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The vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone a prolonged period of substantial and significant restructuring. Reforms have been driven by a pressure to increase market forces within the system, and to gear 'outputs' ever more closely to economic considerations and the needs of industry. This paper outlines the key elements of VET reform and links these developments to the ideological dominance of market based policy in the public sector, and the influence of human capital theory on education policy. The paper explores the impact of these reforms on teachers' labor process, and some implications for the Australian Education Union. Copyright 2007 by the INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL FOR LEADERSHIP IN learning.

Apprenticeship or vocational training is a subject of lively debate. Economic historians tend to see apprenticeship as a purely economic phenomenon, as an 'incomplete contract' in need of legal and institutional enforcement mechanisms. The contributors to this volume have adopted a broader perspective. They regard learning on the shop floor as a complex social and cultural process, to be situated in an ever-changing historical context. The results are surprising. The authors convincingly show that research on apprenticeship and learning on the shop floor is intimately associated with migration patterns, family economy and household strategies, gender perspectives, urban identities and general educational and pedagogical contexts. © 2007 Bert De Munck, Steven L. Kaplan and Hugo Soly.

Issues relating to skill and training acquisition amongst workers are once again up front and significant efforts are underway to bring entrepreneurs together with training providers to ensure that vocational training avoid the frequent trap of becoming rigid, unimaginative and out of date. The World Employment Report (ILO 2004) has expressed concerns in terms of upgrading of existing clusters of small firms to fit in with the contemporary world scenario; increased productivity and its interface with training and skills; need for acquisition of different/appropriate set of skills with technological moves and policy prescription. Traditionally the domain of the State, of late, discussions on skill formation have looked at ways in which closer partnerships between the State and enterprises can be forged on the basis of shared responsibility and mutual support. Based on collaborative IDPAD project, the paper provides overall skill profiles of men and women in India and in the firms of Delhi and Chennai. This is followed by the existing provisions available for training in these firms, particularly for women. The paper also looks at employers’ responses as to how they see their own role in skill formation and training and other related issues. Finally, it is contended that contrary to situations in some industrialized countries, given the nature of Indian firms, their hiring practices and market peculiarities, lower end workers, particularly women are precariously positioned in terms of acquiring skills and training through their employers. Obliquely, the paper also addresses the debates surrounding the role of government and private sectors in ensuring workers’ enhanced/better employability though skill formation and training. © 2007, SAGE Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.

DURING THE LATE 1970s and early 1980s, at a time when the U.S. economy was seen as not competitive with respect to other major industrial countries, concerns were voiced about the quality of the public education system. Critics of public education linked the quality of public schools to the perceived economic problems of the day and argued that improving the quality of schools was critical to future economic competitiveness. Spurred by reports such as A Nation at Risk (Gardner 1983), states and federal legislators then sought to fix what was perceived to be a poorly performing education system. Different educational reforms have focused on increasing the number of rigorous academic courses required for graduation and introducing changes in work-related education. This presumed relationship between educational quality and national economic performance has since been challenged (see National Research Council 1999), but many education reformers continue to make this case. Those reforms included measures to increase participation of high school students in career and technical education (CTE), to better prepare students for the world of work, and to ensure that students were well prepared for educational and economic attainment. Toward this end the federal government initiated in the early 1990s a wave of CTE reforms that set forth national guidelines and provided funding for program and systems change with the general purpose of improving the quality of high school preparation for careers. We are now at a time when the federal government is proposing a substantial change in CTE legislation, changes premised in part on assumptions about the lack of progress made under previous legislation. In this chapter we report on the extent to which, at the end of the twentieth century, students in this country were enrolled in career and technical education and in school-to-work (STW) activities of various kinds: career-major (CM), Tech Prep (TP), and specific work-based STW activities, including cooperative education, job shadowing, mentoring, school-based enterprise, and apprenticeships or internships. We also examine the extent to which career majors, Tech Prep, and specific work-based learning STW activities have become a part of the schooling of all adolescents. Copyright © 2007 by Russell Sage Foundation.

