Search Results for
"Vocational education"

How can the crisis in training be understood? How can it be resolved? A context for this paper is provided in terms of relevant professional and educational policy. A critical review of nationally available data is presented. It will be argued that commonly cited reasons for not offering student placements might have obfuscated underlying dynamics, which are related to the model of education adopted in the United Kingdom. It will be argued that a shift in emphasis in initial and continuing professional education is relevant. © 1998 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

Traditional models of clinical placements for students in speech and language therapy (SLT) are often based on a one-to-one model where the structure of the learning process is: theory, observation and practice. Literature relating to adult learning and professional education suggests alternative approaches to clinical training which may be relevant to SLT. Work in progress is discussed where alternative approaches to placements and student learning in a range of placement settings are being developed. © 1998 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

The aim of this pilot study was to employ a qualitative research methodology to explore students' perceptions of learning and assessment of that learning whilst on clinical placement. The students' perceptions were sampled by questionnaire both pre- and post-placement (ten weeks block placement). The analysis of the data was undertaken using principles from Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990). The analysis yielded a number of categories and bipolar paradigms relating to learning and assessment. However little change was seen between comments made pre and post-placement. The implications of this analysis are discussed. © 1998 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

This paper aims at analyzing main features of the German vocational education. It builds on a simple model of firm specific human capital accumulation in case of learning by doing. A main result is a positive effect of government financed schooling on creating learning by doing jobs. This finding relies on simple strategic arguments and does not depend on long term labor contracts or any cross productivity effects between learning inside and outside the firm.

The merits of apprenticeship can be considered from two standpoints, according to whether it is viewed as vocational education or job training. In the first case, the relevant comparison is to full-time vocational schooling; in the second, to the youth labour market, including employment, unemployment and labour market programmes. Economic evidence on both comparisons is reviewed, based primarily upon subsequent labour market outcomes for participants along the two routes. The statistical and economic obstacles to reaching conclusions based upon such evidence are discussed. International comparisons and studies of aggregate productivity are then considered as additional sources of information. The evidence suggests that in contemporary advanced economies apprenticeship is associated unevenly with economic advantages, primarily as a source of more stable employment for young male adults, and more in relation to regular youth employment and training than to vocational education. The value of apprenticeship for females is low in some countries. Differences relative to full-time vocational education appear to be country-specific and generally only secondary in magnitude. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The paper provides an overview of qualifications in the German construction workforce and draws comparisons with the situation in the British construction industry. The German system of general education and vocational training is outlined. Data from a variety of sources are used to describe both the stocks and the flows of qualifications in the German construction workforce. Particular attention is paid to vocational qualifications, such as apprenticeships and the Meister qualification. Key findings are that the majority of German construction workers are qualified up to apprenticeship level, and that most of these employees have achieved a general schooling certificate from at least a lower secondary school prior to their vocational training. These factors are taken as signs of strength of the German construction workforce. Comparisons between the stocks of qualifications in the construction industry in the two countries suggest that intermediate qualifications of the apprenticeship type are far less prevalent in the British construction workforce.

Many approaches to learning rely on behaviourist and individualist assumptions, are dependent on transmission pedagogies or are associated with cognitive science accounts of expertise. Drawing upon recent developments in activity theory that have resulted in learning new interpretations of the ‘zone of proximal development’ and the emergence of the idea of ‘learning as a form of social practice’, this paper proposes an entirely different perspective on learning. It argues that the idea of apprenticeship can be reconceptualised to provide the basis for a more inclusive social theory of learning. It explores how far new pedagogic criteria will have to be developed that might constitute the basis for such a theory of ‘reflexive learning’, and identifies the possible implications of this approach to learning for a number of current concerns in vocational education and training, for example, lifelong learning, collaborative/ transformative learning and knowledge production. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

[No abstract available]

In spite of the central role accorded to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in recent government White Papers on competitiveness and national vocational education and training (VET) policies, the involvement of small firms in national training efforts remains disappointingly marginal. Studies over 2,000 SMEs in the West Midlands region and indicates a worrying gap between interest and attitudes to training and actual take-up of training opportunities, particularly in relation to programmes linked to national vocational qualifications(NVQs). Recommends that, given the low awareness of and low value assigned to NVQs by SME owner/managers, training policies for SMEs are distinguished sharply from national training efforts concerned with NVQs and the achievement of national targets. © 1997, MCB UP Limited

Several Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary education (FIPSE) and National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded exchange projects are presented by reviewing proposals for FIPSE, and doing `pre-submission' reviews for clients. The problems that can be fatal to a funding proposal are discussed, after which recommendations are given for planning an exchange program. The observations are based on proposals for the program entitled `European Community/USA Joint Consortia for Cooperation in Higher vocational education'. This program supports new working relationships among academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and industry, with a special interest in student internships.