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At the heart of the United Kingdom Government's vision of the ‘Learning Society’ in the 1998 ‘Learning Age’ Green Paper is the individual citizen, equipped for employment in the ever-changing, ‘knowledge-based’ economy of the future. Integral to this is the need for individuals to have responsibility for their own learning throughout life. It is particularly tough in the context of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – notoriously weak in terms of infrastructure and investment in training and development. Two initiatives deemed to carry the definitive marks of the ‘Learning Society’ are Employee Development (ED) programmes and Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs). Employees in SMEs figure prominently in Government ‘targets’ for ILA take up. Whilst ED schemes have received most notoriety amongst large organisations a number of the UK's Training and Enterprise Councils have sought to spread such activity into the SME sector. Drawing on in-depth research as part of a TEC sponsored evaluation of...

This paper provides an account of the everyday workplace learning of cycle technicians. Derived from an ethnography of working cultures and practices at a bike shop in the North of England, this paper rests on a critical reading of Communities of Practice theory in order to explore the complex and heterogeneous learning of cycle technicians. Drawing on a series of vignettes constructed from the ethnographic data, the paper demonstrates the variety of experiences of both formal and informal learning that characterise the trajectories of new cycle technicians as they enter the industry. In addition to providing an account of a qualified and specialist workforce that is under-represented in extant research literature, the paper also provides an exemplar for ethnographic research as a vehicle for exploring working practices through a Communities of Practice lens, using the paradigmatic theoretical elements of the theory. The paper concludes by arguing that for cycle technicians, and perhaps other occupations as well, Communities of Practice theory can generate rich and complex accounts that do justice to the richness and complexity of the craft and practice being observed.

This paper discusses how Bernsteinian concepts (‘pedagogic rights’, ‘discursive gaps’ and ‘pedagogic code’) from the field of sociology of education can be used as didactic tools to illuminate how different ways of organising teaching in VET has implications for citizenship preparation. The paper is based on results from a five-year research project investigating the extent and nature of learning processes that can be characterised as civic education in Swedish VET. Results from the project show how VET often contributes to social reproduction through provision of class-, gender-, and ethnicity-based access to knowledge with different powers to students. However, we also identified many variations in the VET-contexts studied. In the paper at hand, examples of when and how students got access to different types of knowledge through different ways of organising teaching, and how different ways of teaching prevented or promoted different types of questions with implications for the kind of citizenship preparation the students were offered, is discussed. Our hope is that these discussions contribute to a conversation on how to make a language accessible to VET-teachers that is helpful to problematise and plan their teaching to offer greater access to an active citizenship for students in vocational programmes.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is a socio-technical, ideological, and rhetorical construction rooted in the neoliberal discourse that reflects key tenets of global capitalism, is believed to have considerable implications for the development of employees in advanced manufacturing environments. This paper aims to explore the ways in which the learning needs of employees in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution could be appropriately identified and how employees could further develop their skills through the design of suitable development curricula. To this end , the paper seeks to interrogate the ways in which the employees’ learning needs are likely to be identified in the middle-range future, and problemate the focus of highly specialised and exclusively focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula that are likely to be designed to help employees respond to the perceived demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The paper further seeks to explore a preferred liberal future, drawing on the work of Martha Nussbaum, to create the possibility for an alternative future guided by a more holistic conception of employee development through the establishment of learner-centred, liberal – and liberating – interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) curricula.

The paper addresses the impact of Covid-19 on vocational education and training, seeking to discern the outline of possible directions for its future development within the debates about VET responses to the pandemic. The discussion is set in its socio-economic context, considering debates that engage with the social relations of care and neo-liberalism. The paper analyses discourses that have developed around VET across the world during the pandemic, illustrating both possible continuities and ruptures that may emerge in this field, as the health crisis becomes overshadowed in public policy by the prioritisation of economic recovery and social restoration. The paper concludes that, alongside the possibility of a narrowing of VET to its most prosaic aims and practices, the health crisis could also lead to a re-conceptualisation that develops its radical and emancipatory possibilities in both the global south and north.