Eminus provides Distance learning for severe disabled students who are not able to visit a school because of mobility problems, tiredness or special care. In this article we will show you how ICT and the Internet can be used to include this group into society through virtual class rooms, online internships and teleworking. © 2007 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.

THE CAREER-ACADEMY model-a school-within-a-school, career focused high school program of study often with related work experience-has spread rapidly throughout the United States since the mid-eighties, in large part because educators and policymakers believe it to be a promising approach for encouraging better academic achievement and facilitating students' transition to college and careers. learning to what extent well-designed career academies deliver on this promise is the focus of this chapter. As defined in chapter 5 of this volume and other sources, career academies generally include school-based and work-based components, make use of an industry-themed, contextualized curriculum, have a paid summer internship, and offer supplemental career readiness and exploration activities (Kemple and Rock 1996; Stern, Dayton, and Raby 2000; Stern, Raby, and Dayton 1992). In this chapter we look further at the learning theories and instructional strategies of career academies. Academies integrate strategies for student career and college preparation, including organizing learning around a the- matic, career-focused curriculum; extending learning experiences outside of the classroom to the workplace; and preparing all students for college, regardless of their college-going intentions (Cannon and Reed 1999; Maxwell and Rubin 2000; Stern, Dayton, and Raby 2000; Stern, Raby, and Dayton 1992). Unlike conventional vocational education, career academies expose students to a whole industry rather than merely to a job, including the industry's academic foundations and its range and distribution of career opportunities, particularly as related to different levels of postsecondary education attainment. Career academies commonly emphasize innovative instructional strategies that develop high-performance workplace skills-projectbased and cooperative learning, in particular-and stress critical thinking and problem solving. These structural and pedagogical characteristics all reflect the current consensus on secondary-educational reform strategies for improving the engagement and learning of students (Balfanz, Jordan, and McPartland 2002; Castellano, Stringfield, and Stone 2003; Kaufman, Bradby, and Teitelbaum 2000; Useem, Neild, and Morrison 2001). With the expansion of career academies has come considerable variation in implementation. The National Academy Foundation (NAF), which sponsors hundreds of academies nationwide, endeavors to limit variation and sustain quality. Career academies in the NAF network are to implement all recommended elements of the NAF career-academy model to engage students academically, help them prepare for their postsecondary career and college transition, and support them personally while they are in school. For NAF career-academy students, the primary program experiences are four or more core academy courses that are career-contextualized, project- based, and offer student-centered instructional practices during the junior and senior years (although some programs begin earlier); a computer or technology course; a paid six-week summer internship with a private company; a college-level course taken while in high school; and exposure to a variety of activities for college and career planning and preparation. The first NAF academy was founded in 1982, and NAF as a central organization was established in 1989. One of the largest career academy networks in the country and the only one that is national in scope, NAF currently sustains a national network of 619 career academies focusing on finance, travel and tourism, and information technology. It also provides curricular support, professional development, and technical assistance.1 NAF's emphasis is on the inclusion of all core career academy components and the provision of quality contextualized curriculum to its network members; teacher professional development through NAF conferences, materials, and local activities; and business involvement through high-profile national-level firms as well as local advisory boards who provide paid student internships. Career-academy teachers receive NAF curriculum and related materials that are frequently updated and adapted for their local industry context, and they can attend an annual professional development conference. They typically have designated classroom spaces, an area of the school for the academy program, and some autonomy in program management and delivery. In an analysis of the impact on teachers of the academy experience, Margaret Terry Orr (2005) found that the career-academy approach encourages teachers to focus more collectively on preparing students through their curriculum, instructional practices, and working relationships. Academy teachers were more likely than nonacademy teachers to have a strong commitment to the academy-program focus and to the use of organizational supports (such as common teacher meeting time), and to work collaboratively with other teachers, all of which were positively related to their perceived effectiveness with students. Local business participation in career academies varies widely and can include advisory board membership; providing paid summer internships to students; assisting with work-readiness activities for students, such as mock job interviews; offering work experiences or other professional development to teachers; and making in-kind contributions of business-related materials for instruction. Generally, businesses do not directly fund the program. Our analysis of employer participation in the NAF academies found that, judging by the depth and breadth of employers' participation, NAF has been particularly effective in recruiting and retaining quality support from them. As in other research on employer participation, the NAF employers cited philanthropic, public relations, and employee-recruitment as reasons for their involvement (Hughes, Karp, and Orr 2002). NAF acts as an intermediary between schools and businesses, and supports the implementation of all the components noted earlier in its programs. As a result of their membership in a national network and their agreement to adhere to common program characteristics, NAF-affiliated academies are likely to offer a more homogeneous and comprehensive experience than are nonaffiliated, stand-alone academies. Other studies have examined academies in general, as reviewed in chapter 5 of this volume, but this study was the first to look specifically at NAF academies. The multipart study examined the practices of teachers in the program, employer participation, and the views and experiences of alumni and high school seniors in the program. Using data from student transcripts and surveys as well as qualitative evidence from site visits, this chapter summarizes findings regarding graduating seniors' college and career planning and preparation from a study of nine long-standing NAF academies.2 NAF funded the Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE) to undertake the study and NAF officials served as advisers and encouraged local site cooperation. Although the research was funded by NAF, we took considerable measures to ensure the validity and independence of the results.3 The conclusions reflect the authors' views and not necessarily those of NAF. Copyright © 2007 by Russell Sage Foundation.

