of the apprenticeship model may be facilitated by German firms investing and operating in the United States, as proved by the electronic giant Siemens which is committed to implementing the proven apprenticeship model in its US subsidiaries. Shows that the apprenticeship model alone may be insufficient, and may need to be supplemented by a higher level, dual system education which integrates theory and practice. Proposes that the Vocational Academy programme, illustrated by the Mercedes-Benz experience, may fill this gap - not to supplant the apprenticeship training, but to supplement it. Suggests that both the apprenticeship model and the Vocational Academy model, may fill an important need for an educational joint venture approach, not only in the United States but also in other countries, by making business and government organizations more competitive in the global market. © 1996, MCB UP Limited

States that health systems globally are in transition, for which also a correspondingly reformed education is required, involving new - and renewed - basic sciences, principles, skills and methods. To that end, demonstrates how problem-based learning in general practice is almost ideal, although still sparsely implemented, and has much in common with health care quality assurance. Contends that primary care in many ways comprises the most important platform and vehicle of modern health services and their interaction with the population. Uses the example of the Faculty of Health Sciences in Linköping, where all curricula are integrated, community-oriented, problem-based and have a focus on primary care and general practice. Represents a useful and hitherto insufficiently recognized widening of the overall field of health care quality assurance, and summarizes some of the experiences therein. Also provides a brief overview of the literature. © 1996, MCB UP Limited

[No abstract available]

The idea of competence has different meanings in ordinary, academic, and vocational education and training-practice. These meanings also have historical dimensions. That is, what is meant by competence has evolved over time, and has been constituted differently in different areas of practice. For instance, in contemporary discussions in education and training, competing notions of competence have been the subject of debate, somewhat reminiscent of recurring debates in education over the last century or more. This paper examines the possible reasons why different meanings are associated with the term competence by examining the nature of the ends that are sought in constructions of competence in dijferent areas of practice. The paper relates advocacy for dijferent constructions of competence to the normative views that underpin them, and to periods in history when they gained their greatest sway. The genesis of the position of the cognitive psychological construction of competence and that of the competency-based training movement are examined against these normative positions. It is suggested that, for any convergence of meaning to occur, the construction of competence needs to have features that enable transactions across areas of practice. The cyclical movements in constructions are likened to an incomplete metamorphosis, continually thwarted by a failure to address the normative aspects of constructions of competence. © 1996, Taylor and Francis Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper raises questions about the training debate today in Australia through its examination of the factors, among them the roles of government and professional associations, that influenced the development of engineering technician training and education in New South Wales in the 1950s and 1960s. Technical educators grasped the need for courses that provided for a new range of workplace classifications which tended to fall outside the province or sphere of concern of tradesmen or the professional engineer. One of the major factors stimulating the interest in, and growth of, the provision of such courses was the strength of demand by the youths themselves. To what extent did the technical education authorities exercise power over training for industry? A contrast between apprenticeship and technician training in the metal industry is used here to answer this question. With respect to apprenticeship training, technical educators were essentially marginalised by the power struggles that centred around the recruitment of apprentices, and by the increasingly complicated framework of industrial legislation. In the area of technician training the technical education sector took a leadership role in the development of such training and faced little opposition in doing so. The reasons for the contrast are explored in the paper. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

In 1990, Australian Federal and State Ministers responsible for vocational education and training (VET) established a framework for the implementation of competency-based training (CBT) in Australia. A target of substantial implementation by the end of 1993 was set. Charles Sturt University's Group for Research in Employment and Training was subsequently commissioned by the Department of Employment, education and Training to assess the penetration of CBT in TAFE and non-TAFE settings in 1994. It was found that the implementation was slower than anticipated and that this was particularly true in the TAFE (government-funded technical college) sector. The data suggested, however, that CBT was becoming more common, and that the gap between TAFE and non-TAFE providers was closing. There was considerable disagreement among providers about what constituted CBT practice. Certain features often seen as elements of CBT, including workplace assessment and the availability of assessment on demand, were scarcely used at all. To describe the implementation of CBT, a model of ‘essential’ and ‘associated’ elements of CBT is proposed, which adapts Elam's (1971) model of ‘essential’ and ‘implied’ elements. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

1996 marks the 10th anniversary of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the body responsible for a national framework of competency-based education and training in the United Kingdom. Concurrently, the qualifications are being highlighted as they are developed at professional levels 4 and 5.The anniversary was preceded by a plethora of reports. Beaumont flagged up issues of validity, reliability and quality control in relation to the organisational structure of the framework. The Institute of Employment Studies noted that there had only been a marginal increase in the number of employers implementing the qualifications and the Higher education Quality Council began the process of persuading the higher education sector by noting the positive contributions that competency-based assessment processes could make. However, there remain very real issues to debate. Whether knowledge and understanding can be ‘inferred’ from performance. Whether the qualifications are suitable for the complexities of professional performance. Above all, whether policy-making over the last decade has been thinking along the right lines. This paper explores those issues. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A Staff Development Forum for the post-16 sector has recently been established. It will examine the need for a more coherent approach to staff training and professional development, including the introduction of ‘national standards’ in the form of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). This paper argues that there is, indeed, an urgent need to consider the case for some form of consensus about what constitutes best practice in teaching. But a proper consideration must begin from a conceptualisation of teaching as professional practice. Three typical characteristics of professional practice are examined for their relevance to teaching: ethical values, autonomous pragmatism and the pursuit of expertise, together with the question of whether current NVQs can provide an account of these characteristics. The conclusion drawn is that methodological inadequacies of a conceptual, psychological and epistemological nature prevent them from doing so, and that these inadequacies derive from the role of competence-based qualifications in New Right social and educational policy. The potential effect of devising qualifications using the current competence-based approach is a reconceptualisation of teaching and learning as technical procedures, and of teachers as technicians. Unless resisted, this will achieve the ideological intention of subordinating the practice of teachers to direct political and managerial control, thus rendering teachers and learners less independent and autonomous, more impotent. © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A central claim made for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) concerns their role in providing the skills which employers and industry are said to need. This claim is challenged through the examination of a range of critical studies which indicate that employers are neither centrally involved in nor satisfied with the sort of outcomes associated with NVQs. Since NVQs are failing to provide the knowledge and skills which people on all sides of education and industry claim are required to enhance vocational education and training (VET), and upgrade workforce skills, it is suggested that the public funding of skills training should no longer be determined by the agenda of the NCVQ or the objectives of the professional training lobby. Speculative proposals for alternative strategies are examined against the background of recent policy developments in the field following the Beaumont and Dearing reviews. © 1996 Journal of Vocational education and Training All rights reserved.