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"learning"

This article examines the issue of noncompletion in vocational education and training. It looks at how noncompletion is defined and at some of the different ways it is measured, presenting some estimates using recent OECD data. It then outlines some of the approaches to identifying causes of noncompletion, distinguishing between perspectives that highlight barriers associated with institutions themselves and the way they operate and are organized as places of learning, and factors associated with what individuals bring with them to the place of learning, including their family context, their intentions, work situation, dispositions, interests, and motivations. Following this is a brief outline of the sorts of strategies employed to reduce noncompletion. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This chapter discusses the perspectives and challenges of professional competencies for the tertiary sector with examples drawn from studies of speech pathology and paramedic university professional degree programmes in Australia. While attempts to describe work performance in terms of competencies date from the behavioural objectives movement in the United States in the 1950s (Bowden and Masters 1993), competency-based training (CBT) has been applied to the workforce in the USA since 1967 (Houston 1985), the United Kingdom since 1988 (Burke 1989) and Australia since 1989. In a move to improve the skill levels and develop a better trained workforce, the Australian National Training Reform Agenda focused on explicit, precise descriptions of the skills exhibited in the workplace to determine learning outcomes of vocational education and training (VET) programmes (Mansfield 1989). In the same time frame, Colleges of Advanced Education and Institutes of Technology, which provided predominantly undergraduate level educational programmes for several of the professions, were amalgamated with universities to form an integrated national system of higher education in Australia (Dawkins 1988). The central role of workplace competencies in determining the development of curricula and the standards to be expected in training flourished in the VET sector in the 1990s (National Centre for Vocational Education Research 2000a) but has been less clear in the university sector. Statements of competence, referred to as competency standards in Australia (Bowden and Masters 1993), were developed by 70% of professions in Australia by the end of 1993 (Quartermaine 1994), but in their seminal report on the implications of a competency-based approach for higher education, Bowden and p. ix) a prophetic assertion we do not believe that a full blown competency-based approach to education will become dominant in university courses has been borne out. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

In its current shape senior secondary vocational education has existed since 1996. Before that date, two types of senior secondary education co-existed: the apprenticeship system and senior secondary vocational education organised in schools. The apprenticeship system offered professional training courses in a great number of branches of industry, and was characterised by a combination of learning in practice and learning in school. Senior secondary vocational education in schools dates from the 1950s, when schools for senior secondary technical education were established. At a later stage secondary vocational schools were also founded for other sectors like economics and social services. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.

Workplaces are important sites for promoting the skill development required to meet goals for increasing the number of workers attaining vocational qualifications. Since the earliest training reforms of the 1990s in Australia, one of the most important outcomes has been the (re)-claiming of the workplace as a legitimate learning environment. Current policy imperatives in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia acknowledge the value of lifelong learning and the important role that professionals play in ensuring that quality learning opportunities are available to meet the needs of individuals, enterprises, and industries (Hoeckel et al. 2008). The VET system has expanded and now includes over 3,000 private training organisations as well as technical and further education (TAFE) providers (Harris et al. 2006). Enterprises are increasingly engaging in the process of providing learning opportunities for their staff, drawing on the services of the TAFE sector, private providers and consultants, and, where available, their own in-house capabilities. Many of those now engaged in the process of facilitating learning in the VET sector are drawn from a wide range of occupations. These persons may hold a variety of qualifications (e.g., specific trade, human resource development/management, adult education, and other professional qualifications) and work under a variety of non-teaching awards and conditions (Simons et al. 2007, p. 16). © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This chapter discusses individual learning in the workplace in the light of a study of Finnish design engineers' and product developers' learning through their work. The designers' work practices and their learning in the course of these activities are described as perceived by the designers themselves. The chapter also examines their learning through the various individual and social processes ongoing in the workplace. The chapter proceeds as follows: first, phenomenon of workplace learning or learning through work is described. Second, the work of product designers and development engineers is conceptualised on the basis on the recent literature and studies in the field. Third, the methodological choices made in the course of the research process are briefly described and evaluated and the main findings obtained from the different phases of the research process are summarised. Finally, the findings of the study are drawn together. Further ideas for researching designers' learning through their work and how the formal education of designers could be developed in connection with these ideas are offered. In addition, more general suggestions concerning the guidance of workplace learning are given, and the challenges presented by guiding and assessing workplace learning in the vocational education context are examined. Of particular interest in the above-mentioned study is the connection at various levels between learning and work. The results indicate a need for more effective integration between education and working life. Also of interest is the connection between work and learning. The concept of connectivity here is thus approached from two perspectives. First, the need to connect the theoretical knowledge acquired at school with the practical knowledge gained from everyday work practices and, second, the need to see individual and social learning processes at work as linked.©Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.

This paper presents the results of a pilot study of a project that uses 3D-virtual world technologies, namely Second Life, as a platform for learning simulations through role plays with the intent to improve the development of professional decision making amongst pre- graduate teachers undertaking a unit in professional ethics. At present students engage in discussion of ethical issues and case studies within the classroom environment as tools for learning decision-making and developing moral sensitivity. However, the effectiveness of these are limited by the already existing identities and social relationships of the students and the scenarios lack the social complexities evident in the professional world. This pilot study reflects on the first use of the 3D-virtual world to teach in this manner and highlights some of the limitations and possibilities that are to be considered in the larger research study. © 2009 Matthew Campbell.

