Search Results for
"Vocational education"

This article argues that vocational training can offer a positive experience for young people, one that potentially provides them with opportunities to show their potential in ways denied to them in general education. It outlines the centrality of vocational learning to human and societal development through an historical perspective. The considerable diversity of approaches to vocational training across the world means that it cannot be contained within the same boundaries as might apply to a discussion of school education or higher education. When discussed in relation to adolescents, vocational training is a controversial subject because it demands that we ask questions about the purpose of education for young people and the relationship between education and the world of work. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The school-to-work transition is an important milestone in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is the time in the life of young people when they leave initial education and enter the labor market for the first time. Whether young people succeed in finding a job that matches their skills or even get a job at all depends on many individual factors and social circumstances. It requires young people's coping with new demands, may turn out to be unsuccessful, and often has long-lasting consequences for their life chances in adult life. The school-to-work transition is thus a critical event in the life of young people. This article addresses the complex process of young people's insertion into the labor market by focusing on the antecedents, processes, and the outcomes of the school-to-work transition. It conceives of the school-to-work transition as an interplay between young people's resources and competences, and the opportunities and constraints they encounter in the social contexts of transition. After a brief discussion of various dimensions along which this transition needs to be distinguished, the article will give an overview of trends in the school-to-work transition that have been observed over the last decades in Western industrial societies in particular. Theoretical approaches of the school-to-work transition will be presented and the respective empirical evidence discussed. The concluding remarks present a short outlook into future research. © 2011 Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

Over recent decades, many western nations have stepped up their efforts to increase secondary school completion rates while maintaining high standards. How systems have approached this, and how successful they are, varies. One of the key differences is in the range of programs that are offered and the different pathways to completion. In some systems there is a menu of separate certificates and qualifications, each tied to a different strand of learning, and each representing a different pathway. In other systems there is a single certificate or qualification, but with structured options producing academic, general, and vocational tracks that work as pathways to different post-school options. This chapter compares some of the different pathways to completion of upper secondary qualifications offered by different countries. What are the main qualifications and pathways? How do they work? For whom do they work? Are they of equal value? Answers to these questions require an evaluation of the various options nations offer students to complete secondary school qualifications. The evaluation needs to consider criteria such as content, rigor and graduation requirements as well as how effectively the different options work to reduce dropout rates and deliver real benefits to those who participate. There is little use providing alternatives to deal with pupil diversity if the alternatives simply function to promote stratification by working as sources of relegation and offering only weak returns. For this reason, it is important to consider the extent to which different pathways are inclusive (who gets included) and promote equivalent standards of learning and outcomes. The discussion begins by comparing school-based pathways across countries, and then moves on to look in more detail first at academic pathways, then at alternatives such as vocational education. Finally, the discussion turns to alternative pathways to completion specifically available to dropouts. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a new trainee-oriented teaching method: "The Project Method". The aforementioned method highlights the important role of the experience of the training process and the links between training and the trainees' social life. Design/methodology/ approach - This method draws its origin from the American Pragmatism and the German "Project education", while it is based on the principles of Gestalt and cognitive psychology. The application of the Project Method in vocational training is examined through the emotional intelligence skills, that a group of people has developed - and claimed so in a relevant questionnaire - in a seminar concerning the subject of Marketing. Findings - Through the Project Method's application, the trainees have developed their emotional intelligence skills, and have instilled new pedagogical ideas; providing long-run benefits to themselves, the enterprises, the society and the economy in general. Research contends that this method is efficient when there are no time constraints. Practical implications - While the focus is vocational training, the implications have a broader focus, enabling the Project Method to be applied to adults' education. Originality/value - This paper provides empirical results of the Project Method application in vocational training. The Project Method training provides the effective cooperation of the human resources that is of high importance for the efficiency and the profitability of the enterprises. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Adopting a sociopragmatic and interactional perspective, the paper proposes to investigate how apprentices engage in questioning practices and how trainers respond to these questions. A detailed empirical analysis of audio/video data collected in the context of Swiss training companies establishes that answers provided by trainers in response to questions do not constitute the dominant form of questioning work observed. Alternative interactional patterns that stress the tensions connected with questioning in the workplace context and the complexity of the social practices associated with workplace learning are identified and described. These findings illuminate the challenges faced by apprentices when joining the workplace and underscore the importance of a sociopragmatic perspective in addressing social issues related to initial vocational education. © 2011 John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Engaging vocational educators to take the lead in developing blended learning practices that are 'fit for purpose' within an educational and workplace context is challenging. This paper explores literature in the areas of scaffolding; zone of proximal development, mentoring and coaching. It describes the initial experience of a blended learning project team in implementing scaffolding learning principles to engage vocational educators in order to create sustained change that links clearly to teaching, learning and assessment within an outcomes environment. The paper also provides some insights into the implementation of the Blended Learning Project (BLP) through the initiation and execution stages of the student (peer) projects. Through this type of practice the novice is always becoming the expert and the expert is always somewhat a novice. The greatest gain for this project is the development of process capability which is the cornerstone to sustained development in practice and expertise. © 2011 Linda Weterman & Oriel Kelly.