This theoretical paper examines current practice in work-based studies where recognition of prior unaccredited work is normally limited to around 50% of the total programme. The basis of this limiting concept is challenged and consideration is given to a number of factors that have contributed to it. Comparison is made with the current practice of awarding Ph.D.s by previously published work and a model is proposed to facilitate the creation of a postgraduate work-based award completely by previously completed practice in the workplace. A number of key points are examined in relation to evaluating the model and to illuminating assessment and measurement of the previous work for 100% recognition within a work-based programme. © 2007 Taylor & Francis.

FOR A NUMBER of years, we have been helping high schools and districts that are attempting to create or improve career academies- hence our title: "learning by Doing Career Academies."4 Our assistance includes developing the schools' capacity to keep track of results for students by relying mainly on information that is ordinarily available from student transcripts. We believe it is essential for schools themselves to continuously gauge results of career academies and other educational programs, because even if such programs have been found to be effective somewhere, they are unlikely to be effective everywhere. Therefore, one of our aims here is to describe how schools can self-monitor, and what they can learn in the process of operating career academies. Second, we wish to add to general knowledge about career academies by testing some ideas about why they may be more effective in some locations and situations than in others. Specifically, we conduct a cross-site analysis to explore whether sites that implement certain features of the academy model to a greater degree also obtain bigger gains in performance of academy students. Both parts of the analysis in this chapter focus on student performance during high school, not post-high school outcomes such as employment or college attendance. Longevity and solid evidence of effectiveness distinguish career academies from other programs, practices, and policies that were bundled under the "school-to-work" or "school-to- career" rubric in the United States during the 1990s. The first known career academies were started in 1969, well in advance of more recent initiatives such as Tech Prep or job shadowing, though much later than co-op or vocational education (Stern et al. 1995). Relatively persuasive evidence of career academies' effectiveness comes from several quasiexperimental studies, and especially from a random-assignment evaluation conducted by MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation). The second part of this paper spells out what we mean by a career academy, and summarizes career academies' history and existing research. (Chapter 6 in this volume, by Margaret Terry Orr and her colleagues, provides additional information about the purposes and pedagogical practices of career academies, especially those associated with the National Academy Foundation.) Despite evidence that career academies can produce positive results for students, success is never automatic. Local circumstances may enhance or undermine the effectiveness of a particular career academy, within a particular school at a particular time. The careeracademy model has several elements, all of which require planning and effort to put in place and keep in place. In 1997 we established the Career Academy Support Network (CASN) to help high schools and districts that want to develop and improve career academies. CASN provides professional development, on-site coaching, and other kinds of implementation assistance. As part of its service, CASN uses available data from student transcripts to monitor implementation and to determine whether academy students are improving more or less rapidly than nonacademy students in the same high schools. Nonrandom selection of students into academies and nonrandom attrition make it impossible for this analysis to determine whether academy participation causes greater improvement in students' performance.2 But the available data can nevertheless inform academy stakeholders about the kinds of students who are participating and how their performance is changing over time. The third and fourth sections of the chapter illustrate this kind of analysis. The second question we seek to answer in this paper is whether academy students' growth, relative to nonacademy students in the same school, is associated with implementation of certain key features of the model. We focus on measures having to do with scheduling and course taking because these are considered fundamental to the academy design and they can be computed from student transcripts. This analysis, using a hierarchical model, is reported in the fourth and fifth sections of the chapter. Although the differences between academy and nonacademy students may be attributable in part to nonrandom selection or attrition, this exercise demonstrates a new procedure for estimating how much implementation matters. Copyright © 2007 by Russell Sage Foundation.