This paper brings together concepts drawn from Actor Network Theory and data generated in a research project that was conducted across the island of Ireland. Using surveys and interviews with school staff, that research explored the limits and possibilities for workplace learning as a valued component of the senior school curriculum. The current paper works with the data from the Republic of Ireland only and brings into focus the full range of actors – both human and nonhuman – that generate, or constrain, productive workplace learning opportunities for students. In the wake of the Great Recession, it is suggested that such opportunities have gained increased importance. The analysis suggests attention to the full range of actors highlights areas for intervention, and the possibilities for alliances that may be beneficial for students and their schools, for employers who provide workplace learning placements, and for vocational learning itself.

In most initial teacher preparation (ITP) programmes, learning in teaching placements is considered to be an important component for providing workplace learning experiences to develop the skills of being a teacher. This paper is based on a bigger qualitative study which explored the learning experiences of a group of in-service student vocational teachers prior to and during their one-year ITP programme in Brunei. The study examined these student teachers’ dispositions to learning as revealed through their experiences on different placements during their training. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of the student vocational teachers’ roles and positions relative to their teaching placements. Theoretically, the findings also extend Bourdieu’s thinking, where existing cultural capital in the form of subject knowledge which is valued in one context does not necessarily help the learning of individuals in becoming a vocational teacher in another context. In addition, the paper argues...

The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend to isolate or integrate mathematics from/with the vocational experience. Integrated approaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics.

This paper is based on research undertaken on the supervised practice of an undergraduate programme of study which leads to both BA (Hons) degree and a professional qualification in youth work in a university in England. Youth work, for those unfamiliar with it, is a form of informal and experiential educational practice with young people often located in community settings. The purpose of youth work is to help young people learn about themselves, others and society through the use of educational activities which combine enjoyment, challenge and learning. Importantly, however, the findings of this paper we would argue are directly transferable to a variety of practice-based educational and vocational settings where students need to reflect on, analyse and either assess their own practice or have their practice assessed by others.

This small-scale, highly original study connects themes which are rarely explored in relation to each other, particularly in a European context: vocational education and training (VET), refugees and race equality, in order to explore how VET policies impact on racial equality, and the ways racial structures in Europe impact on VET. It begins to fill important gaps in cross-European research, firstly around VET and race, and secondly around refugees and VET. The paper is based on a study which examined the meso-social benefits of, and barriers to VET for adult refugees to European countries, commissioned by CEDEFOP, the agency funded by the European Commission to promote the development of VET in the European Union. In the paper we argue that a key factor in shaping refugees’ experiences of VET, are the racial structures integral to capitalist societies. Innovatively drawing on key literature which analyses white privilege in the labour market to contextualise our findings, we suggest that barriers faced by refugees are potentially related to structures of white privilege which shape notions of work and workers in Europe and sustain racial hierarchies.

Little has been published in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) literature on the topic of pre-apprenticeships, which are a loose type of preparatory courses for apprenticeships available in some trades. Nevertheless, pre-apprenticeships have been in existence for several decades. With continuing concern over skill shortages in Australia, the research study on which this paper is based investigated the role of pre-apprenticeship courses in addressing skill shortages in the electrotechnology, automotive and engineering trades, some of the largest ‘traditional trades’ in Australia, and those with sizeable numbers in pre-apprenticeships. The principal objective of the overall study was to determine whether the use of pre-apprenticeships increased the size and suitability of the supply of entrants to the traditional apprenticeships and whether pre-apprenticeships do or might increase completion rates in apprenticeships. The paper uses findings from the study to develop a typology of pre-ap...

Use of simulation is well established as a way of learning and assessing skills in vocational disciplines. In many institutions the use of simulation with student nurses is being tested as a way of helping them learn clinical skills, problem‐solving, clinical assessment and decision‐making. This paper explores the value of simulation as a learning tool through the presentation of findings from an evaluative research project into the use of simulation in nursing education. The focus of this paper is how students perceive that simulations help them learn and suggests that simulation may play a part in how students perceive learning that is meaningful to them. A literature review on the use of simulation is presented together with literature related to the learning theory that underpins simulation. The methodology, data collection and findings of the evaluative study are then presented followed by a discussion of the findings. Although the original research did not set out to examine how students perceived t...

