British Journal of Educational Studies

This paper focuses on independent training providers (ITPs)–in other words, private companies–as suppliers of vocational education and training in post-war England. Whilst acknowledging the central role of further education (FE) colleges in delivering vocational learning, it draws attention to a lar…

There is significant research on the motivations and migration experiences of South Asian international students in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK); however, the employability journeys of this group are not well understood. This article addresses this gap, illuminating the specific employabili…

This paper revisits the liberal studies movement–an important if under-researched episode in the history of education. It examines the lived experience of a set of former vocational students, the great majority of whom eventually went on to teach in further and higher vocational education. All parti…

Since the 1970s, the process of deindustrialisation, accompanied by social, cultural and political changes, has altered youth transitions from school to work. This paper is drawn from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study that explored the diversity of white, working-class young men (…

ABSTRACT: This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to examine a largely neglected facet of the history of vocational education – the liberal studies movement in English further education colleges. Initially, the paper discusses some of the competing conceptions of education, wo…

This paper focuses on teacher education in the English further education sector, where the teaching of disciplinary and pedagogic knowledge is an issue. Using research findings, the paper advocates an approach based on collaboration and informed research to emphasize and integrate knowledge(s) in si…

Apprenticeship has always played both a social and economic role. Today, it forms part of the regeneration strategies of cities in the United Kingdom. This involves the creation and management of complex institutional relationships across the public and private domains of the civic landscape. This p…

This paper begins with an analysis of global problems shaping education, particularly as they impact upon learning and life chances. In addressing these problems a range of philosophical positions and controversies are considered, including: traditional romantic and institutional views of schooling;…

This paper problematises the official discourse of economic competitiveness and social inclusion used by the 2007 Education and Skills Bill to justify the proposal to extend compulsory participation in education and training in England to the age of 18. Comparisons are drawn between this attempt to …

This article investigates the experience of individual learners who have been allocated learning support in the further education system in England. The particular focus is on interviewees' constructions of their emotional and psychic experiences. Through the adoption of a psycho-social perspective,…

The paper considers apprenticeship as a model of education that both teaches technical skills and provides the grounding for personal formation. The research presented is based on long-term anthropological fieldwork with minaret builders in Yemen, mud masons in Mali and fine-woodwork trainees in Lon…

Individuals actively and continually construct the knowledge required for their working lives. Two outcomes arise from this constructive process: (i) individual change (i.e. learning) and (ii) the remaking of culturally-derived practices comprising work. These arise through a relational interdepende…

This article reports research in three Nottingham schools, concerned with (1) The school as fertile ground: how the ethos of a school enables everyone in it to benefit from the presence of artists in class'; (2) 'Children on the edge: how the arts reach those children who otherwise exclude themselve…

Government policy aims at a 'seamless web' of learning provision. This is exemplified in a local Learning and Skills Council supported by work on widening participation to higher education (HE) in another London sub-region. The emerging system described is comprehended as a whole from 'Foundation Le…

This paper advances tentative bases far understanding workplace pedagogic practices. It draws on a series of studies examining learning through everyday work activities and guided learning in the workplace. These studies identified the contributions and limitations of these learning experiences. How…

Recent policy statements reveal that the future work-based route to vocational qualifications in the UK will include 'taught knowledge and understanding' as well as competence acquired in the workplace. The intention is to bring National/Scottish Vocational Qualifications into line with the German d…

The success of the New Deal policies of the current Labour administration - particularly the Welfare to Work and University for Industry initiatives - will depend crucially on the cooperation of the vital small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector of British industry. In turn, the reaction of s…

Recent policy developments within the public service sector have led to widespread de-professionalisation and a general loss of motivation and morale within education, health and social work. This state of affairs has been brought about by the imposition of a social market on public sector professio…

This paper examines ways in which interrelationships between knowledge and skills can lead to important links between education and training to the considerable benefit of each. In particular it reviews the variety of ways in which the acquisition of knowledge (in the widest sense of the term) can c…