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"Article"

This article examines the philosophical principles underlying police training in England and Wales. An explanation for the documented lack of progress in changing police culture is proposed. It is suggested the current vogue for “National Standards” and “Competence Frameworks” is based on a discredited technical rationality that models human systems using “machine” metaphors. Such approaches are intellectually impoverished in relation to both educational thought and the wider history of ideas. They permit a dislocation of training methods from the purposes of policing and support unhelpful binaries such as theory/practice and fact/value. The unintended consequences or “hidden curriculum” of this approach to police training reinforces traditional cultural prejudices and inhibits major change programmes (e.g., problem-solving, diversity, community-focus). It is concluded that progress demands the development of an ethical foundation for a policing practice rather than a technical one, and that police managers must learn to collaborate with others in constructing cultural understanding. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Studies on globalisation suggest that a factor in the growth of non-standard employment in developed economies has been the growing capacity of multinational corporations to arbitrage wage differentials across countries. This analysis applies in particular to industries subject to direct import competition such as commodities and manufactured goods or to non-personal services industries such as internet retail, call centres, engineering and computer consulting. Such analyses have little to say about industries not in these categories. This study focuses on the construction industry, which has experienced a growth of nonstandard employment greater than that for the economy as a whole but is neither subject to direct import competition nor in the non-personal service industry. The article suggests that a different mechanism associated with globalisation and intensifying competition is at work. This mechanism is associated with the increased reliance on private sources of funding for construction projects and, more importantly, the global nature of these funding sources in property trusts and superannuation funds. © 2006, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article examines the causes and consequences of the increasing control of English education and training (E&T) by central government and its agencies. It poses three questions—what are the reasons for national government becoming the dominant player in this area of policy, why is the English system so statist in design and operation, and what factors underlie the continuity of this trend in policy over the last quarter of a century? In seeking answers, it argues that policy has become caught up in a cycle of intervention that is heavily path-dependent, and that this is the result of the interplay between a set of paradoxes about what the state believes it can and cannot do within the labour and product market. E&T has come to act as a substitute for regulation in both these areas. The article concludes that unless and until the state ‘lets go’ of some element of control it will be trapped into having to do more and more, as other actors take a passive role and fail to develop their capacity to act as strong partners in the E&T system. © 2006 The Vocational Aspects of Education Ltd.

Student or program deficiencies are the classic explanation for student departure from community college partners of career technical education programs. However, a complex set of factors impact college attendance, persistence, and departure decision-making. Participants’ experiences both within and outside program structures can reshape long-term goals. Based on a 7-year study of a population of 256 students, this article examines detailed case studies of 2 students’ experiences leaving and reentering community college. It reveals how one program supported multiple exit and entry points. Interconnected educational and career pathways were made visible with the creation of a visual model that situated program experiences in a broader educational and career pathway. Additionally, both the use of creative solutions and adherence to rigid program parameters impacted students’ career and educational trajectories. For more effective results, programs should support parallel career planning and encourage participants to question program structures in relation to their needs. © 2006 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Strong education and training systems are viewed as a route to increased labour market participation for groups that have traditionally been excluded from, or marginalised in, the labour market. Engagement in the labour force for such groups has both individual and societal benefits. However, while this emphasis on an increased role for the state in education and training is encouraging, commentators have questioned the ability of ‘Third Way’ discourse to meet the unique needs of women, given the absence of explicit feminist dialogue in wider discussions on associated policy and practice. Informed by this critique, this article aims to evaluate changes in education and training policy and practice in New Zealand since 1999, in terms of the extent to which it enhances opportunities for women’s participation in education and training. © 2006 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Purpose To evaluate past and recent research on the costs of training human resources in Australia and to compare the merits of different research methods used to measure these costs. The discussion is situated in a general context of low employer contribution to training provision in Australia and acute policy debates on public training provision. Design/methodology/approach The article presents the aggregate results of two recent quantitative surveys of training costs in Australian organizations. Both surveys adopt an economic definition of the costs and concentrate on firm-specific skills acquired up until new recruits reach average productivity. Findings Survey results suggest that the informal costs of training human resources outstrip direct training expenditure and average training costs are much larger than commonly assumed in the policy debate in Australia. Research limitations/implications Ideally, the surveys reported upon should be extended to include continuing training costs and a measure of the degree of employer-provided general training. Practical implications Official surveys largely underestimate the cost of employer-provided training in Australia, contributing to (mistaken?) perceptions of private sector disengagement. Existing measures of the costs should adopt a more comprehensive approach, including the use of economic concepts. Originality/value This research stresses, both to HR practitioners and policy makers, the value of measuring opportunity costs in training processes, and contributes to its quantification. © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Before activities in workplace skill development and skill transformation can be pursued, what exactly is meant by ‘skill’ requires careful examination. The notion of ‘skill’ is far from consensual or accepted unproblematically, and this article is focused on the various meanings and problems that have arisen around ‘skill’. Four conventional conceptions of skill are examined critically and rejected: that a skill exists as a discrete competency, that a skill is ‘acquired’ and is centered in the individual, that work skill (and knowledge) is learned through mental reflection on ‘concrete’ experience, and that skill development is about behavior, not politics. Towards expanding conceptions of work learning, contemporary theories applicable to changing work environments are outlined: learning as participation in situated practices, as expansion of objects and ideas, as ‘translation’ and mobilization, and as embodied emergence. Drawing insights from these four perspectives, a conception of work learning embedding a double movement of ‘flying’ and ‘grounding’ is offered. The argument is theory-driven and largely focused on work contexts subject to rapid knowledge transformation. © 2006, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

This article argues that understandings of work learning within human resource development (HRD) theory can be fruitfully enriched by more fully incorporating practice-based perspectives. Three contemporary theories that analyze learning as a relation of individuals with and/or in activity are discussed: the participational perspective of situated cognition, the notion of expansion from cultural-historical activity theory, and the constructs of translation and mobilization presented by actor-network theory. These are not new to HRD, but this brings them together with published empirical workplace research, employing their constructs to highlight selected dynamics that may be useful tools for HRD theory development. One element in particular is read across the three theories: the dialectic of “flying” and “grounding,” or lines of discontinuity and continuity characterising work-learning. The argument is theory driven, drawing from HRD literature of work-learning and practice-based theories of social activity and knowledge production. © 2006, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

This article argues that there is a need to move beyond narrow ways of thinking about training to incorporate broader notions of ‘workforce development’ and ‘skill ecosystems’. A market-based approach to skills development is contrasted with a social consensus model, which takes a more integrated view of how skills are formed and sustained. However, following a review of Australia's brief and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to develop something akin to a social consensus approach, we argue that there is much to be gained from a workforce development approach and an understanding of skill formation as occurring in the context of skill ecosystems. To be most effective this approach to skill formation requires the facilitation of networks and nurturing of partnerships among the different agents and agencies concerned with skill development. Recent initiatives in Australia that explicitly adopt a skill ecosystem and workforce development orientation demonstrate the potential of these approaches to overcome many of the problems associated with currently dominant market-based approaches and avoid the pitfalls of social consensus models. © 2006, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

This article examines organizational cultural influences on a human resource development (HRD) practitioner's ability to effectively implement a competency-based training program. A five-phase conceptual model was created based on the process of implementing a competency-based approach to training and examines how differing agendas from individual organizational members and key stakeholders can derail a program. Suggestions are provided on how HRD practitioners can deal with these influences to increase their chances for successful program implementation. © 2006, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.