Search Results for
"Vocational education"

We are witnessing the most significantchanges in the nature of the relationship between nursing education and higher education. However, there has yet to be a more philosophical explanation of what it would mean for our aims and practices as nurse educators if we were to take seriously the notion of nursing education within the context of higher education. This paper analyses the role of the university and raises the questions: What should higher education mean today? What should higher education mean for nursing? In response to the former question it is suggested there cannot be a total distinction between the concept 'higher education' and the socio-political context. Higher education has to be realized in particular historical societies and there is likely to be much controversy over how this should be done. In response to the latter question it is suggested that to warrant the title nursing 'higher education' the process should promise a freeing of the mind but also beyond, to bring about a new level of self-empowerment in the individual student. In essence, it should contain an emancipatory element. It is the articulation of normative aspirations such as these, that is so strikingly absent from so much of the debate relating to nursing education merging with higher education. Nursing education must not however fall victim to 'academic drift' which has often been regarded as a distinctive and persistent feature of higher education. It might be proposed that student nurses who move from an educational to a practice setting are subjected to 'a competing paradigm of occupational vocationalism'. Criticisms such as these have led to a reconceptualization of the theory-practice dichotomy and partnership in training and education between the 'trainers' and practising professionals. What is needed is a new model of nursing education. A model which is an amalgam of both the liberal and vocational educational traditions. Implementations of such a model would demand that the curriculum is organised around problem-based learning. This means adopting a curriculum in which 'knowing how' and 'knowing that' forms of knowledge are equally emphasized. Simultaneously, student' and practitiones' contextual knowledge would be advanced by collaborative research between educationalists and practitiones. The implication is for nursing education to be based more in the reality of practice. © 1995 Pearson Professional Ltd.

Several moldmakers organizations collaborated to develop a model curriculum for the training of moldmakers. Their objective was two-fold; (a) to develop a national training curriculum that would help to assure that a moldmaker trained in California could bring his/her credentials to New England and the potential employer would know the training he/she received, and (b) to provide guidance to school curriculums and vocational training programs to bring them in as partners in future moldmaker training. This article presents the curriculum and shows how it is implemented.

Background and Objectives: This study was designed to determine whether medical school graduates who completed undergraduate degrees in particular college majors were more likely to enter primary care residencies. John L. Holland's theory of vocational personalities and work environments was used to cluster undergraduate disciplines sharing distinctive qualities. These clusters were evaluated to determine if graduates from similar fields were more likely to pursue residencies in family practice, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics. Methods: Students who graduated from US and Puerto Rican medical schools in 1987 were eligible for the study; college majors of 2,661 graduates entering primary care specialties were analyzed. Results: Students completing undergraduate studies in the following majors selected primary care residencies by a twofold difference over the expected frequency: agriculture, black studies, civil engineering, general studies, literature, occupational therapy, and speech. Chi-square tests revealed no differences across Holland types in the frequency with which science and nonscience students selected primary care residencies. Conclusions: Primary care specialties tend to accommodate students from varied academic backgrounds and appear to be tolerant of individuals who have completed undergraduate course work in either bioscientific or biosocial nonscience disciplines.

[No abstract available]

Background This study investigates the subsequent careers of the Senior House Officers (SHOs) who have passed through the Leicestershire SHO training scheme in public health medicine since its inception in 1981 and their views of the scheme.Methods Postal questionnaires were sent to past and current SHOs, using addresses compiled from personnel records, the Medical Directory and the General Medical Council Medical Register. One reminder letter was sent to non-responders.Results Of the 21 past SHOs, one is now a consultant and four are currently trainees in public health medicine. Other past SHOs have followed diverse careers but the largest group are now in general practice. The four past SHOs who are now trainees in public health gained no further clinical experience before obtaining registrar or lecturer posts. All past SHOs responded favourably when asked about the benefits of the scheme regardless of their subsequent career choice.Conclusion The continuing need for high-calibre recruits to the specialty and the favourable response from past SHO trainees suggests that this scheme, and no doubt other similar schemes, should be making their benefits known to a wider audience. © 1994 Oxford University Press.

There are two contrasting world views discernible in contemporary Australian government skill-formation literature: one which recognises the need for the development of underlying cognitive structures and interpersonal attributes for the workplace; and one which values the development of pre-specified observable skills, as in competency-based training. This study examines TAFE assessment practices across Australia, as an indicator of the extent to which each view is represented in practice. The study found that, for initial vocational courses, some practices accord more with the latter world view than with the former; but, for non-vocational courses, there was a greater balance in approaches to assessment and relatively more emphasis on assessing some increasingly important workplace attributes. The implications of some current practices are that TAFE graduates entering the workforce may be inept when required to adapt, solve problems or innovate. © 1994, © 1994 Australian Council for Educational Research.

January 1994 saw the start of a pilot second year VT scheme in the West Midlands combining house officer/GDP associateship experience as an integral part of general postgraduate training in dentistry. The scheme is funded by a grant from the W.M. Board of Postgraduate Medical and Dental education. The availability of such a course in each region would be beneficial for those dentists who wish to experience hospital practice following their mandatory vocational training. © 1994 Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.