Search Results for
"Vocational education"

education systems can be characterized on the basis of whether the academic and occupational/vocational education and training they provide is compartmentalized (tracked systems), systematically connected (linked systems) or fully integrated (unified systems). This paper describes how such a typology might be used to model strategic change at the higher levels of the UK system for education and training. Successive governments have pursued a number of separate agendas (e.g. massification of HE, public accountability, standards in HE, key/employability skills, lifelong learning…) the net result of which is leading to a more unified system. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The role of education and training historically was to prepare men and women for different roles beyond schooling. Despite equality legislation in 1975, designed to secure wider opportunities for women in society and in the workplace, progress towards achieving equality in employment–with the exception of entry into the lower levels of some professions–has been slow and traditional patterns of occu- pational segregation remain. Traditional attitudes and expectations have proved diffi- cult to change. This is reflected in the participation rates of men and women in vocational education and training programmes currently on offer to young people. The compulsory education system has seen the removal of structural barriers to equality and access to all subjects has provided girls with the opportunity to achieve well and outperform boys even in non-traditional subjects such as maths, science and technology. Disappointingly, however, academic gains have not been marked by wider vocational choice within and beyond schooling where stereotyping in option, subject, training and employment decisions is still overt. In this article, we use the examples of Part 1 GNVQs, further education, Modern Apprenticeships and National Traineeships to illustrate the current extent of stereo- typing and segregation in vocational education and training. We argue that it is of par- ticular concern that these recent policy initiatives reinforce rather than challenge stereotyping and that 25 years after the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), vocational education and training provide young people with narrow and segregated routeways while delivering to industry limited and gender-based pools of talent. We recognize that young people, women particularly, are disadvantaged as a result, and their poten- tial for career development and economic independence is reduced. We argue that gender stereotyping is a barrier to equality which should be addressed in all new education and training policy development, such as the review of the National Curriculum, and should be included in government policy direction to vocational education and training providers. We use the example of TVEI to show how good practice can be promoted in education and training in schools and we identify and recommend the use of good practice strategies in vocational education and training, particularly the positive action provisions of the SDA. © 1999, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The Maine Technical College System (MTCS) has a 50 – year history of preparing skilled workers for an occupationally diverse and geographically dispersed region. Established as a vocational training institute under the “GI Bill” to help returning servicemen, the System now includes seven colleges and provides education, training, and retraining in the state’s most advanced technological fields. The System increasingly provides a vital bridge between schools and work, offering career awareness and internship programs to secondary school students and widening access to higher education for a population that traditionally has not sought further education or training. Four innovative programs serve as the foundation of this bridge: (1) Maine Quality Centers, resources that help expanding employers identify workforce needs and provide workers with skills tailored to those specific needs; (2) Maine Tech Prep, an applied high school curricula and academic guidance philosophy that initiates career and skills development; (3) articulation agreements, the genesis of a seamless educational experience from high school through two-and four-year college; and (4) Maine Career Advantage, a nationally recognized school - to - career internship program. Individually and collectively, these programs position MTCS, Maine's most affordable postsecondary option, as a viable avenue toward education and training in a state where college attainment levels are among the lowest in the nation. The system is experiencing steadily increasing enrollment and high graduate placements. © 1999 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This article focuses on the evolving concept of the training market and views about those factors which necessitate intervention in the market. User choice in apprenticeships and traineeships is the latest policy initiative in Australia to increase the responsiveness of the vocational education and training system to the needs of clients. It does so by channelling the flow of public funds to individual training providers to reflect the choice of training provider made by the client (employer and/or apprentice or trainee). The introduction of user choice raises several policy issues. Concerns have been expressed about providing continuous access to training in rural and remote areas. Also, there is considerable uncertainty about how user choice will impact on equity groups. Other issues that are considered in the article include: Will user choice increase the choices available to apprentices and trainees? How competitive will training markets be under user choice? How will private training providers and the publicly funded vocational education and training (VET) system adjust to user choice? What tensions between stakeholders are likely to be experienced in the introduction of user choice? The ways in which these policy issues are resolved is likely to determine whether user choice succeeds in creating a training system that is more responsive to the needs of stakeholders. © 1999 Journal of vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