This paper proposes 15 principles of educational intervention for developing vocationalised moral values for workplaces. The principles are drawn from a study of 14 construction workers in Queensland, Australia and draws from their understanding and perception of vocational moral development. The paper proposes these principles as a basis for lifelong learning. This concept of lifelong learning is summarised in terms of educational outcomes and engagements within institutional and industrialised regulatory contexts and contrary experiential social and personal contexts.

From 2007 to 2008, CILT (Centre for Information for Language Teachers) developed a set of National Occupational Standards for Intercultural Working in the UK. This paper reports on three questions arising from the development project: how these standards are distinctive from others, how they realise intercultural competence and how they meet workplace expectations. Drawing on the directly relevant published evidence‐base, the paper argues that these standards are distinctive in their relationship with other suites, the range of their application, and the ways in which personal attributes are exemplified and embedded within performance outcomes. The standards also reflect a multi‐dimensional approach to competencies which include personal qualities such as reflection, self‐development, critical thinking and ethics; and the standards are described in a way which is credible and achievable in the workplace. For example, one pivotal unit of the standards focuses on self‐exploration and performance improvement...

Current theories of learning hold dominant assumptions about the type and scope of knowledge and skills taught in formal courses that prepare novices for professional practice at work. In performing arts educational contexts, a common emphasis continues to hone individual performance skills in order to gain technical mastery and to differentiate competitively against others. This paper analyses a case study of an alternative educational programme developed by a major orchestra, which serves to induct young players into becoming professional orchestral musicians. This analysis reveals the multiple kinds of learning that it is claimed can only be gained from context‐sensitive participation in orchestral practice at work. Six distinctive features of this practice‐based learning are discussed and implications drawn for how well the various main theories of workplace learning account for the types of learning identified in the case study. This paper concludes with some observations on what these findings sugge...

This paper discusses the role of trust and shared goals in relation to participation in inter‐organisational and multi‐agency partnerships. It draws on a study of partnership working in England and focuses in particular on the perspectives of senior managers of post‐16 education and training providers with substantial experience of working in local and regional partnerships. The research explored the concept and practice of partnership through a qualitative case study of a sub‐regional partnership and the main methods used for data collection were observations of partnership meetings, documentary evidence of partnership working and semi‐structured interviews with members of the partnership. The findings presented in this paper emanate principally from the interview data and reveal the importance and differentiated nature of trust in partnership working and the place of both trust and shared goals in effective and sustained partnerships.

This paper examines data drawn from interviews with homeless people who were undertaking a Clemente programme offered by the Australian Catholic University in the Vincentian Village in East Sydney. The Clemente programme, conceptualised by Shorris, is based on the belief that an education in the humanities empowers people to engage in a more controlled way with the world in which they live, and that they will therefore be less likely to react simply to contexts and events. Two of the striking things about the interview data were the rejection of ‘vocational courses’ and the way in which the learners referred to changes in their bodies that flowed from the humanities programme: the way they walked, the straightness of their backs, together with the metaphor of climbing. The present paper seeks to interpret these and other changes in terms of Mauss’s and Bourdieu’s conceptions of habitus, bodily hexis and dispositions, and possible implications for teaching and learning in vocational education.

Learner agency, often understood in terms of self-direction and negotiated engagement, is considered important in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Yet nurturing and supporting agency is resource-intensive and difficult. In this paper, we consider learner agency for online TVET—a setting where content delivery models can be experienced as stultifying. We document the design and evaluation of specific task designs using the method and principle of double-stimulation, where prompts help participants to reconceptualise problematic situations and break out of conflicting motives. We draw on data from a research-intervention with adult learners undertaking a facilities management diploma online, while working. We explore how, across nine online workshops, task designs engendered transformative agency: the ability to collaboratively diverge from instructional intent, question dilemmatic conditions, and propose and enact change. We claim (1) that specific double-stimulation tasks encouraged participants to engage in understanding institutional practice, exposing conflict, and enacting change; (2) that participants came to view their own problematic conditions as stimuli for resistance, criticism, and development; and (3) that online resources were crucial for highlighting evidence of failure and learners’ potential roles in change. Our findings are of importance to help learners set and evaluate their own learning agendas.

