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There are number of advantages to be gained from work experience programmes. For the enterprise they provide a cost effective source of skilled or semi-skilled labour and a means of screening potential employees. Whilst for the education institution they offer a ready source of practical experience for young people, enabling institutions to develop employability skills. Traditionally, work experience programmes formed part of a sandwich course in which a young person would spend a year in industry obtaining relevant work experience. However, the nature of these programmes are beginning to change in response to policy reforms in the education system and due to the demands of the workplace. This article presents the findings of a study that investigated how work experience programmes are coping with these pressures. Using a series of case studies it identifies how programmes in the field of engineering at the Further and Higher Education level are responding to the varied needs of industry. Overall, the study finds that these programmes are undergoing changes and the traditional year-long sandwich programme, involving a year placement in industry, is not always the typical route followed by engineering students in the United Kingdom today. On a theoretical level the article argues that the market orientated reforms introduced into country’s education and training system over the past two decades, has done little to encourage industry-education links at FE or HE institutions. Moreover, when such links do occur they are a result of the innovative approaches adopted by individual departments, as well as the commitment of staff working in these institutes. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Secondary-level career education, designed to prepare students for their occupational lives, generally adopts a human capital approach to learning. We critique this approach by comparing a range of career-education polices and programs with three key principles for democratic learning. We identify areas that would be enhanced by introducing these principles: avoiding the ahistorical depiction of labour-market and working conditions, expanding current conceptions of lifelong learning, offering students alternative viewpoints on occupationally related issues, respecting moral reasoning in character development, and strengthening critical thinking strategies.

Since their inception, community colleges have carried out a number of complex and often competing programs or foci. The transfer, vocational, developmental, and continuing and community service foci have become increasingly important as the mission of community colleges has evolved. During their early history, operating primarily as transfer institutions, the student population of junior colleges was not especially diverse—traditional age, male, White, college-bound students filled most classrooms. As times passed and as enrollments grew, community colleges became increasingly diverse in the students they serve and in their purposes for being. Today, community colleges fulfill a multiplicity of roles within their communities, offering a myriad of educational programs and services with a broad and sometimes contradictory set of intended outcomes. This article summarizes pertinent literature related to community college access, mission, and outcomes, exploring the complex intersections between these important constructs. It concludes that meeting the needs and goals of students should be paramount in conceptualizing outcomes, otherwise community colleges will continue to be criticized by populists who observe that they are not reaching enough students and elitists who believe they do not meet traditional outcomes linked to educational and economic attainment. © 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

A Student Exchange Program began with four students from Germany visiting Siemens-Westinghouse and the University of Central Florida in Summer, 1999, as an initiative from Siemens training officials in Muelheim, Germany. In Summer 2000, a program with four German apprentices coming to the U.S. and four U.S. interns working and studying in Germany was very successful. The initial UCF students continued part-time work at Siemens during their senior year and were offered full-time employment upon graduation. Not only did the German students complete their work, but some of them returned for employment in the U.S. Siemens, as a multinational enterprise, is preparing technologists and engineers to understand product design and manufacturing for integrated systems in international markets. students will benefit from an understanding of the systems, standards, and cultures involved. The internship model being developed uses the best from the German and U.S. systems and merits further study and implementation.

