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"Vocational education"

Compares labour market transitions of young people in Germany and Italy using panel data from the GSOKP and the SHIW. The aim is to investigate whether there are significant cross-country differences in the patterns of labour market entrance and whether explanatory factors can be identified. The analysis shows that Germans have a significantly higher probability of moving from school to work and from unemployment to employment. They are also more likely to move back to studies if already in the labour force. Further investigation suggests that cross-country differences in the educational and labour market systems are responsible for the differences found.

In response to recent developments in the labour market, in occupational structure and in occupational practice, many aspects of vocational education and training are subjects of discussion and in transition. The tertiary sector is growing, some occupations are integrating while others are differentiating. New methods of production and organization require new types of employee competencies: problem-solving and social-communicative skills are becoming more and more important. The article focuses on the importance and the possibilities of shaping these developments from a gender perspective. First, the significance of changing qualification requirements is discussed for the technical sector, the service and care sector and the economic-administrative sector. Second, two innovations in vocational education and training are discussed: the recognition of prior learning and the development of flexible, modular educational pathways.

The political decision to implement competency-based training widely throughout vocational education systems in Australia, before rigorous evaluation through adequate pilot programs, was made because it was viewed as essential for increasing skill levels and work productivity. Recent data indicate that Australia's relative international competitiveness actually declined during 1994-97, suggesting an urgent need to reassess underpinning policies. Despite the marked reluctance of the Australian National Training Authority to commission studies specifically assessing the effectiveness of competency-based training, several independent studies have been carried out. These and other commissioned studies indicate some major problems with competency-based training which has not achieved stated objectives of increasing skill levels. Research also indicates that competency-based training has not been adopted widely by business and industry. The appropriateness of using public agencies to implement innovations which are untested, and may not be supported by the wider community intended to benefit from their introduction, is queried.

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In the 1990s, the timing and duration of youth transitions has become variable because of cultural modernisation and the declining stability of careers. In particular, the German 'dual system' of vocational education and Training (VET) has come under pressure of globalisation and labour market deregulation. Despite economic turbulence, the main features of the VET have been maintained. The apprenticeship route is still highly accepted-two-thirds of the cohort of school-leavers are passing through it. It continues to provide standardised occupational qualifications and a context for socialisation. It supplies a skilled labour force and keeps youth unemployment low-despite shortcomings in standards of social equality and a slow pace in adapting to changes in technology and work. For the future, the 'left modernisers' strategy of upgrading skills remains pos sible, by reforming the apprenticeship system and maintaining the 'high-skills' route for transition from education to work. In transition studies structural analysis should be combined with research on institutional regulations, transition pathways, and individual agency.

The flexible delivery of training to develop skill in industry has been given considerable encouragement by both government and industry in Australia and the United Kingdom. The research in this article examines the learning preferences of apprentices and the support that they receive in the workplace. The data show that apprentice learning preferences are not currently well suited to the self-directed and independent learning expected by flexible delivery. Interviews with the apprentices indicate that the support for them in the workplace is also not suited to their learning preferences, or to supporting flexible delivery. Strategies to develop learners, trainers and enterprise contexts that will better support flexible delivery are discussed. © 2000 Journal of vocational education and Training. All Rights Reserved.

Using the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory (CLSI), the learning preferences of 1 252 vocational education and training (VET) learners were tested. Results indicate that VET learners are characterised by a preference for dependent learning, rather than self-directed learning; and a preference for learning through observation and direct experience rather than through verbal presentations. These findings are discussed in terms of the preparedness of VET learners for flexible delivery in the workplace. Kember's (1995) two-dimensional model of open learning is suggested as a theoretical framework for the development of strategies to increase the preparedness of learners and workplaces for flexible delivery. © 2000, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.