This paper performs a critical examination of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which was accompanied by an Inspection Handbook for Further Education and Skills, and argues that this...

This paper analyses the costs and benefits of dual training programmes for companies in Chile. The model has three main components: (1) the costs that arise during the programme (training, student ...

The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) was introduced as a major programme in the United Kingdom that would relate secondary schools’ curricula to the ‘world of work’. Since its launch in 1984 TVEI has developed and taken on many forms but one of its continuing universal elements has been the requirement that secondary school students’ should have some form of work experience. Although TVEI has been much evaluated and researched little attention has been paid to how students’ work experience is perceived to be of educational value and used by their teachers. The research described in this paper is an examination of how students’ work experience was managed and used in a sample of secondary schools. The paper argues that what students learn from work experience is held to be of no value in terms of the formal curriculum. However, teachers in the school sample do consider work experience as adding value by the social development of students who are of average or below average acad...

For over a decade, the government of the United Kingdom has expressed dissatisfaction with the skills base of the nation, and has introduced a number of initiatives aimed at achieving a further education curriculum which is broader, more flexible and more closely tied to the needs of employers. This paper describes the advent of new qualifications and a new funding system, and reports on interviews with curriculum managers in further education, as to how they have experienced this change. It argues that the funding system is causing a great preoccupation with finance, to the potential detriment of the curriculum, and that the new qualifications have raised a number of problems in maintaining a broad and balanced curriculum. It examines the resultant changing relationship of managers to staff and employers. The paper concludes that the positive impact has been greatest amongst a minority of students, and that managers are achieving development in the curriculum often despite, rather than because o...

This paper chronicles and analyses the expansion and contraction of the Australian apprenticeship system from 1985 to 2020. The system expanded from a small number of occupations, mainly in craft a...

With this paper we want to contribute to the debate on the usage of vocational training as a tool to promote the integration of disadvantaged groups. We focus in particular on programmes that target refugees and highlight the organisational and coordination challenges that must be addressed in order to develop such programmes. Relying on knowledge developed by scholars of collective skill formation and by those who have studied policy coordination, we develop a number of hypotheses that can account for the successful implementation of this type of programmes. We then test our hypotheses against an example taken from Switzerland, consisting of a one-year pre-apprenticeship dual training programme adopted in 2018. We argue that its win-win quality, the flexibility with which it was managed and possibly also the political salience of the issue of refugee integration at the time, were the key factors explaining its successful adoption.

In this paper, which takes the form of a dialogue, we discuss the possible directions that vocational education might take in the contemporary social, economic and technological context of the early 21st century. Taking account of the unresolved debates around vocational education internationally and future global economic demands for expertise we discuss tensions and dichotomies that continue to shape the character of vocational education by questioning definitions of the ‘vocational’ historically and in current policy. These include: the relation between ‘vocational’ and ‘academic’ pathways and the possibility of their integration, the meaning of technical education, the purpose of vocational qualifications, the role of trade unions and employers, and whether there should be a ‘skills route’ for ‘low attainers’. The principal focus is on the English context, although the discussion draws on comparative examples where relevant, as well as broader factors likely to be significant in any country.

The concepts glass escalator and glass ceiling have been widely used in studies of gender and organisations. In this paper we propose a novel metaphor to describe and analyse gender segregation and...

This paper investigates the realisation of competence-based education (CBE) in vocational education in Indonesia. It examines the extent to which CBE design principles of the Comprehensive Competence-Based Education Framework developed in a Western context exist in Indonesian policy documents and school practices. This study reviews educational policy documents and collects cross-sectional survey data from 41 school principals, 453 teachers, and 2219 students from 41 agricultural vocational schools in five provinces of Java, Indonesia. Results showed that the ten CCBE principles listed in the framework exist to large extent in Indonesian policy documents. School principals, teachers, and students noticed the realisation of CCBE principles in the study programme to differing degrees, except for the principle of flexibility that was largely absent. The level of CBE implementation varied, from the level of starting competence-based to that of largely competence-based education. The findings contribute to the discussion of CCBE design principles and lesson learned of CBE implementation in a non-western perspective.

