Social and communicational skills in upper secondary vocational education and training

This article presents the methodology used by the Finnish Education Evaluation Council in the national evaluation of social and communication skills in vocational education and training. The evaluation concentrates on key competences such as learning-to-learn skills, communication skills, social skills and entrepreneurship （Implementation of Education and Stringfellow, 2005; Recommendation of the European Training 2010, 2004; Winterton, Delemare-Le Deist ＆ Parliament and of the Council of December 18, 2006 on key competencies for lifelong leaming, 2006）. The evaluation focuses particularly on skills required in the labour market. These competences are included in all vocational study programmes as a part of accompanying with other key competences. The authors＇ approach follows the principles of developmental and participative evaluation, applying the Common Quality Assurance Framework （CQAF） model, which has been accepted by the European Commission for the quality management and quality assurance framework for vocational education and training in Europe. Additional methods such as interview and statistical data gathering were used to acquire comprehensive data and ensure extensive participation of each partner involved has key competences. The evaluation material was collected from vocational education and training providers by sector （n=8） and by qualification （n=53）. Every sector and type of examination was included in the evaluation. The evaluation was based on a sample （n=130）. The evaluation data were collected from multiple sources by using multiple methods. The material included written self-evaluation reports by vocational education and training providers （n=130 which equals 95% of VET providers）, quantitative information, interviews organized by the National Board of Education and an evaluation seminar for providers as focus groups. Educational administrators, teachers, students, employers and workplace instructors participated in the self-evaluation of the vocational education and training establishments （multi-professional evaluation）.     

基于系统动力学视野的职业教育

以系统的观点和系统动力学的思想对职业教育在教育大系统和社会系统中所占有的地位和发挥的重要作用作了分析,并对职业教育遇到的问题和解决思路进行了探讨。     

Vocational education and training and transitions into the labour market of persons with intellectual disabilities

The aim of the study is to deepen the understanding of teacher’s perspective on how to promote all children’s learning in reading and writing in grade 1 of primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a Swedish context with 18 primary school teachers, representing a large collective experience from working as teachers in grade 1. The result shows there is a lack of sharing information and experiences, between preschool class and grade 1, concerning reading and writing activities and instructions. The teachers’ perspectives on reading and writing instruction can be described as pluralistic, in the sense that each teacher refers to several strategies and approaches to promote learning and development related to reading and writing. The variation of children appears to give meaning to the work of the teachers in the study, though it also is associated with challenges e.g. the experience of being alone and not sufficient to support children’s different abilities, experiences and needs. According to teachers in the study, the additional support in schools is more remedial than preventive since the resources are mainly invested in older students.     

印度职业教育现状及发展动因

印度职业教育的内容主要包括劳动经验教育和不同形式的职业课程教育。职业教育的管理是多部门的,由中央和邦政府的各部/局对该部门的人力资源发展负责,制订相应的职业教育和培训计划。印度职业教育的发展是由其历史、社会、政治、经济等多方面因素促成的。“终结性”、财政问题和师资问题是制约印度职业教育发展的主要因素。     

Vocational Education and Training: Researching the Relationship between School and Work

Researchers and policy makers agree that the relation between school and work is an important characteristic of vocational education and training (VET) and needs attention. The relation itself poses several challenges for research to be successful and useful for policy makers. In this article, we outline these challenges and answer the following question: What needs to be considered when researching the relation between school and work? Our central claim is that research on the relation between school and work needs to (1) take into account contextual conditions of the VET system, including identifying the central actors and their responsibilities within a VET system, (2) take into account the characteristics of VET itself, (3) define the quality of the relation between school and work (depending on the context, characteristics of the VET system and VET itself), and (4) be consistent with respect to chosen research aims and paradigms. To illustrate how these aspects can be taken into account an example of empirical research conducted in the German dual apprenticeship system is described. The readers are provided with guidelines for researchers and policy makers to carry out high quality research on the relation between school and work in VET systems that enables policy makers to make use of the results to improve the relation between school and work in VET systems.     

Towards a more systematic approach to continuing professional development in vocational education and training

Vocational education and training (VET) teachers and trainers have a key role in ensuring that workers in business and industry are upskilled and up-to-date in a rapidly changing industrial, economic and technological environment. It follows that the VET practitioners should themselves keep up to date, not only with industry developments but also with the pedagogical skills needed to embrace technology and adapt to new sites for learning. However, in Australia and other Western nations, continuing professional development for VET practitioners has been spasmodic and not always well supported, in contrast to the ways it has been established and accepted in other professions. This paper examines the professional development approaches of some of those other professions and identifies the key features that might be adopted in any genuine attempt to develop a more purposeful and systematic provision of ongoing learning for teachers and trainers in VET. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations aimed at Australian VET practitioners in particular, but which might be applicable to VET in any developed country.     

