Search Results for
"Vocational education"

This article considers the prevalence of what have been termed 'training discourses' as dominant practices within a particular University of Technology, and discusses the implications of such discourses for teaching and learning. The rapid emergence of this training or skills discourse in Universities of Technology in South Africa, in preference to discourses that emphasise praxis (a combination of theory and practice) and, by implication, of social redress and transformation, is interrogated within the framework of the current emphasis on training for economic growth. While in some instances the training discourses could be considered empowering for students because of the inclusion of authentic, workplace practices, these discourses could also be considered constraining if they limit students ' ability to solve problems critically and creatively. The ability to adapt to new and changing workplace environments, this article will argue, could be better developed by a more developmental discourse of 'critiquing', 'knowing' and 'doing', rather than just 'doing'.

The dual system of vocational training, utilizing both company training and vocational school, is generally acknowledged to be a successful model, but a decreasing number of trainee posts in Switzerland poses a crisis for the approach. One strategy for overcoming the problem involves offering incentives for companies to create new trainee posts. The present study explores the necessary conditions for successfully influencing the number of trainee posts through apprenticeship marketing. A comparision of qualitative case studies of six marketing projects demonstrates that while context, in the sense of basic structural conditions and political sensibility for the problematic, plays a role in the success of a project, what is central is above all the form of the trainee-post marketing project itself. This has to do with the behaviour of the actors involved as well as the choice of the mode of governance and project organization. The latter has to do with making available requisite technical and personal resources, coordination on the part of the project direction, and giving those responsible the necessary room to act in implementing the project. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.

[No abstract available]

The concept of 'therapeutic education' is being increasingly used in contemporary education policy studies to identify learning initiatives which are dominated by objectives linked to personal and social skills, emotional intelligence and building self-esteem. Contemporary educational goals connected with such strategies have been criticised for encouraging a 'victim culture' which marginalises learners and replaces the pursuit of knowledge and understanding with the development of personal values relevant to a life of social, cultural and economic risk and uncertainty. In relation to vocational education and training (VET) and post-school policy trends in particular, Hayes has argued that preparation for work has abandoned vocational/occupational knowledge and skills in favour of providing learners with personal skills for emotional labour in low-level service jobs. This paper interrogates such analyses and questions whether the therapeutic role of VET really is incompatible with the traditional objectives of developing knowledge, understanding and values in work environments. Links are made between new emphases on work-based learning and the 'caring' conceptions of learning in post-school education. It is concluded that - although therapy should not dominate VET - an attention to the important values dimension of learning in the field does involve a therapeutic dimension of some kind.

The article examines how the probability of obtaining an apprenticeship as a part of upper secondary education varies between ethnic Norwegians and minority groups. The analyses show considerable differences between the ethnic majority and the minority groups of non-western origin. Although grades and school attendance record have a marked effect on the probability of obtaining an apprenticeship, there are ethnic differences that are not due to such human capital factors. Furthermore, good grades are more important for the minority than for majority applicants. Overall the results suggest that the ethnic minority applicants of non-western origin have to outperform their majority peers in order to have the same chance of obtaining an apprenticeship.

With the proposed introduction of a common framework for comparing qualifications within the European Union as a result of the Lisbon Agreement of 2000, the question of commonly agreed transnational concepts of skills and qualifications has become a pressing political and practical issue. The paper argues that there are grounds for doubting that there is a ready translation of the English terms 'skill and 'qualification in a way that avoids problems of comparing and calibrating German and English vocational qualifications. Reasons for this difficulty are explored, the most important of which relate to: a) the conceptual structure of skill and its cognates in the two languages; b) the differing socio-political role of qualifications; c) different industrial structures and labour processes; d) differences in institutions regulating vocational education and training. These problems are discussed in relation to examples of similar industries and occupations and apparently similar levels of qualification in England and Germany.

The contemporary relevance of the German philosopher of vocational education, Georg Kerschensteiner, is first indicated in general terms in relation to current debates and policies. Kerschensteiners main ideas are then outlined. There is a discussion of his relationship with progressivism, his ideas about learning and the importance of practical activity. His ideas about the nature of work and the relationship between work and paid unemployment are then considered. Kerschensteiner was particularly concerned with the role of work in promoting the development of character through the 'bourgeois virtues concerned with the work and the 'civic virtues concerned with the relationship between work and the broader society. His views on character formation are related to this discussion of civic education. Kerschensteiners innovations to schooling in Munich are then described in relation to his philosophical outlook and finally his views on the German tradition of liberal education or Bildung and how these relate to vocational education are outlined.

Purpose – Seeks to examine the extent to which education systems around the world embrace vocational schooling and the degree to which exposure to vocational schooling differs by gender and race. Design/methodology/approach – Uses distributional analysis applied to cross-country data from Unesco to examine shares of secondary school students enrolled in the vocational track, by gender. Also uses descriptive statistics based on US Department of education data to examine fields of study within the vocational track. Findings – The emphasis on vocational education and access to different types of training across demographic groups varies considerably around the world. European countries in particular, long known for their heavy emphasis on specialized vocational schooling, have relatively high vocational school shares in secondary school. At the other end of the distribution, almost 30 countries in the sample, most of them low-income, have vocational school shares below 4 percent. In the majority of countries, a higher share of male secondary school students enroll in the vocational track compared with female students. Latin American countries stand out for having a high female representation among vocational school students. In the USA, male students cluster in trade and industrial courses, while female students cluster in business preparation courses. Also, white students are relatively concentrated in the trades, black and Hispanic students cluster in business courses, and Asian students are concentrated in technical courses. Originality/value – These stylized facts set the stage for new research on vocational education and for new policy initiatives that create new opportunities for specialization in vocational training. © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

• The workplace remains the most important learning environment for junior doctors in their postgraduate years. • There is no national curriculum to guide the education of prevocational doctors. • The apprenticeship model is under threat, and is not sustainable in the future without significant changes to the system. • Supervision is crucial for junior doctors' learning and for safe, quality patient care.

This paper analyzes a simple game-theoretic model of curriculum integration decision-making in a high school with academic and vocational tracks. The model is based on a formal theory of how curriculum integration affects learning. Teachers choose to include a curriculum integration unit in their classes only when it increases learning relative to the next best alternative. The analysis shows that (1) curriculum integration is not invariably the right choice for schools; (2) teachers may independently choose curriculum integration under certain circumstances; (3) teachers' independent choices about curriculum integration may or may not be optimal from a school-wide perspective; and (4) school leadership is called for when teacher choices are suboptimal. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.