Search Results for
"Vocational education"

Background: Family medicine has some constraints, which may be considered critical for physicians' career choice, and motivation may be one of them. Motivation should be seen as a determinant of career success, particularly in educational context. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding about the family medicine residents' professional motivation, based on psychological and cognitive factors. Objectives: The following objectives were set: (1) to characterize the residents, in terms of cognitive-motivational variables; (2) to evaluate their assertive skills during the vocational training. Method: In 2005, we designed a mail survey applied to all graduates entering Family Medicine, in Portugal (N = 228), at the start of their specialty program. As part of a larger observational study, a 57 Likert scale items questionnaire was designed to collect descriptive data. In this cross sectional study we present data from professional project, professional commitment, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy expectancies, results control expectancies, initial motivation to the specialty and assertiveness skills (cross sectional study). Results: From the target population, 109 completed questionnaires (47.8%) were returned. Most of the participants indicated high levels of professional orientation (77.1%) for family medicine and 92.6% had been globally committed in practice. At the beginning of the residency, the participants had medium (59.6%) or high (33.9%) levels of motivation for choosing this specialty, 89% were intrinsically motivated and 60.5% proved to be quite assertive in their patient approach. Conclusions: These findings suggest that medical graduates, studied in this research, were globally motivated for practicing in a Family Medicine context, contradicting the overall perception of a physicians' declined interest for this specialty. These results may have implications in the design of real-life training programs for postgraduate education in Family Medicine, a time when physicians are forming expectations about their career performance and professional well being. Future researches should continue studying more deeply the professional motivation of that population, throughout the vocational training in Family Medicine residency. © 2011 CELOM.

Using a hierarchical needs assessment model developed by Hunt we identified the essential competencies of communication management practitioners for the purpose of curriculum development and selection. We found that the underlying values of the profession were embodied in two superordinate goals. Six major competencies were identified, which were defined by further sub-competencies. In addition, four main personal attributes were rated as important to professional performance. While we found high levels of agreement between practitioners and academics, there was a difference in opinion about the importance of the competency external interface management and this has implications for changing the focus of tertiary curricula. © 2011 The vocational Aspect of education Ltd.

This paper reports on a pilot project which provided writing support for registered nurses undertaking Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and for pre-registration nursing students. Both groups of students have English as a second language (ESL). The aims of the project were to extend the scope of the available writing support within the faculty for ESL students through the provision of one-to-one sessions and workshops. In addition, workshops were provided for lecturers to improve their understanding of the barriers faced by ESL students. Literature indicates that communication with tutors and the need for clear feedback are important factors for ESL students. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from questionnaires completed by participants after teaching sessions and were analysed against pre-agreed success criteria. Findings indicate that students were very positive about the effectiveness of the sessions in helping them improve their academic writing. Additionally, three themes emerged from the student data: reasons for using the ELS support service; what they liked most about the ELS service and suggestions for improvements to the service. Data from staff show that the sessions have given staff a greater insight into the problems faced by ESL students. © 2011 The vocational Aspect of education Ltd.

The change toward competence-based education has implications for teachers as well as school management. This study investigates which professional development activities teachers undertake related to this change and how these activities differ among schools with various human resource (HR) policies. Two types of HR policy were involved: (1) a government-enforced, national system of Integrated Personnel Management and (2) a voluntary, integrative approach of Schooling of teachers, Organizational development of schools and teacher training institutes, Action- and development-oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. Semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers in nine schools with different HR policies were held and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Findings show that teachers undertake professional development activities in five categories: maintaining knowledge base, applying and experimenting, reflection, collaboration, and activities indirectly related to teaching practice. Teachers' professional development activities were found to be relatively similar across schools with different HR policies. It is concluded that neither government-enforced nor voluntary HR policies seem to play much of a role in the participation by teachers in professional development activities. Implications for further research and school practice are discussed. © 2010 The Author(s).

Despite some segments of the creative industries in Australia performing better than other segments in terms of earnings and employment growth, they all rely on highly skilled workers and face similar workforce challenges. Workers typically experience multiple entry attempts, spells of unemployment, short-term contracts, high degrees of mobility, casual/ part-time employment within and outside the creative industries, and pressure to ensure their skills remain relevant. Skills shortages and gaps, an insufficient supply of high quality industry-ready graduates, difficulties in predicting demand for skills, weak linkages between industry and education providers, reliance on overseas talent in some segments, limited opportunities for workers to engage in skill development and pressure on workers to keep abreast of technological developments are ongoing issues in the creative industries workforce. In response to these concerns, the Australian Research Council, three State Governments, industry and a large vocational education and training (VET) provider funded Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to conduct the 60Sox project. This 3-year project investigated the education, training and work experiences of aspiring creatives defined as new entrants, recent graduates and students enrolled in creative industries courses. It involved the largest survey of aspiring creatives ever undertaken in Australia, attracting 507 respondents, and a survey of 50 employers. Using the framework proposed by Hannan, Raffe and Smyth (1996), this article presents findings from an analysis of the macro and micro labour market outcomes of aspiring creatives using data from the two 60Sox project surveys and publicly available sources. The analysis confirmed that many graduates of creative industries courses who participated in the 60Sox survey and the national surveys for the National Centre for vocational education Research and Graduate Careers Australia were struggling to make a successful transition from education to work. This article also discusses the causes of this key finding and possible solutions to address transition issues. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.