The linkage between the education and employment systems: ideal types of vocational education and training programs

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the literature by proposing a methodological approach that scholars in all research fields can use to develop high-quality explanatory typologies. We argue that every typology should be constructed using a systematic, transparent process and must have a strong theoretical foundation to validate its explanatory value. Drawing on Max Weber’s typology theory, we apply our approach to construct three ideal types of vocational education and training (VET) programs. By bypassing heterogeneous context conditions, our typological approach enables us to compare VET programs based on the criteria that are relevant to an explanation of youth labor market outcomes. We build on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, which helps elucidate the significance of the linkage between actors from the education and employment systems in VET. The first ideal type, with maximal linkage, entails equal power-sharing between both kinds of actors. We expect such a VET program to have the most favorable outcome. The other two ideal types, in which one system has all the power, result in either undesirable youth labor market outcomes, such as unemployment or skills mismatch, or lack of access to further education.     

职业技术教育中的职业健康安全培训刍议

职业技术教育目前在我国蓬勃发展,每年大量的职校生进入职场,直接暴露于存在一定危险的工作环境当中,有关安全监察部门应当与学校联合,在人员集中的职校生中进行职业健康安全培训,提高学生的职业健康安全意识和能力,文章简要探讨了安全培训的内容和方式,并建议职业健康安全培训关口前移,尽早在职业技术学院开展。     

德国职业教育与培训体系学生分流现状及启示

德国的职业教育与培训体系使学生在全日制义务中等教育之后,走向工作岗位之前获得必要的知识和技能。德国职业教育与培训体系结构完善,学生可以在立交互通结构的体系中自由过渡分流。随着全球经济的发展,德国职业教育与培训也存在着自身的问题和困惑。文章详细介绍了德国职业教育与培训体系中学生分流现状和存在的问题,并依此作为借鉴,对我国职业教育的发展提出了自己的一些意见和看法。     

交叉销售在职业教育与培训市场中的应用

高等职业教育面临竞争加剧、生源减少的困境,而教育培训市场则是风生水起,由此给民办教育机构生存与发展带来压力和危机。结合多年职业教育教学的经验和体会,从客户关系管理和市场营销的角度,探讨了交叉销售这一营销理念如何在职业教育和培训市场中应用,以增强学校的竞争力,努力营造生存机会与发展空间。     

我国高职教育人才培养模式研究

本文结合高等职业教育人才培养模式的发展现状和趋势,研究高等职业教育人才培养模式创新,达到培养高技能型人才的根本目的。     

高职市场营销专业职业技能培养的思考

高职市场营销专业职业技能培养目标应体现出实用性，职业技能教学要突出训练性，职业技能考核要体现开放性，这样才能更好地体现出高职的教育特色，有利于学生职业技能的形成。     

以市场为导向 探索通专结合的高职教育人才培养模式

为了解决高职教育人才培养中存在的过强的专业化、过高的功利倾向、过弱的文化熏陶等问题，高职教育应主动适应市场变化，把握社会对人才需求的动向，引入通识教育，探索走通专结合的道路，培养学生“做人”、“做事”两方面的能力，成为新世纪高素养、高技艺和谐发展的新人。     

Educators in non-formal vocational education and training in Mozambique: a plea for recognition and professionalisation

Interest in vocational education and training (VET) is growing. This can be attributed to global socio-economic developments requiring continuously changing knowledge and skills. Adult education and training, particularly in non-formal education (NFE) contributes to provide these skills and knowledge for youth and adults. This puts pressure not only on programmes and facilities, but also on the educators. How do they cope with the changing demands? This paper focuses on educators in non-formal vocational education and training (NFVET) in Mozambique. It explores the perceptions, experiences and reflections of educators in NFVET working in training centres on the outskirts of Maputo. Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to get insight into the educators’ understandings and into the conditions in which their educational activities took place. The findings point to the need for the professionalisation of NFVET educators. This would contribute to the quality of their activities and to their status as professionals.     

