Search Results for
"learning"

A large number of British university programmes in tourism and hospitality feature an internship of some sort. This element is intended to provide a vocational dimension to what can be a predominantly academic curriculum. Not only do internships provide familiarity with professional practice, they raise graduate labour-market value and, arguably, enhance the individual's maturity before returning to the final degree year. This paper uses research funded by the UK Centre for Professional Placement learning, Centre of Excellence in Teaching and learning, into the experiences of students on 12 month internship away from the UK. © Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education.

Using an interpretative case study methodology, the pedagogical approaches used to facilitate and integrate student learning in cooperative education programmes in sport studies were investigated. This research drew from two New Zealand university cohorts and involved six focus group interviews. Findings suggested there were limited direct explicit attempts to integrate on- and off-campus learning. Integration was implicitly or indirectly fostered, principally by reflection through assessments (e.g., journals, reports), and primarily consisted of reflection-on-action (Schön, 1991) after the learning activities. Significantly, the integration of learning also consisted of reflection on personal growth, rather than critical reflection on theory or organisational practice. © Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education.

The significant link between learning and the knowledge economy is so crucial that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has reconceptualised the term knowledge-economy to call it the 'learning economy'. One of the main challenges of human resource development in the 'learning economy' is to evaluate the learning attributes of the knowledge workers. Much of the available literature on learning does not go beyond classroom learning. Students' approaches to learning provide a relevant basis for investigating adult learning but studies have reported the lack of consideration of cross-cultural issues. Thus, theoretical underpinnings of cultural values were used in this study to address the gap. Two adapted instruments which considered both etic and emic characteristics were administered to 959 Malay and Chinese knowledge workers to ensure conceptual equivalence. The consideration of cultural variables in the investigation reveals indigenous learning constructs such as 'Memorising and understanding' and 'Face'. The inclusions of 'emic' concepts ensure a rigorous framework in understanding adult learners from a non-western background. © 2010 Australian Human Resources Institute.

This paper highlights critical shortcomings in the approach to apprenticeship in England and argues that the proposed Apprenticeship Framework is unlikely to fulfil its stated aims of enhancing quality and quantity. The key weaknesses identified are a clear definition of what constitutes an apprenticeship framework, an educational component, employee involvement and lack of recognition of alternative college-based routes. Drawing on a recent cross-national study, the authors compare the English situation with the vocational education and training systems of other leading European countries. These embody a distinctly different approach and framework, being based on social partnership and the education of young people into a broadly defined occupation. It is shown how the current proposals mark a potential step backwards and a departure from the principles of the 1944 Education Act by ignoring general and civic educational elements in young people's formation. Above all, for any framework to be successful, it needs to take into account the longer term interests of employees, given changes in the labour market, and to address the issue of employer disengagement. The conclusions drawn suggest ways forward. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

When individuals select a particular occupation, they, their families and the community invest significant resources in their preparing for, learning about, and effective participation in that occupation. Yet, given the high attrition rates during that preparation and high levels of early separation from occupations, selection of occupations is shown to be frequently flawed with accompanying costs all around. Hence, it is important to understand more about how individuals select their occupation. This paper is based on a consideration of earlier studies and a current inquiry into student nurses' engagement with their occupation. It notes that individuals' bases for engagement are multi-fold, personally distinct and shaped by experiences within their life history or ontogeny. Moreover, individuals make occupational choices at various distances from the actual practice of the occupation itself. Seemingly, the more remote from actual practice the decision-making occurs, the greater this choice is premised on ideals, rather than actualities of the occupation. Hence, given the importance of compatibility and negotiations between the person and occupation constituting the vocations with which individuals come to identify, understanding occupation as a practice rather than an ideal becomes salient. The paper concludes that the importance of aligning personal interests and capacities with particular occupations through proximal access is critical. That is, individuals need to experience the occupation and its practice before significant levels of personal and societal investment are expended, and through successful participation it may well then become adopted as vocation. © 2010, © 2010 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The paper arises from my PhD thesis on the learner biographies of retail and motor vehicle maintenance apprentices in Germany and England which explores the interrelationship of social structures and individual agency in identity formation over time and in particular learning environments. The paper reports initial findings, focusing largely on the English case study of motor vehicle apprentices. It challenges common assumptions of young people in vocational education in England as second-chance learners being socialised into pursuing low-status occupations and invites reflection on the particular model of apprenticeship in England and its role in shaping young people's identity. © 2010 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