This paper reports on research undertaken based on socio-cultural perspectives and developed within an activity theory (Engestrom, 2001) framework. The ongoing projects involve the collection of evidence of workplace based evidence of skill and knowledge acquisition by bakery apprentices. Mobile phones are used to collect photographic, video, audio and text evidence. This multi-media evidence was initially archived on photo and video storing and sharing websites. The advance of social networking websites afforded opportunities to migrate evidence to social networking sites structured as eportfolios. © 2009 Selena Chan.

Bridging the gap between theory and practice has long been a challenge for social work students. Facilitating this process has also taxed practice teachers and academic tutors. In 2004, the University of Edinburgh, in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University undertook a pilot project testing and researching a change in the traditional tutor role with a view to enhancing students' integration of learning during the practicum. This paper outlines the background to and the activity and findings of the project. Then, drawing upon a discussion of the interface between psychodynamic theories and theories of education, we explore some ideas that have begun to emerge that have the possibility of enhancing the tutor role in student integration of learning.

To address employer dissatisfaction with the quality of graduates, Constructionarium was developed in 2003 to develop practical skills for University students. This is a residential initiative where students are tasked to construct scaled-down structures of real buildings within a week. Drawing on the experience and lessons learnt from undertaking Constructionarium at a Northern University in the UK, data was collected over three years through student surveys and interviews with student, academic and practitioner participants. Observational data captured in the students' reflective essays after the events were also used in the analysis. The analysis reinforced the espoused benefits of exposing real-life situations to students, and revealed how quickly students 'conform' to poor practices that are well documented in the academic literature, including lapses in health and safety, inadequate industrial relations and poor time and cost management. These findings indicate the dominance of practice - at times worryingly ill practice - over academic theory. Consequently, there are implications on the extent in which educationalists can facilitate the development of next generation of practitioners who would adopt good practices. Furthermore, the experience challenges the mantra of organisational learning and poses the question as to whether habits of bad practice in industry can ever be unlearnt.

Historically, learning and work were inseparable during the pre-modern era, whereas during modern era a progressive differentiation took place between work and learning. In the late modern era differentiation has become fragmentation. learning and work after post-compulsory education are organised in different forms such as educational establishments, teams and processes. Although many examples of separation can be found, these are also increasing example models of integration, from new kinds of apprenticeships to work-based learning, work-related learning, organisational development and so on (Boud, 2005). Nowadays, the fact that knowledge and skills are also provided outside formal education and training, is gradually leading to the formulation of a European educational policy (Tessaring & Wannan, 2004). International comparisons (e.g. Stenström & Lasonen, 2000) of VET systems in the European countries revealed much of variation in how the relationship between education and working life is organised. Described as a continuum, at one end are countries such as Germany and Austria in which working life bears the main responsibility for VET, while at the other end there are countries where vocational education has been strongly school-based. For example, in Finland prior to the turn of the millennium initial vocational education was mainly organised by vocational schools with few links between education and working life. However, in recent years educational policy has emphasised the importance of creating closer relationships between education and industry in countries with as well as those without a school-based VET system. Consequently, since 2001, among the central reforms undertaken in Finnish upper secondary VET has been the incorporation into the curriculum of work-related learning lasting at least 6 months. Efforts to achieve closer cooperation between VET and working life also include what are known as vocational skills demonstrations, a procedure that was in experimental use in educational establishments from 1999 until autumn 2006, when it became established practice (Opetusministeriö, 2004).Vocational skills demonstrations are competence-based tests carried out in a work situation or as past work of a process which are designed, implemented and assessed by the education provider in cooperation with representatives from working life. Vocational skills demonstrations represent a new form of student assessment, in which cooperation between education and working life plays a central role and which brings together representatives from working life and teachers (Räkköläinen, 2005, p. 21; Stenström, 2001, 2005; Stenström, Laine, & Kurvonen, 2006). Competencebased examinations have been used mostly in countries where vocational education is driven by working life (Eraut, Steadman, Trill, & Parker, 1996; Wolf, 1995). The recent enhancement of the work-related1 learning system in Finland and pilot projects to try out performance-based tests are developments reflecting the current process of change in the relationship between working life and VET. The effort to raise the level of VET participation has made the question of reorganising assessment to meet the demands of both HE institutions and working life an acute one in other European countries as well (Green, Wolf, & Leney, 1999). The aim of this chapter is to describe how work and learning are linked in Finnish vocational education and training with particular reference to skills demonstrations. First, the context of work-related learning is described and everyday learning compared with formal learning compared. Second, the skills demonstration system as part of work-related learning and vocational study programmes in Finland is introduced. Third, the vocational skills demonstration as a tool for improving the interface between education and working life is discussed. This chapter is in fact based on a study the aim of which was to examine students' practice-oriented learning as a part of VET provision in authentic situations in the workplaces (Stenström et al., 2006). The context was the experimental phase of in the introduction of vocational skills demonstrations in Finland. Skills demonstrations were included in all initial vocational qualifications in autumn 2006 (Laki ammatillisesta koulutuksesta annetun lain muuttamisesta 15 July 2005/601). The data were collected by interviewing students in the fields of social welfare and health care and the construction industry (n = 6), their teachers (n = 8), and representatives (n = 6) of enterprises operating in these fields in central and southern Finland.©Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.