While there is increasing emphasis on the idea that vocational education should equip students to think well, very little attention is paid in course design to messages from cognitive research that the quality of people’s subject knowledge influences their thinking about problems. The overall aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of ideas from cognitive research and from the ‘meta-cognitive movement’ in designing instruction intended to improve students’ ability to deal with simple accounting problems. A new ‘cognitive’ approach to teaching an existing basic accounting module was implemented by further education lecturers and evaluated using an experimental/control design. The results indicate that the ‘cognitive’ instruction significantly improved students’ scores on non-routine accounting tasks. The authors interpret the results as consistent with their view that the emphasis on understanding and thinking in this study may be more vocationally relevant than is commonly supposed. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study examined effects of high school students’ (n = 4050) participation in work-based learning programmes representing School-To- Work (STW) initiatives on their activities 1 year after graduation. Work based learning offered some advantage to participants compared to nonparticipants. Specifically, students who participated in the Career and Technology Education (CTE) programme had higher state-reported total and quarterly earnings, and self-reported higher hourly wage, and greater relevance of high school curriculum to their post-secondary education, training and employment than non-participants. CTE participants rated themselves better prepared in what to expect at the job and knowing technical information about the job than non-participants. Unexpectedly, interns had lower state-reported total earnings and number of quarters worked than non-interns. Interns rated themselves as equally prepared as non-interns in general work skills. Observations made during the evaluation suggested areas for improvement in the implementation and evaluation of STW activities, namely, the need for abstraction in STW programme development, implementation and evaluation, and the need for broader reach of students. © 2001 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.

Presents the findings of the second phase of a research study carried out in the summer of 1999 and commissioned by CAPPE/ACPEP, and The Churches' Council on Theological Education in Canada. Reports the results of a survey of students who completed a basic unit in Supervised Pastoral Education to identity the self-perceived effects of the unit on their pastoral functioning. Notes that the results of both the first and second phase of the research affirm the use of experiential learning and the success of basic SPE in increasing self-awareness.

The final year of medical education in Germany (practical year) is hardly systematized. In order to improve student learning during dermatology internship we introduced a portfolio to clarify which components are considered important within dermatology: 25 qualifications were divided into "general-basics", "dermatology-basics" and "special-dermatology" and were listed in a student's portfolio with a theory-, supervision- and clinical practice/hospitation part. The individual achievements were documented in the portfolio by the supervising residents. Since November 1999, 15 students participated at the portfolio-program. They absolved at the rate of 70% (in the mean) of listed activities. General basics were fully completed by all students, 75% of dermatology basics were absolved and 46% of special dermatology were absolved. There was a remarkable increase in achievement compared with a historical control group, especially concerning special aspects in dermatology. The students welcomed the portfolio because it provided a useful overview of learning opportunities and achievements. They strongly requested implementation of portfolio-based learning in other faculties.

This study addresses the question "Do school-to-workprograms, as embodied by career academies, facilitate postsecondary education?" The author conceptualizes postsecondary education as a series of steps through the university and examines the high school career academy's influence on entrance into, route through, and outcomes from a 4-year university. Data are drawn from applicant and student records at a comprehensive, urban university for all individuals originating from a single district's high schools. The findings suggest that students from career academies have higher academic achievement upon leaving high school, less need for remediation in English at the university, and a 4-percentage-point increase in graduation from the university than students who are not from academies. These findings suggest that school-to-work programs could facilitate positive outcomes in postsecondary education. However, the continued high rates of remediation and the low rates of graduation, even for students from career academics, suggest that their influence might not be enough to ensure success in postsecondary education. This analysis therefore suggests that further research should identify program components that increase postsecondary education and determine how these components can be institutionalized and built on in subsequent reforms.

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in career development among four ethnic groups and two age groups of community college students in regard to their career goals, career preparation actions, and the number of job seeking strategies utilized. Data were obtained from the Beginning Postsecondary students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 90/94) of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NOES), U.S. Department of Education. Results suggest that there are statistically significant differences among the ethnic groups in six of the seven career goals; however, there are no significant differences between the traditional and non-traditional age groups in career goals. For career preparation action there are significant differences between the two age groups and also between Black/African American and White/European American students. There is no significant difference among the age or ethnic groups in the number of job seeking strategies utilized. These findings imply that student services providers, such as counselors, should be sensitive to community college students' backgrounds and experiences related to ethnicity and age. Individualized career-related workshops tailored to the career needs of specific student populations should be offered. The function of community colleges as providers of employment preparation can be enhanced by familiarizing students with accurate career information, considering students' ethnic backgrounds and their age.