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"learning"

Results from qualitative research involving interviews with apprentices, employers and teachers in Commercial Cookery at a TAFE NSW College are used to highlight a range of problems for apprentices in work-based learning. Of considerable importance in effective learning are employee-employer relationships, opportunities for learning and deliberate practice under the supervision of managers/employers with specialist knowledge and the ability to convey that knowledge. Many small-medium size business owner/managers revealed little concern for the learning of the employees and a considerable lack of understanding of how to create conditions to contribute to learning. It is concluded that, if work-based learning is to achieve the goals which are desired, then substantial changes of attitude of employers and managers to apprentices must take place, and governments must implement systems to develop and monitor policies, and enforce relevant legislation. © 1998 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All Rights Reserved.

This article reviews national policy in work-based learning for young people during the mid-1990s in the United Kingdom. It is divided into three main sections. A brief contextual section covers the period of implementation of a national framework of post-compulsory qualifications prior to 1994 and the mounting pressures to which it was subjected. The second section examines a phase during which the framework and the place of NVQs within it was reviewed by official enquires led by Sir Ron Dearing and Gordon Beaumont (1995–1996). The third section deals with policy in the context of the long run-up to the General Election of May 1997. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article uses data from a five-year ethnographic study of a single higher education institution to assess aspects of the 'realism' of managerialist approaches articulated through the credit framework in higher education in the United Kingdom. By 'credit framework' is meant the constellation of more or less compatible features facilitated by the assignment of credit to assessed learning, including modularity, the semester system, franchising, the accreditation of work-based learning and of prior learning. From the perspective of managerialist ideology the framework as a whole and its individual components offer a number of attractions, including greater economy, efficiency, manageability and market responsiveness in higher education institutions. Data from the site of the study and a theoretical framework derived from policy sociology are used to show that managerialist ideology oversimplifies and occludes aspects of social reality in higher education, the effect of which is to undermine many of the benefits claimed for the credit framework by managerialists. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Technical and Further Education Colleges are the main providers of formal vocational education in Australia. This article investigates the perceived contribution of these Colleges to the development of skilled trade-persons. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from apprentice trade-persons and their workplace supervisors. The study shows that these Colleges do provide an important context that promotes vocational learning for apprentice trades-persons. The major strength of TAFE is the opportunity to practice with teacher feedback, without the press of production. In this context their skills improved and they learnt aspects of their trade that were not learnt in the workplace. The significance of these results is that TAFE colleges are perceived to provide ‘workplace learning’ that is not available to apprentices in particular workplaces. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper seeks to explore the different perspectives held by those joining in the work-based learning experience. First it examines the concept of partnerships in work-based learning in more detail and considers the various partners who may be involved. It also discusses the types of learning that occur during these collaborative processes. Then it focuses on one particular partnership, that between the employee and the academic mentor, as the authors reflect upon their own learning from the setting up and running of a work-based learning module on the part-time degree programme run by the Institute of Continuing Education at The Queen’s University of Belfast. This module has been supported by the QUB Enterprise Project with funding from the Northern Ireland Training and Employment Agency. Finally, we raise some questions around the nature of employer learning and leave these open for future debate. © 1998 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All right reserved.

Important workforce competencies for managers and professionals were identified separately for males and females through a sequence of interviews, content analysis, accessing expert opinion and statistical factoring procedures. Interviews of thirty-two professionals and managers and a subsequent content analysis led to the development of a list of important skills, knowledge and attitudes which formed the basis for separate male and female competencies questionnaires. Principal components analyses were performed separately for male and female questionnaires, with samples of 310 women and 249 men. Seven important competencies were identified for each gender. Competencies for women were: maintenance of job skills; orientation to innovation and change; affective and cognitive efficacy; self determination and stability; presentation skills; interpersonal communication skills; and office politics skills. Competencies for men were: leadership ability; self-determination; interpersonal ability; task management; job skill maintenance; office politics skills; and tolerance and open-mindedness. Results suggest that acquiring competence in the workforce involves a combination both of learning and of overcoming constraints, and that individual experience influences important competencies. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Programs that incorporate work-based learning (WBL) experiences in connection with school activities are proliferating, yet we know very little about their quality as learning experiences for young people or the costs associated with participating in them. This article examines two programs operating in the same school district, where students receive course credit for participating in WBL. One program provides unpaid internships each year of high school; the other provides paid work experience for one semester. We contrast the kinds of learning opportunities each offers to students, as measured by a student survey and a case study of program operations. We focus on two issues: the quality of students' work experiences in these programs and the relationship between program participation and school learning, including effects on school work and social experiences. We find that students perceive the quality of their work experiences to be very similar across the programs despite differences in the type of work involved and in several structural features of the programs. We find that both programs have weaknesses in establishing connections between school and work and that the number of hours students work negatively affects some aspects of school performance, such as having time to do homework and the desire to stay in school. Our findings raise questions about the value added of WBL, given costs associated with the program design and delivery and, in some cases, with participation.

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 small employers to the new policies will be structured by the national vocational education and training (VET) efforts and the vocational qualifications system. Against the background of our recent research on SMEs in the West Midlands region, we argue that the New Deal policies will fail to engage with SME needs and interests unless the new Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) effectively abandons the old agenda of the former National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in its ongoing restructuring and radical review of issues and policies for VET.

Work-based learning (WBL) of the "learn-and-stay" variety prepares for specific occupations or industries, whereas "learn-and-go" WBL develops more broadly transferable knowledge and skills. Census data from California show that from the ages of 16 to 34, many workers move from industries with lower earning prospects to industries with higher ones. This natural flow might be facilitated by more learn-and-go WBL in low-wage industries and more learn-and-stay in high-wage industries. School-sponsored enterprises could play an important role in delivering additional WBL.

Training and Development (T&D) programs are increasingly playing a crucial role in determining long-term survival and success for technologically advanced corporations and societies alike. T&D is the sine qua non to address major challenges at both the societal and the corporate level through continuously building and renewing technological skills and knowledge. A resource-based, dynamic learning systems approach encompassing the major stakeholders of vocational and corporate Training and Development programs, addresses the following three questions: (1) What hinders the strategic role of T&D? (2) What facilitates/reinforces the strategic role of T&D? (3) How can the hindrances be alleviated and the reinforcing elements enhanced in a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) framework based on multinational benchmarking of "Best Practices"? A comparative analysis of the historical evolution and the state-of-the-art in corporate- and government-sponsored Training and Development in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and France are used as the frame of reference for dealing with these questions. The answers developed provide a conceptual framework for T&D within the context of the learning, technology-driven corporation of the future, which pivots around three mutually reinforcing levels of technological learning: operational learning, tactical learning or learning how-to-learn from experience, and strategic learning or learning to learn how-to-learn from experience. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.