The authors acknowledge the support of many colleagues in their respective universities and within partner colleges during this research. Course tutors in Scotland, Dr Margaret Harris and Dr Aileen Ackland, are thanked for their support in implementing COLIGE with their students. Students who completed surveys or provided feedback in other ways are also thanked for their helpful comments. Professor Paul Kirschner kindly engaged in discussions associated with this work and colleagues and anonymous reviewers have provided helpful feedback on draft versions of this paper.

Fostering the skills necessary for self-directed learning is an important endeavour of vocational education and training in many contexts internationally. However, there is a distinct lack of studies that investigate the extent to which facilitation of self-directed learning is present within vocational education and training in different contexts. An exploratory thematic qualitative analysis of inspectors’ comments within general Further Education college Ofsted inspection reports was conducted to investigate the balance of control of the learning process between teacher and learner within vocational education and training of young adults in England. A clear difference between outstanding and inadequate provision is reported. Inadequate provision was overwhelmingly teacher-directed. Outstanding provision reflected a collaborative relationship between teacher and learner in directing the learning process, despite the Ofsted framework not explicitly identifying the need for learner involvement in directing the learning process. The present paper offers insight into the understanding of how an effective balance of control of learning between teacher and learner may be realised in vocational education and training settings and highlights the need to consider the modulating role of contextual factors.

The Netherlands has a binary higher education system in which academic education and higher professional education at EQF levels 5–8 co-exist. There is also secondary vocational education at EQF levels 1 up to 4. In this paper, I analyse policy documents resulting from the Bologna Process and argue that under neo-liberal conditions, higher professional education brings opportunities for both students and employers, but also creates a socio-economic tension in terms of employability. The gap between higher professional education and secondary vocational education adds to the formation of a labour market in which higher professional education graduates are prepared to an international labour market but employability pressure is being put on lower skilled employees, creating unequal employability opportunities for vocational education graduates.

This paper highlights troubling patterns within the Australian School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships (SBATs) by analysing statistical data of 21,000 of 15–19 year old apprenticeship/traineeship learners engaged in Vocational Education and Training in School (VETiS). It confirms the alignment of social groups to certain qualification fields and levels and provides a compelling picture of the learner profile of SBAT including the type of occupations and qualifications being undertaken at school level. In a complex policy environment, where VET in Schools has been assigned the important task of preparing ‘workforce job-ready’ students for the ‘high skill and high earning roles our economy demands’, we argue that the SBAT pathway is not yet adequate to meet these high expectations. It is not an effective apprenticeship pathway as it potentially ‘locks-in’ already disadvantaged young people to precarious pathways, and reinforces the nature of an already highly gender-segregated Australian labou...

How established is the horizontal permeability between modes of vocational education and training (VET) in Switzerland? Formally encouraged by the Swiss law on VET, horizontal permeability refers to transitions across VET modes, i.e. between dual and school-based VET. This paper first discusses why horizontal permeability is indeed relevant and then empirically examines the horizontal permeability of the Swiss VET system for a given occupation – commercial VET. The latter is the largest VET domain in Switzerland and, importantly, a domain in which school-based VET is well established. The empirical analysis uses panel data following a cohort for over 10 years in the Canton of Geneva. Results show that going from school-based to dual VET within commercial VET increases chances to earn a qualification, however students changing modes lose half a year in the process. These findings suggest that, at least in commercial VET, horizontal permeability is only partial.

This paper extends arguments for differentiating knowledge into conceptualisations of occupational practice. It is argued that specialised forms of knowledge and practice require recognition and differentiation in ways that many contemporary approaches to practice theory deny. Drawing on Hager’s interpretation of MacIntyre, it is suggested that occupational practices are differentiated from non-occupational practices by their ‘purposiveness’, and by how their internal and external goods relate. Furthermore, we can differentiate within the category of occupational practices by (i) the character and extent of specialised knowledge that underpins the practice, and by (ii) how socio-epistemic and institutional conditions shape how knowledge is recontextualised within the practice. This leads to an outline differentiation between forms of specialised and non-specialised occupational knowledge and practice.

