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"Article"

Dominant debates and digital upskilling strategies in Scotland have been long underpinned by the notion that engagement with technologies can transform young people’s lives. This paper offers a critique of such dominant understandings and contributes to the scarce research on the impact of technologies on disadvantaged young people’s life chances. It reports on qualitative fieldwork exploring everyday lives, transitions and technology use amongst 22 NEET-identified Scottish young people aged 16–24, drawing on thinking tools from Bourdieu. Findings show that participants followed ‘accelerated’ transitions towards vocational pathways, whilst technologies played a liminal role in making occupational choices. Furthermore, processes underpinning the post-16 transitions policy field were found to strongly shape the young people’s trajectories, directing them towards the least valuable options in terms of work and training. Concurrently, uncertainties about how to navigate the realm of work and perform the self in relation to the labour force constituted a common feature of participants labouring subjectivities and these were reflected in the ways they used technologies while looking for opportunities. However, even when the young people acquired digital employability skills, these had little impact on their transitions as the old social divisions were a much stronger influence. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Due to the pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 (COVID-19), humanity is going through a great crisis and one of the most affected sectors is work due to the large amount of unemployment that it generated, thus resulting in a very low rate of employability. That is why the present study aims to find the determining factors to increase employability. The study conducted is a review of scientific literature, which collects 61 articles from the databases: IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Proquest, Ebsco, and other databases. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

In a time when blended learning is the norm and not the exception, ePortfolio implementation has the potential to serve as a tool for 21st-century skills development, namely self-reflection, self-assessment, goal-setting, evidence-based learning, as well as a tool for digital literacy development. Two learning scenarios implementing ePortfolio in teaching and learning processes are presented. The first one deals with a learning model, following principles of autonomous learning applied in language learning, with a focus on goal-setting and evidence-based portfolio as a growth portfolio, with attention to applied assessment types and learning processes of university students. A constructivist approach to ePortfolio creation makes a solid foundation for the learning model. The second scenario of ePortfolio implementation presents how to use ePortfolio in pre-service teacher education, especially as an active learning strategy in the subject oriented to technology-enhanced learning. Students present in ePortfolios interviews with different target groups, relevant materials research, best practices, and applications. ePortfolios are shared between students, and create a special dynamic effect in the online course. Both presented case studies highlight the differences in positivist and constructivist approaches to ePortfolio implementation with respect to student behavior in areas of their attitudes and learning processes and evidencing. In both scenarios, learning analytics are used as an important tool to monitor students’ work and for the gradual improvement of ePortfolio implementation model. Presented results prove ePortfolio tool to be a high impact practice fostering student autonomy and active learning. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

The focus of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) on assessment and credentials has ambivalent implications regarding research on workplace RPL. This article presents and empirically tests a heuristic conceptual framework to support the analysis of workplace RPL and its relation to learning at work. RPL is defined as a practice of workplace pedagogy with two modes of recognition attributed a performance, a developmental, and an occupational orientation. The framework is applied to analyse data from an interview-based study with managers in Austrian wood-processing companies. The analysis reveals a strong orientation towards performance, adaptive learning, and immediate use of skills. A strength-based view of staff development and awareness of the importance of support positively influence occupationally relevant and developmental learning. When recognition is a part of everyday management practice and workplace participation, there are even greater opportunities for developmental learning. This article offers conceptual perspectives and empirical evidence to researchers and practitioners. The implications for practice suggest an intensification of support for managers to help them appreciate the potential benefits of RPL. For future research, it is indicated among others to further develop, strengthen, and empirically validate the heuristic conceptual framework. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This paper provides an analysis of the literature on transnational education to identify the key challenges and success factors for the sustainable operation of transnational higher education (TNE) programmes as perceived by key stakeholders. Probing the stakeholders’ perspectives and applying a systematic approach, this study analyses 227 English-written articles retrieved from the Web of Science database published from 2000 to 2021. Key challenges identified include difficulties in managing the TNE programmes, ensuring quality assurance, adapting the curricula to the local contexts, accommodating offshore students’ learning styles, creating studying environments for TNE students equivalent to those in the home institutions, ensuring preparedness of the academic staff, and facilitating the knowledge transfer in the host countries. The analysis also highlights six factors for the sustainable development of TNE programmes, including the effectiveness of the operations, the internationalization of the curricula, the transnational experience of the students, the development of the transnational staff, the existence of a proper regulatory framework in the host countries, and the development of a global systematic data collection for quality assurance. In addition, the evidence collected suggests that while the transition from domestic into a foreign programme can be rewarding, it demands appropriate planning and implementation. © 2022 Society for Research into Higher Education.