vocational educators and trainers directly face the challenges of changing structures of work and economy in “new times”. This paper discusses changing relations of competence, learning and innovation in contemporary workplaces and the implications these have for vocational education and training (VET) policy and provision. Using empirical material collected in the course of a recent research project on competency-based training (CBT), the argument is made that CBT, as currently constituted in policy, limits possibilities for the creation of certain kinds of competence, learning and innovation by emphasising the development of outcomes rather than processes. The conclusion is drawn that new principles of competence, learning and innovation need to be promoted in VET in order for policy to better represent emerging understandings of these processes and their relations and actively encourage workplaces not only to adapt to the new socio-economic environment but also take a proactive approach with an ability to reshape this environment. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Several studies into the response of Australian teachers, in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, to the implementation of competency-based education (CBE) have identified the role of judgement in competency-based assessment as a source of confusion and distress for assessors. This article explores the role of judgement from a philosophical perspective drawing on the work of Ryle, Geach and Polanyi. It is seen that judgement plays a pivotal role in all learning and assessment. The large component of tacit knowledge and judgement associated with vocational education requires high levels of vocational and educational expertise on the part of assessors. The implications of this for professional development of VET teachers are discussed briefly. The model of CBE that emerges from this article emphasises the exchange of tacit knowledge and the exercise of tacit judgement in learning. This model throws new light on many of the old debates in CBE and training and these are discussed. © 1999 Journal of vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

Post-compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post-compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article reports on a case study to evaluate a variety of learning models, currently being implemented within vocational education, at a large private boys’ College located near Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. This programme was designed to enable students to complete a traineeship or apprenticeship, and their senior certificate in accordance, with a variety of combined school and work programmes. including the New Apprenticeship Scheme. A multi-method approach was adopted which includes interviews with students, vocational educators and employers regarding their perceptions of: competencies, learning outcomes and training acquired during the programme. This paper presents the results of the first stage, i.e. vocational educators’ perspectives of workplace learning. © 1999 Journal of vocational education and Training All rights reserved.

The plight of students with disabilities has been in the spotlight for several years now. Recent legislation has made vocational training, including students with disabilities, a mainstay in most secondary schools. While there are studies that prove that training in a vocational setting does have a positive influence on students with learning disabilities, there are still ways in which the results are less impressive. With the increased number of students with learning disabilities not being able to maintain adequate time on the job, concerned parents and educators seek answers to unending questions. Some questions that come to the minds of many are such as (a) when a student with a learning disability cannot find a job or keep a job, what does he/she do with their time, and (b) how does this affect their life (i.e. physically or mentally)? In as much as the effort to overcome disability is actively sought for by many, the effects of learning disabilities on young peoples’ lives are unlikely to be eliminated entirely. Whereas disability implies a reduction in function that may influence the outcomes of people for a lifetime, this article reveals interviews from three students who have discussed their own problems with unemployment or underemployment, their dreams of success, and their worries about the future. The conclusion examines implications for teacher education and special education in general. © 1999 Journal of vocational education and Training. All right reserved.

A number of approaches to occupational analysis are reviewed and categorised. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are illuminated by considering a number of critiques of each approach. The concept of role is introduced and defined, a distinction being drawn between a functionalist and an interactionist view of role. Role strain and role conflict are defined, showing how the concept of role may be used to illuminate some of the complexities of working in an organisation. The concept of function is briefly defined and several of the inherent difficulties of functional analysis are listed. A fuller treatment of the concept of skill follows. A broad definition is offered, followed by exploration of: management research into ‘soft skills’; developments in cognitive psychology that attempt to represent superior performance; and the work on transferable skills, that is taking place largely in an education context. The author notes the need for more effective forms of occupational analysis that permit balanced consideration not only of performance, but also of the intellectual processes that inform it, here highlighted by discussion on skills, and of the social phenomena that interactionist approaches to role can explore. © 1999 Journal of vocational education and Training All rights reserved.