Assessment of learning outcomes in Finnish vocational education and training

This article provides an outline and critical review of assessment, an evaluation of learning outcomes, in vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. Assessment of VET is formative, development-orientated and criteria-based. There are no national tests and information from vocational skills demonstrations is used instead. Assessment targets are individual and communal learning focusing on processes instead of reports. Interactive, multifaceted assessments and qualitative methods promote learning and are based on trust – not control. The developmental assessment of learning outcomes started as an experiment in 2002 and as a permanent system in 2007. The whole process has been included and still includes also many challenges of methods, which this article tries to open.     

Towards Inclusive Learning Environments (TILE): Developing the ‘Roadmap for the Inclusion of Students with Special Educational Needs in Vocational Education and Workplace Settings’

Twenty years after UNESCO's Salamanca Statement enshrined international action for provision for children, youth and adults with special educational needs within the regular educational system, this article presents the current underpinning international and national UK context for developing inclusion in vocational education and training and workplace settings. This context is explored through the justification for developing an EU‐funded project entitled ‘Towards Inclusive Learning Environments (TILE)’ and the creation of an associated audit tool, the ′Roadmap for Inclusion′, by a partnership group consisting of universities and VET settings from Finland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and England.     

The coherence of vocational education and training in Norway and Spain: national traditions and the reshaping of VET governance in hybrid VET systems

Coherence of national education and training systems is increasingly tabled in European policy debates. Leaning on literature about the emergence and consolidation of national education systems, this article explores the rationale for VET reforms in Norway and Spain by scrutinising attempts to strengthen the coherence of their VET systems. Coherence has been sought through the unification of different strands of vocational education; initial, continuing and active labour market policies (what we call ‘horizontal coherence’) and the mainstreaming of VET curricular elements; plus the systematisation of VET practices across educational levels (‘vertical coherence’). While both countries looked for coherence, their motivations, how they operationalised the term and the emphasis of their actions differed substantially. Spain has experienced a move from the three largely unrelated strands into a more unified system; Norway from a fragile VET system to the availability of more VET courses and apprenticeship arrangements at all educational levels.     

Measuring labour market success: a comparison between immigrants and native-born Canadians using PIAAC

Canadian society is characterised by a plurality of immigrants and Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria, qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question how immigrants who have acquired their highest qualification outside Canada are able to use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current job. The analyses are conducted to verify the assumptions of human capital theory as well as the lack of transferability of human capital across country borders. To answer these questions a labour market success index is developed, which is used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results show that traditional operationalisations of human capital (years of education, years of work experience and skills) have a positive effect on individual labour market success. At the same time, being born abroad and having acquired one’s highest qualification abroad in comparison to Canada, especially in a Non-Western country, has negative effects on the overall labour market success of an individual. Detailed comparisons regarding different indicators of labour market success also prove these comparatively negative effects. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of human capital theory and the necessity to complement it with Bourdieu’s concepts of social and cultural capital.     

Neoliberal economic markets in vocational education and training: shifts in perceptions and practices in private vocational education and training in Melbourne,Australia

This article argues that the adoption of the competitive Vocational Education and Training (VET) markets in Australia resulted in shifts in institutional perceptions and practices. Using situated experiences and perspectives from quality assurance auditors, training managers, international students and VET teachers from seven commercial for-profit private VET institutions in Melbourne, Australia, the article suggests that there are emerging patterns of institutionalised market-based relationships, which can have long-term implications for pedagogy, learning and international students' outcomes in VET.     

Strong on retention,weak on outcomes: the impact of vocational education and training in schools

The re-shaping of the Australian senior secondary landscape in recent years and the emergence of a new space for vocational knowledge within Australian senior secondary certificates of education have been underpinned by a national focus on raising retention rates and achieving Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates in the context of a diversifying senior secondary cohort, and on delivering effective training to meet the skills needs of the growing economy. Absent from this policy agenda is a focus on the efficacy of the expanding vocational education and training (VET) in Schools. At the core of this discussion are the impacts of ongoing tensions between the instrumentalist labour market role of VET in Schools programmes and the expectation that an equitable senior secondary landscape should respond to the education and training needs of all students. Despite rapid growth, low achievers and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners remain the dominant participants in VET in Schools programmes, and pathways for these students into post-school education and training or full-time employment remain weak. This paper draws on the views of students, teachers, and policy-makers to examine the ways in which vocational programmes are delivered within the different curricular contexts of VET in Schools across Australian senior secondary education systems.