An apprenticeship in media production in England is at the centre of this case study exploration. The context is exemplified by the organisation of the process of production around project teams and the development of project-based working cultures. Given these developments, the working conditions and learning opportunities presented to apprentices can be characterised as de-centred and distributed. This contrasts with the characterisation of apprentices’ learning as novices who develop expertise in stable, well-bounded vocational communities. Through an analysis of young apprentices’ journeys, we argue that despite the challenges presented, the case study exemplifies the extent to which the apprenticeship is capable of innovation in project working as opposed to full employment conditions. Through its focus on media apprentices’ journeys, this paper makes visible the specific experience of learning in project working, distributed and de-centred working conditions. We conclude by referring to an i...

The paper presents empirical data to consider some of the current debates concerning the nature of vocational knowledge taught in Further Education colleges to students following craft, vocational and occupational courses. The concept of ‘knowledge in motion’ and workplace learning theories are employed as a conceptual framework to examine the continuing professional development (CPD) activities of vocational teachers. This is used to shed light on the ways in which teachers use CPD as a means of accessing and transporting vocational knowledge from occupations to classrooms. Empirical data were gathered through questionnaire, in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings are presented around five themes: (1) the range of CPD engaged with by vocational teachers; (2) the limitations of propositional, explicit knowledge; (3) engaging with and capturing tacit knowledge; (4) managing the temporality of vocational knowledge; and (5) networking within and to the occupation. Findings suggests that vocational knowledge is distributed and networked and this conceptualisation makes visible some of the ways teachers are able, through CPD activity, to transport vocational knowledge from occupations to classrooms.

This is an important text that brings together a range of diverse papers addressing constructions of the knowledge economy and the particular challenges that this poses for workplace learning. The ...

Since incorporation of further education (FE) in England in 1992, much research has critiqued the performative pressures on FE teachers created by a managerialist audit culture. These critiques have demonstrated the detrimental effects of the technicised delivery of learning outcomes on more learner-centred pedagogies. However, FE policies now purport to place greater emphasis on learner-centredness. In this paper, we question the meanings such policies give to this notion, and examine how they are shaping teachers’ practice. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study of trainee and newly qualified FE teachers, we innovatively apply a social theory of time to analyse the resulting time pressures that teachers encountered. In particular, the distinction between ‘clock time’ and ‘process time’ is used as a specific lens through which to interpret the data. We argue that FE policies misappropriate and subvert the notion of learner-centredness by focusing on assessment outcomes; and that they expect teachers to devote more time to learners, but without an associated allocation of adequate time resources. As a result, there may be a danger of losing more teachers from the profession. These findings may have cross-sector relevance in schools and higher education, as well as internationally.

A concern with competitiveness is as apparent in India as it is elsewhere in the global economy. This interest rests alongside the oft repeated argument that calls for up-skilling and the on-going enhancement of vocational education and training (VET) so as to meet the needs of industry. Pilz, in this edited book, has brought together a number of papers that address Indian VET and its role in the preparation for work. The book is encyclopaedic in its coverage of VET, both formal and informal, and its various manifestations in India. Pilz invited each of his contributors to address seventeen key questions (figure 2 p21): these ranged from programme aims, institutional location, curriculum (compulsory as well as elective components), responsibility for design and implementation, the prescribed and enacted curriculum, pedagogy, through to learner expectations and so on.

This study examines the role and impact of collaborative learning on training and development practices in Australian Men's Sheds. We use a case study approach, underpinned by Peters and Armstrong's theoretical framework of collaborative learning in adult education, to investigate five Men's Sheds. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with five Men's Shed co-ordinators, and five focus groups with a total of 61 members. In this study, vocational education and training is extended in a way to bridge the gap between work and retirement for many men in Australia. Three main themes emerged: the importance of training and development [beyond the workplace] for an individual response to member participation; a shared learning experience between men who teach and men who learn in the Sheds; and the collaborative learning that impacts on the learning of individual and groups. We discuss the urgent need for Shed co-ordinators to develop guidelines for training and development policies and use collaborative learning practices within the Sheds. The key message of the paper is that collaborative learning is critical to ensure effective training and development of men in Men's Sheds. We also highlight the implications of poor training and development practices for Shed growth, legal compliance and member participation and men's well-being. The findings will be of interest to other countries dealing with populations of retired men and others seeking membership in Sheds.