Background: Although medical students' use of portfolios has been studied from many angles, little is known about their motivations. Aim: This article explores medical students' motives for voluntarily compiling a learning portfolio that widely exceeded the assignments. Methods: Content analysis was performed on 22 (8%; n = 22/269) extensive portfolios, followed by a semi-structured interview with 11 medical students. Building on the theoretical work of Simons et al. (2004), interpretative analysis was used to reconstruct and understand the medical students' motives for the effort they put into the portfolios. Results: Compiling an elaborate portfolio is mainly instigated by a personal instrumentality (internally regulated instrumental motivation). These medical students reflected on what they considered important and useful. The portfolio was a tool to achieve self-set goals, yet the specific goals turned out to be very different among the students, reflecting their particular needs and experiences during clerkship. Conclusion: Motivation theory shows that students whoare internally regulated use more deep-level learning strategies and perform better. Internally regulated motivation mainly occurs when students use the portfolio to achieve their self-set goals. The formal portfolio assignments, enforced by the medical school, were more related with externally regulated motivation.

Background and objective: The case/problem-based learning discussion method was recently introduced into the theory-based training program for residents run by the Catalan Society of Anaesthesiology. This study was designed to assess and compare its effectiveness with that of the lecture-based approach for teaching pre-anaesthetic assessment, applying an objective tool for knowledge evaluation before and after teaching. Methods: A prospective randomized study of two consecutive year groups of first year anaesthesiology residents was conducted. Twenty-nine residents attended a lecture, and 25, a case/problem-based learning discussion session. Their knowledge of pre-anaesthetic assessment was assessed before and after the teaching session with tests on four different clinical cases measuring six fields: (1) 'recognizing clinical data with anaesthetic implications'; (2) 'reasoning clinical data with anaesthetic implications'; (3) 'ASA class'; (4) 'Mallampati class'; (5) 'choice of anaesthetic technique'; (6) 'reasoning choice of anaesthetic technique'. Results: Before the teaching session, the lecture group scored significantly higher on field 1 (P = 0.006). Both teaching methods improved scores on fields 1, 2 and 4. The case/problem group also improved on fields 3 and 6. After the teaching session, the field 1 score was still significantly higher in the lecture group (P = 0.005), and the field 3 score was significantly higher in the case/problem group (P = 0.044). Conclusions: The effectiveness of lecture and case/problem-based learning discussion differed little in terms of improving participants' immediate knowledge of 'pre-anaesthetic assessment'. © 2007 Copyright European Society of Anaesthesiology.