Drawing on a review of international literature published between 2005 and 2021, the present article discusses interventions tailored for Indigenous people in vocational education and training. A critical analysis of this literature was carried out to gain a deeper understanding of the scope of these interventions in bolstering success among Indigenous people in vocational education. Three axes of analysis were used to examine 24 academic papers: the interventions featured in these papers, the conception of social justice in education (i.e. equality of place, equality of opportunity, equity and inclusion, and decolonisation) underpinning these interventions, and their effects on success. The findings paint a picture of the relevance and scope of initiatives that can foster Indigenous student success in vocational education and at the same time reveal the limitations of these studies. They also show which conception of social justice in education appears the most promising. The article concludes with a brief discussion of a few fundamental elements that need to be kept in mind when developing initiatives for Indigenous people in vocational education. © 2022 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Science Recreation Workshops (SRW) are engaging activities intended to create scientific experiences for participants, who play with natural phenomena while they explore, discover, discuss, and learn about them. They take people into a first-hand scientific adventure. SRW’s do not demand a lot of resources to develop, that is why SRW’s groups can operate ‘guerrilla-like’ tactics: with fast-moving and small-scale actions to get people to enjoy and learn science in all kinds of contexts. It is possible to take SRW’s to a wide variety of places: museums, parks, schools, public squares, streets, marginal neighborhoods, and small towns. It could be said that SRW’s present an interesting dichotomy: their versatility allows them to go where other science communication activities cannot reach, but they hardly appear in the literature on informal science education or public communication of science and technology. SRW’s have developed without barely having scholarly discussion about them, but this kind of work poses constraints for their development. Tasks such as improving their activities, training new practitioners, and impact evaluation demand for a solid bedrock. In this article, we intend to characterize SRW’s–alongside the organizations devoted to their development–, in an initial effort to spark discussion about them. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: Competencies for educators of healthcare professionals are important for demonstrating accountability, defining roles and responsibilities, structuring activities for training and development, defining standards, quality assurance, performance reviews, career development, and promoting the professionalisation of teaching. The frameworks and domains of educator competencies have not previously been reviewed or systematically described. Through this integrative review, the authors sought to identify an inclusive structure for competency domains that may be applied to educators. Methods: Keywords were identified in a pilot search, followed by a multi-database search strategy of records published from 2000 to January 2020 with subsequent backward and forward reference searches. We included all record types that listed or described educator competency domains in medical, nursing and health sciences education. We excluded records that described ‘ideal traits’ or ‘characteristics of good teachers/educators,’ presented competencies as part of a larger curricular framework, and teaching assessment tool content. Results: The multi-database search retrieved 2942 initial citations. From a full-text review of 301 records, 67 were identified as describing educator competency domains eligible for analysis. Documents contained a median of six domains (interquartile range = 5–7) and 14.9% incorporated at least one overarching element across their domains. Following an inductive thematic analysis, six distinct domains of educator competence were identified: Teaching and facilitating learning; Designing and planning learning; Assessment of learning; Educational research and scholarship; Educational leadership and management; Educational environment, quality, and safety. The two latter domains contained sub-themes that were able to be further categorised. Documents and frameworks were described for a wide variety of health and allied health disciplines. Conclusion: Distinct educator competency domains were identified in this analysis, applicable across a range of healthcare disciplines. Along with the description of design elements, these provide a guide for the development and evaluation of educator competency frameworks. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article depicts the obstacles within the vocational education for trainees with escape and migration experience in Germany. The structure of the highly formalised vocational training system in Germany is based on the assumption of a ‘normal case’ of an educational biography. However, this neither applies to the often-broken educational pathways of refugees and immigrants, nor to an increasing number of young people without migration experience. Access to training is largely organised by the private sector, and so, applicants outside the classic profile are often disadvantaged both in access and in the learning processes within the training. The article focuses on the challenges of trainees with escape and migration experience in vocational schools as part of dual vocational training, and discusses the extent to which these schooling structures are inclusive or discriminating. For this purpose, the results from interviews with young immigrants in training are evaluated. © 2022 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

This article examines the role that third sector organizations (TSOs) play in supporting refugees’ access to the labor market in England. TSO practices are conceptualized through the notion of “bottom-up” solidarity. Data gathered through interviews with refugees and representatives from charities, social enterprises, and public authorities are used to identify how TSO actors enact bottom-up solidarity and, in turn, facilitate integration of refugees into the labor market. Th e fi ndings show how labor market transition is built on the transformation of the wider circumstances faced by refugees. Data also demonstrates how the creation of direct employment opportunities, coupled with intermediation and trust brokerage, and alongside episodic and extended coaching, is key to enacting “bottom-up” solidarity. © The Authors