There is a widespread consensus that we have an urgent need to improve our workforce capacity in all aspects associated with the skills and knowledge required for successful e-health and health informatics developments, associated change management and systems implementation strategies. Such activities aim to support various health reform policy initiatives. This paper considers the work being undertaken by many researchers around the globe to define the range of skills and knowledge requirements to suit this purpose. A number of requirements and areas of specialisation are detailed. This is followed by descriptions for competencies in general and more specifically descriptions of a set of high level agreed Health Informatics competencies. Collectively these competencies provide a suitable framework useful for the formal recognition of Health Informatics, including e-health, as a nationally recognised study discipline. Nationally agreed competencies for this discipline enables all education and training efforts to be consistently implemented and to fit with the Australian Qualifications Framework covering both the vocational education and Training (VET) and Higher education sectors. © 2011 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.

Though technology has become a supportive learning tool for students, it is still not sufficiently good in education. A number of experiences from our life, such as the sense of touch and that of smell, are difficult to construct on computer-aided projects. When teachers use technology-embedded project-based instructional material in classes, they must design new manners of teaching with computers. This study shows the evidence of more student-centered instructions and learning on computer-aided design projects. This capstone project is a framework for understanding the mode in which technology-embedded project-based learning enables the role of students to become active learners. This capstone project system is integrated computer-aided design to a project-based learning. Technically, this study primarily focuses on the development of technology-embedded project-based learning, and also shows the approach of e-learning because students are required to learn concepts by participating in the e-portfolio system. These findings could act as a reference for technical and vocational higher education instructors who consider computer-aided design to support their future teaching curricula. For students, this is a good approach for developing professional achievements and social skill learning. For educational institutions, they can use technology-embedded project-based instructions to review the technological qualifications of teachers. Applying computer-aided designs in a technology-embedded project will make technology efficient and appropriate in education.

Research on cooperative education is widespread; such studies in sport management are just as vital. This study examined student and host agency views on their actual (present behaviour) and optimal performance (desired standard) during practicum and analyzed the performance gap between present (actual) and optimal performance. Themes from journals written by 25 sport management students at an Australian university and 21 host agency evaluation reports, including nine in-depth interviews were analyzed. The data helped identify and compare perceptual differences and similarities between present behaviour and desired standard. The paper concludes with recommendations to improve the practicum experience in sport management. © 2011 Copyright European Association for Sport Management.

Objective: Analysis of the problems of teaching nursing practice and nursing practice to establish a better education system. Method: Select two vocational colleges from Grade 2007 and Grade 2008 nursing students, the implementation of classroom teaching and assessment skills of individual units - mix of skills refresher training before practice and assessment - practical training and internship before graduation in three stages. Results: The implementation of the three stages of teaching nursing students in practice, skills test results and test results were significantly improved (P <0.05). Conclusion: three stages of professional nursing practice teaching system and improvement of teaching effectiveness for continuous improvement, there are significant results, which could be applied to promote the ability of nursing students and their human qualities © 2011 IEEE.