The credential landscape of vocational and higher education in the UK has expanded in recent years, alongside a rise in the number of students undertaking qualifications and a steady increase in tuition fees. The transition from an apprenticeship to higher education is one example of the progression from vocational to higher education. However, the ways in which this pathway is navigated according to the students who have followed this route have received little attention. This paper focuses on the examples of four students in England who each progressed to higher education with different qualifications. Drawing on Archer’s concept of reflexivity, the analysis revealed three important factors for negotiating transition. These were firstly the credential landscape itself, secondly how their employer perceived higher education qualifications and thirdly how higher education institutions perceived vocational qualifications. The findings illustrate how students confronted and overcame the various constraints ...

There is growing research and policy interest in the extent to which government supported Apprenticeship in England provides a platform for educational and career progression in different occupational sectors. This paper makes a contribution to this debate by presenting research on the healthcare sector undertaken in a regional health authority in England, and by suggesting that ideas associated with labour market theory can shed light on some of the key differences in Apprenticeship frameworks and the progression opportunities available in different kinds of healthcare occupations. The research included policy and documentary review as well as qualitative interviews with employers in NHS Trusts. More specifically, our analysis applies key characteristics of occupational and internal labour markets to show how Apprenticeship frameworks fit and reinforce variations in employment, training and career opportunities in two contrasting Advanced Apprenticeship frameworks; Clinical Healthcare Support and Pharmacy Services. We conclude that the labour market lens is useful in focusing attention on the structures and key stakeholder relationships which determine the development of vocational training and the barriers or opportunities for educational or career progression in diverse sectoral contexts and occupations across the economy.

Traditionally, the status of workers in early childhood services in England has been low. Foundation degrees and the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS, from September 2013 Early Years Teacher Status) were established with a view to improving the skills and standing of early years practitioners. There appears however to be an ongoing discrepancy between practitioners’ positive commitment to their professional development and the continued focus on the fact that they are somehow lacking and in need of transformation. This paper explores practical and academic self-concepts of early years practitioners, and its association with academic achievement and wider societal perspectives. Individual interviews (n = 10) and three focus group discussions with early years foundation degree students were analysed using a form of discursive psychology. In their arguing and thinking, the practitioners within their self-conceptualisations showed evidence of a transition between two overall identities, one related to their ‘practical identity’ and one related to their ‘educated early years practitioner identity’.

Public policy discourses claim that there is a 'crisis' in the literacy and numeracy levels of the Australian workforce. In this paper, we propose a methodology for examining this 'crisis' from a critical perspective. We draw on findings from an ongoing research project by the authors which investigates production workers' literacy and numeracy in lean manufacturing firms. We focus on how language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) practices are embedded in production work and investigate various perspectives, including those of management, trainers and workers, on LLN problems and issues in the workplace. We adopt a critical perspective that analyses the way work, learning in work, and literacy and numeracy in the workplace are shaped and reshaped by social relations and culture, values and the histories of the industry and the local workplaces. This perspective examines the literacy and numeracy as social practices and using the theoretical analysis of cultural-historical activity theory, we indicate some of the complexities surrounding literacy and numeracy issues in workplaces, which have implications for the dominant 'crisis' discourse. © 2013 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Apprenticeship in developed and industrialised nations is increasingly understood as a theory of learning which connects workplace activity and formal study. The concept of ‘expansive apprenticeship’ defines frameworks for workforce development where participants acquire knowledge and skills which will help them in the future as well as in their current roles, whilst ‘restrictive’ apprenticeships limit opportunities for wider, lifelong learning. In developing nations apprenticeship is a traditional route to learning and employment, but apprenticeships in these contexts tend to reflect a restrictive approach characterized by narrowly defined roles and weak educational outcomes. This paper examines a project in Malawi which uses concepts of expansive apprenticeship to address barriers to female continuing education and chronic teacher shortages. The Malawi Access to Teaching Scholarship recruited one thousand women to follow a year-long combined programme of academic distance study and practical work experience in rural primary schools. The aim is to increase the numbers of women teachers in Malawi, especially in rural areas. The Scholarship materials and support structures are designed to move participants from restrictive to expansive contexts for learning so that Scholars develop hybrid roles as students, community workers and apprentice pedagogues. The programme’s resources and approach offer an innovative model of expansive apprenticeship in Sub Saharan Africa.