A life sciences undergraduate apprenticeship initiative was run during the vacations at a South African university. In particular, the initiative aimed to increase the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Annually 12-18 undergraduate biology students were apprenticed to various institutions during the January and July vacations from 2005 to 2007. This was to develop their skills and interests in the biological sciences, particularly in biocontrol and entomology. Results suggest that this "grassroots" approach increased the number of Black and female students in the life sciences. In particular, it developed their knowledge of the discipline of science and of how it progresses. For most students it enthused and motivated them in the pursuit of their studies and in considering postgraduate research. Students benefited socially from the interactions with researchers and staff, and learnt the protocols of research institutions. Economically most students benefited as they had financial loans for their studies, and the additional monies assisted them in meeting some of the payments. It is proposed that this undergraduate apprenticeship be used as a model for human capacity development at an undergraduate level that can be adopted in the other sciences and universities. This provides an alternative to the current South African National Research Foundation model, a top-down approach, that is aimed at recruiting Black and female students at the postgraduate level. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Blended learning, mixing online and face-to-face learning modes, has been increasingly adopted in training with the expectation that it will help solve transfer problems and will lend other educational benefits. While there is a set of knowledge about design for facilitating transfer, it has not been investigated in a blended environment context. In response, this study investigated training design related factors that facilitated and hindered transfer in a blended-training context. The case program was a 6-week management leadership development program offered by a corporate university in Korea. Both facilitating and hindering design factors at each learning node were investigated by conducting a literature review, document analyses, focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews and an online survey. In addition to descriptive analysis, a smaller number of factors were drawn as salient design factors having predictability for transfer by using stepwise multiple regression. For the online module, the facilitating factors in 'demonstration' and 'activation' were best predictors for transfer. As a predictor among the hindering factors in the online module, the factors in 'demonstration' were yielded. For the off-line module, the factors in 'application' were drawn as predictor factors. However, no single hindering variable resulted from the multiple regressions related to this module. By integrating the descriptive and predictive statistical analysis with qualitative data analysis, specific design guidelines for blended training to ensure transfer were presented. © 2008 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.

Political and economic discourses position employability as a responsibility of higher education, which utilise mechanisms such as supervised work experience (SWE) to embed employability into the undergraduate curriculum. However, sparse investigation of students' contextualised experiences of SWE results in little being known about the mechanisms through which students derive employability benefits from SWE. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of students' expectation and conception of workplace learning on their transition into SWE. Analysis of accounting students' experiences reveal two broad conceptions of workplace learning, the differing impacts of which on transition experience are explored using existing learning transfer perspectives. Students displaying the more common 'technical' conception construct SWE as an opportunity to develop technical, knowledge-based expertise and abilities that prioritize product-based or cognitive learning transfer. Students with an 'experiential' conception were found to construct SWE primarily as an experience through which the development of personal skills and abilities beyond technical expertise are prioritized using process-based or socio-cultural learning transfer. Further data analysis suggests that these two learning transfer approaches have differing impacts on students' employability development which may indicate a need for universities to consider how to develop appropriate student expectations of and approaches to SWE and meaningful support for students' SWE transition. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Australian vocational education has a history dating from the late eighteenth century. As Australian colonies and, later, federated states evolved each constructed its own version of vocational education provision. Generally the systems, consisting of community-based or state-controlled colleges for the training of operatives, apprenticeships and professional support personnel, were poorly resourced and lacked powerful sponsors to support and promote the education and training of their mostly working-class students. By the early 1970s Australian governments had developed commissions to supplement the funding of state-based elementary, secondary and university education systems, even though under the Australian Constitution education remained state-controlled matter. A reformist federal Labor government at the time consolidated elementary, secondary and university funding but neglected to consider, or even acknowledge, the 400,000 vocational education students not covered by these commissions. Following pressure from vocational education teacher unions, among others, the Labor government established the Australian Committee for Technical and Further Education (ACOTAFE) to address the needs of these students. At ACOTAFE's first meeting on 25 March 1973, the Minister for Education Kim E. Beazley said, 'It will be a renaissance in education when technical and further education cease to be Cinderellas in education. It is the role of your committee to bring Cinderella to her rightful role as princess'. ACOTAFE was to be chaired by Myer Kangan from the Department of Labour and National Service. The committee's published outcomes were referred to evermore as the iconic 'Kangan Report' rather than TAFE in Australia: Report on Needs in Technical and Further Education, its formal title. The report gave Australian vocational education a name (TAFE), a philosophy (access to all through lifelonglearning) and much needed capital works and infrastructure funding. The paper will outline the circumstances leading to the formation of the committee, its work and its outcomes. Focus will be placed on the influential role of Chairman Kangan in shaping ACOTAFE's conclusions. A key theme within the paper is the intersection of biography, politics and the economy in shaping policy construction. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.