Search Results for
"Vocational education"

Political insistence on implementing higher level National vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and General vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) currently dominates the ideological high ground for professional development for the post‐compulsory sector. There is a widespread and mistaken belief that GNVQs might redress NVQs’ shortcomings by adding ‘underpinning knowledge’ and offering a broader view of a vocational area. There is evidence that NVQs are adapting to criticism; at higher levels, they appear to be appropriating many features that underpin existing approaches to professional development. This article argues that this apparent reforming of NVQs obscures how the underlying values and educational purposes of professional learning are being completely redefined as both NVQs and GNVQs strengthen their powerful ideological and technical hold over the education and training system. Externally defined and restrictive mechanisms for learning and assessment will eventually dominate teachers’ and learners’ views about the content, scope and purposes of education and training. Yet in posing alternatives, there are important flaws in existing models which weaken our critiques of competence‐based qualifications. In responses to these difficulties, there is a need to combine a rich body of recent research into professional development, pedagogic practice and education policy making, with a concerted debate about ideology and educational values. This would resist the current tendency for research and critique to focus on the technicalities of implementing NVQs and GNVQs. It would also effect a resurrection in research of what Grace (1994) has called ‘policy scholarship’ as part of an attempt to evolve a better system for continuing professional development in the post‐16 sector than the one we already have, or the impoverished competence‐based version currently on offer. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper argues for the need to move beyond the ideological analysis of recent educational change. The current crisis of liberal education (both traditional and progressive) should not be seen exclusively in terms of New Right criticisms. The challenge presented by the National Council for vocational Qualifications’ vocationalism in the ‘competency’ form predates the New Right and is opposed to both market economics and neo‐conservative traditionalism. Factors intrinsic to the development of liberal education in the post‐war period of expansion were inherently destabilising. A legitimation crisis resulted from differentiation represented in the distinction between traditionalism and progressivism and in developments such as anti‐sexist and multicultural education. Credential inflation produced diminishing returns to individual ‘investment’ in education. The cultural capital of the high status variants of liberal‐humanist education remained inaccessible to newly incorporated groups. Educational expansion was not associated with tangible gains in terms of a redistribution of social opportunities. Competency can be seen as an attempt to stabilise the system and supplant liberal‐humanist forms of education. It is argued that understandings of educational change have to move beyond a reductive analysis of the political interventions of the New Right towards a broader view of tendencies intrinsic to educational expansion and the liberal‐humanist model in the post‐war period. © 1995 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This paper outlines the emergence of the competence movement in British education and training, and summarises some salient perspectives from the growing body of research. In this general context it introduces the six papers brought together in this issue. These draw on current work in progress and explore a variety of facets of the competence movement drawing on sociological, historical and comparative European perspectives. In the course of the discussion it is suggested that more work is needed on two fronts particularly: detailed scrutiny of the social context in which the competence movement has emerged and the development of broader frameworks of research for the analysis of ‘impact’ issues. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Discusses the development of a pilot Modern Apprenticeship initiative by Wakefield College, the Chemical Industry and the local Training Enterprise Council. Highlights the potential of the new initiative and explores the issues involved in ensuring effective partnership to commence a pilot scheme. Concludes that Modern Apprenticeships are a significant development in vocational education and training policy but that problems of funding and recognition remain to be fully addressed. © 1995, MCB UP Limited

The German vocational education system, especially its dual system of apprenticeship training, id often praised for providing vocational skills geared to current practices in specific occupations. Yet only about half of all Germans currently have jobs that match their vocational education. This paper uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, a nationally representative household panel study, to examine a variety of individual and structural level variables hypothesized to influence the likelihood of an individual being employed in a position that fits his or her vocational training. It also indentifies factors that influence the probability that an individual moves from a job that does not fit his or her training to a position that does. Finally, the paper examines earnings differences between persons with varying types of vocational education and considers if these differences depend on whether or not an individual is employed in a job that fits. © 1995 Oxford University Press.

This paper outlines some of the issues emerging from research in to competence based training and assessment, and National vocational Qualifications. A model for analysing the key purposes of formal assessment systems is suggested and a conceptual framework is presented which uses the notions of use and exchange value for gauging the worth of qualifications. The author presents material collected during a study of the training and assessment of student air traffic controllers to illustrate how contextual features, particularly at the occupational level, can affect the purpose and design of a qualification as well as the value attached to it by recipients and employers. It is suggested that elements such as: 'purpose', 'perceived value''qualification design' and 'context' provide a conceptual framework within which further understanding of the role of qualifications can be achieved. The longer term aspiration of the analysis begun in this paper is the development of a contextsensitive theory of occupational qualifications. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Ghana has been a leader in African education, but economic problems in the 1970s and 1980s led to declining attendance and low teacher morale. In response to a Structural Adjustment Program, in 1986 junior secondary (JSS) was substituted for middle schooling and more emphasis was put on vocationalism in these schools. This paper examines the perception of these changes by adults in a rapidly growing suburb of the capital. What do they expect and what are they getting from academic and vocational education? What have they achieved through the education they received, and to what extent is educational advantage passed on to one's children? Disillusionment is still widespread, but expectations and/or lack of alternatives mean that considerable resources are still invested in educating their children. © 1995.

The purpose of this study is to examine migration patterns of labor force by vocational education in traditional industry regions. Although previous studies of traditional industry mainly discussed innovation, many traditional industries continue to apply traditional techniques for production. The author makes temporal-spatial analyses of the apprenticeship and migration patterns of skilled artisans in the Wajima shikki industry. The analyses lead to the following results. Apprenticeship in the Wajima shikki industry has been changed qualitatively by the increase of production, during which people from outside central Wajima entered the shikki industry. Therefore, the main function of apprenticeship shifted from “inheritance” of skill to “spread”. Three migration patterns of artisans are extracted by the analysis of lifepaths. First, “stay” pattern includes inheritors who were born in central Wajima. The pattern reflects the basic function of apprenticeship before the growth of production. It preserves a spatial agglomeration of shikki firms in central Wajima. Second and third patterns include the artisans who were newcomers to the shikki industry, brought up with no connection to the industry. Among them, the artisans who were born outside central Wajima belong to the second pattern. It shows a “centripetal-centrifugal” pattern. Artisans who were born in central Wajima demonstrate the third “centrifugal” pattern. The two patterns contribute to the expansion of shikki firms' distribution. © 1995, The Association of Japanese Geographers. All rights reserved.

This article examines the difficulties of extending literacy training, adult education and vocational training to out-of-work youth within the context of Malawi. The central argument of this paper is that unless the mass of illiterate and semi-literate youths are given practical skills to enable them to earn a livelihood, their employment and earning prospects are bleak. Without gainful employment these out-of-school youths will be unable to escape the poverty trap. An apprenticeship scheme, linked to the functional literacy programme is advocated as a means for skills training. Under the scheme a learner would be attached to an experienced artisan or craftsman to learn a trade or craft by direct observation and practice. -Author

First, provides a background which considers the nature of apprenticeship and shows how it is different from schooling. Then discusses the necessary and vital ground work that should be done before a candidate is admitted to apprenticeship. The article describes the various stages in the apprentice's training, their rationale and their implications. Finally, the implications of this indigenous approach to manpower development for schooling and out-of-school educational programmes are considered. -from Author