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"Students"

Placements have the potential to contribute more effectively to the quality of higher education. The aim of this article is to discuss how placements can be made more worthwhile for individual students, while also contributing to the overall quality of teaching and learning at HEIs as well as to the development of workplace cultures that are conducive to learning. Work experience opportunities help students to build substantive relationships and apply what they are learning. students' overall view of their learning experience becomes more positive, their identification with their intended profession strengthens and academic performance improves, as do graduate employment rates. Introducing placements in the curriculum does not, however, guarantee these positive effects. Learning is likely to be greater if the experience is 'intentional and recognised' and tightly knit into the curriculum. Using evidence from research on workplace learning is one way to improve the quality of placements, as exemplified by a scholarly approach to the development of placements for pharmacy students at Uppsala University. HEIs' interaction with employers through placements enriches both parties. Academics gain insights into practice which may inspire teaching on campus, e.g. by generating real life examples that trigger students' motivation and by informing curriculum design. Practitioners supervising students on placements are often excellent educational development partners. Placements may also contribute to organisational development. Developing a reflective, deliberate approach to learning in the workplace may be as useful for the employees as for the students. Also, students may carry out projects of value to the employer, while also keeping the university informed of current practice. An increased engagement in students' work experience opportunities may improve the student experience, and contribute to bridging the academy-practice divide in a way that is as much about influencing the rest of society as being influenced by it. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The purpose of this study was to identify the difficulties examinees face in preparing for financial occupational exams. The Rasch measurement was applied to data collected from surveys that were distributed to 204 students in various universities. students reported that the majority of their difficulties centered on math solving skills, meeting professional requirements, comprehension of theories, allocation of preparation time, and English reading comprehension. students also identified the need for additional courses outside of the finance area, including accounting and economics courses. Though students are autonomous in testbank collections and preparation of self-study materials, difficulties remain in finding internship opportunities, which are affected by the entitlement of a license prior to graduation and as a basic job application requirement. Results of this study suggest that educators should provide more training related to cognitive skills development and test-taking skills. The government can assist in building awareness in students' future employability through licensure exam seminars.

In this article we focus on the effects of career education and guidance among students (ages 12-19) enrolled in prevocational and secondary vocational education in The Netherlands. Our study included 3,499 students and 166 teachers in 226 classes in 34 schools. The results showed that career competencies positively contributed to learning motivation, experienced quality of study choice, experienced fit of choice with learning tasks, and experienced fit of internship. Career identity positively contributed to career outcomes, and career dialogue contributed more than traditional interventions have with respect to career outcomes. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Germany's vocational education and training (VET) and corresponding teacher-education programmes are known worldwide for their integrated framework. Government legislation unifies companies, unions and vocational schools, and specifies the education and training required for students as well as vocational teachers. Changing from the Diplom programme model to the Anglophone Bachelor and Masters degree model has raised concerns for VET teacher preparation. It is within this context that we explore Germany's VET teacher-education system and current academic debates. We further investigate challenges in the development of Canada's VET teacher-education programmes and suggest some policy borrowing from the German model. © 2013 Copyright British Association for International and Comparative Education.

The qualification of adult educators is a central aspect of the quality of adult education. However, within current policy discourses and adult education research on the professional development of prospective adult educators, little attention is paid to teacher qualification when compared to other fields of education and training. In this study, we analyse the qualification paths, or learning trajectories, of prospective adult educators in Sweden and Denmark. The analysis is based on narrative interviews with 29 students in training to become adult educators. The career paths of adult educators are often long and winding roads. Becoming an adult educator could be their primary desire, but it could also be their 'Plan B', a second choice. Individual motives and external demands interact in the professionalisation process. A shift in focus from teaching subject and methods to teaching context and the relation to the learners is part of the professional development. Finally, we argue that both academic studies and hands-on work in the adult education community are crucial parts of the adult educator's qualification path. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

An important trend in Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) to ensure the curriculum continuity of sequential educational programmes is the design of continuing pathways encompassing more than one qualification level. These continuing pathways are characterised by different design formats and differences in learning environment characteristics that are regarded as powerful. In this study, the variety in design formats and powerful learning environment characteristics of existing continuing pathways, and the relationships between design formats and powerful learning environment characteristics on the one hand and student performance and satisfaction on the other hand were examined. Participants were five co-ordinators and 161 students from five so-called Green Lycea - each of which comprises a two-level (i.e. 'Pre-Vocational Secondary Education (vmbo)' and 'Secondary Vocational Education (mbo)') agricultural VET trajectory. There are preliminary indications that students benefit most from continuing pathways in which vmbo and mbo elements are truly interwoven, as these have relatively more powerful learning environment characteristics than those of separate pathways. When separate vmbo and mbo programmes are simply stuck together, the pathways seem to be relatively less powerful and to lead to lower satisfaction scores and a decrease in learning performance. © 2013 Copyright The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Whereas the epistemological beliefs of learners of general subjects has been the focus of many studies in the past, so far, little is known about the beliefs of apprentices on knowledge and the acquiring of knowledge. The present study analysed the first level of epistemological beliefs of students in industrial and technical professions and their domain specificity. By means of an exploratory factor analysis, the five knowledge-related dimensions certainty of knowledge, structure of knowledge, application of knowledge, knowledge reasoning and source of knowledge were proven empirically for the surveyed apprentices (n = 1002). The results of the study describe the level of epistemological beliefs of students and verify both the domain specific differences between the vocational fields of civil engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and the differences within those occupations. © 2013 Copyright The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.