Germany’s apprenticeship system is and has always been considered to be the major sub-system of VET. In this context, the debate circling around the European and German Qualifications Framework (EQF and DQR) has become one of the central issues of VET research and policy. Tasks take on a concrete shape if (a) a serious approach is adopted towards the ideas underlying the European Qualifications Framework; and (b) if consideration is given to the ‘construction sites’ typical for the German VET system as a whole. This paper intends to sharpen VET policy awareness for the problem of dealing with those unresolved German VET issues within the context of the development of the DQR. A comparative view includes Austria and France as two countries with diverging learning cultures in VET from the German case, but obviously with more ‘European’ imprints within their respective VET systems. It can be shown that there is an interrelation between the attention apprenticeships as such receive against the background of European ideas such as ‘progression’, ‘permeability’ and ‘lifelong learning’ (LLL), including the implementation and use of ‘hybrid qualifications’.

The Dearing Report advocated that the traditionally separate post‐compulsory education sectors of English higher education (HE) and further education (FE) should bring together the academic and vocational in a working partnership. This has led to significant changes in the working practices of colleges, lecturers and support staff. Drawing on the experiences of a sample of HE lecturers in colleges in south west England and a synthesis of relevant literature, this paper begins to examine the practice styles of HE lecturers working in FE institutions and the opportunities they are presented to engage with scholarship. The research acknowledges the issues involved in positioning HE in FE by considering the traditional roles of FE and HE lecturers, the competing demands of HE and FE and the necessary re‐conceptualisation of the HE in FE lecturer as a teacher, a researcher and a scholar.

Entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial efficacy are considered to be two important factors influencing students’ intention and success in becoming entrepreneurs. This study was conducted to determine the entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial efficacy of 3000 students following technical subjects in the secondary schools of Malaysia. The findings indicate that students scored high on entrepreneurial attitude components including self‐esteem cognition, achievement cognition, and achievement affect. However, students’ mean score for entrepreneurial self‐efficacy is moderate to high. This paper also discusses the importance of intervention programs and proper teaching and learning strategies to improve technical students’ entrepreneurial attitude and self‐efficacy.

This paper addresses the composite question of whether it is better in vocational education to allow students to design their own models and guide them while doing so, or to provide them with ready-made models. To answer this question we set up a design experiment in which students were asked to work on real-life assignments, guided by teachers in the process of designing their products while learning the necessary concepts and skills as they went along. The use of models was required during the design stage. The students were asked to design and build a tandem tricycle during a 10-week period. The experimental sample comprised two schools and 65 students, aged 15 years. A pre-test-post-test control group design was used to determine the results. The two conditions differed in the way models were taught: in the experimental condition the models were co-operatively designed by the students under teacher guidance; in the control condition, readymade models were provided. It was hypothesised that the students in the experimental condition would outperform their counterparts in the control condition on knowledge and modelling. However, it was found that both groups scored equally well on the post-knowledge test in science and mathematics, while the experimental group gained more on modelling. Implications for teacher guidance and school climate are discussed. © 2010 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

The first part of the paper outlines and discusses the nature of work‐based learning (WBL) and WBL programmes, and the overall direction of government strategy towards WBL programmes in Higher Educ...

This paper reports results to date of a three‐year project by Athabasca University, intended to determine the education and training needs and interests of employees in a work camp in northern Alberta’s oil sands. (Future reports will address results of efforts to provide programming suiting the needs identified, and the uptake, satisfaction, completion rates, further requirements, and impacts on the careers of workers who become students as part of the project.) In initial project investigations, the areas of business, finance, and management (including interprovincial business certification for tradesmen), health and safety, and project management constituted 56% of enquiries by workers; also of interest to workers were courses in trades and engineering. Barriers to enrolment were found to be related both to the demands of the workplace and to the workers’ backgrounds and situations, including: long hours (with regular overtime, and often with long commutes to and from the worksite); work pressure (the ...