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In the United Kingdom there has been a considerable increase in the academic recognition of workplace learning, and a number of new awards drawing on workplace learning have been introduced. These include apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships, both of which contain National Vocational Qualifications, and the Foundation Degree. In addition, academic practice based on a credit framework has allowed recognition of workplace learning at higher levels of achievement, including postgraduate level. The facility to recognise a broader range of learning across the range of workplace awards has been welcomed as an aspect of widening both participation in and access to formal learning. This article will consider these developments across the spectrum of educational awards from apprenticeships to work-based Master’s programmes in the context of existing arrangements in the labour market. There is evidence from Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) reports that work experience placements (the main component of work experience at school) are segregated by gender. Statistics relating to some of the new awards also indicate the type of gender divisions which reflect established workplaces. Additionally, the effect of employment factors (such as the glass ceiling and full-time versus part-time working) constrains the extent to which women can take advantage of recognition of workplace learning at higher academic levels, where learners must be in a workplace position which supports the development and exercise of sophisticated skills. Consideration across the range of qualifications and employment supports the EOC’s case that, given the lack of explicit recognition of equal opportunities and gender segregation in national developments and policies, the new opportunities for workplace learning are likely to reinforce the status quo. © 2006 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

This article draws upon 10 years of pedagogic experience in developing and delivering work-based learning programmes within the United Kingdom national social work post-qualifying framework. The article is a retrospective, reflective and thematic account of our work. It briefly outlines the history of post-qualifying social work education and describes the evolution of two curricula managed and developed through an action research orientation. The discussion highlights some of the issues that have emerged for learners and describes how the programmes have responded to their needs. Through our discussions and the writing of this article, critical questions have arisen about the framing of autonomous work-based learning. In conclusion the writers reflect upon the feasibility of using action research as a curriculum development tool. © 2006, Educational Action Research.

Women’s care work sits on the boundary between unpaid work in the private domain and poorly paid, low-status work in the public sphere. It continues to be a site for the expression of complex, high-level knowledge and skills, and of ongoing gender oppression. The aged-care industry is a particularly salient example of such work. It is a low-status, female-dominated industry, in which entry-level workers who do the majority of the care work are the lowest paid of any workers in our society. It relies on a continuing supply of women of low socio-economic status who bring complex care skills from the private sphere into the workplace, with little recognition of this prior learning and little learning support for the ongoing challenges of working in such a complex workplace. This article explores the issues of learning care work in the aged-care industry. It is based on long-term collaborative research with an aged-care educator, and a research study of vocational learning in an aged-care organisation in regional Australia. The research aimed to explore the provision of new vocational education and training courses in this highly gender-segregated workplace. It was found that it was important to consider the different sorts of learning in the two parts of the curriculum: learning in preparatory training and learning in the workplace. New knowledge acquired in vocational education and training was often in conflict with what was learned in the workplace because experienced workers had acquired a different set of knowledge and practices in their predominantly workplace learning. The study revealed the ways in which care workers’ subjectivities were formed within complex negotiations around knowledge and care work. It raised issues about the gendered nature of care work and the reproduction of patterns of gendered subjectivity through institutional practices. © 2006 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

The requirement that teachers in the learning and skills sector are appropriately qualified and the setting of national standards for teacher training qualifications have led to an increased focus on teacher education within the sector. However, this does not appear to have been reflected in commentary or published research about the teacher educators who deliver the training. This article reports on research into the characteristics of a consortium network of 130 teacher educators based in the North of England and considers issues arising from an examination of their routes into teacher education. The learning and skills workforce is predominantly female, white and ageing. The teacher educator workforce, to which attention is drawn here, is more female, more white and yet older. The article provides a brief review of some of the current pressures in further education (FE), from where the teacher educators are drawn, and suggests that, however understandable, a failure to employ formal and transparent recruitment and selection procedures, as identified during the course of the research, is unlikely to enhance diversity. © 2006 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Although child labour was a widespread phenomenon in the pre-industrial Dutch economy, we do not know very much about it. This article aims to expand our knowledge by looking at children's work in several urban industries in the Dutch Republic. By investigating the kind of economic activities children performed, their starting age, working and living conditions and the amount of training they received, we want to typify pre-industrial child labour more specifically. Did children's work serve as a necessary source of wage income, or rather as a vocational training for their later participation in the labour market? It will appear that this characterization as 'work' or 'training' depended largely on the child's age, sex and social background.

Design is at the heart of vocational training programmes. That is the reason why teaching design and training students to design are major concerns of engineering schools. Our participation in this training favours a particular approach: reflexive practice. The Reflexive pedagogy lays the emphasis on the metaphorical dimension of learning. It is based on the idea that if the learner understands his/her own mental processes while learning, she/he learns better, by learning to learn. Reflexive thinking in our application is supported by a graphical representation. This graphic should enable the learners to turn the idea they are building up of their design activity into a kind of object. This article presents the reflective pedagogy that we have been using for several years now in collaboration with lecturers in technology to foster training in design for future engineers. © 2006, SEFI.

This article examines the increased incidence of work-related qualifications for women in areas of work served by the vocational education and training (VET) system in Australia. Until 20 years ago, qualifications were generally available only for areas of work usually undertaken by men, apart from a few specific ‘women’s occupations’ such as childcare and hairdressing. Now, as a result of the period known as ‘training reform’, industry training packages cover most areas of work and so qualifications are more widely available to women as well as to men. In particular, the increased incidence of employer-based accredited training, and the availability of traineeships for part-time work, have increased access for women to qualifications. Analysis of national VET and apprenticeship and traineeship figures is supplemented by evidence from a national research project. Women’s voices describe the importance to them of gaining qualifications, but a critical analysis is also offered of the nature of the training offered in these new qualifications. © 2006 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

This article analyzes methodological aspects of a particular psychological field study on learning. In the first section of the article, it is argued that field studies represent an important approach to psychological studies through their focus on direct, in situ observation of human interaction, spaces and activities in social practices. In the second section of the article, this general point is illustrated with examples from a recent field study on learning. The field study took place from 2001 to 2002, and it was part of a Ph.D.-project on learning in vocational education in Denmark (Tanggaard, 2006). The overall aim of the study was to set focus on the relation between learning, changes in participation and identity among apprentices in vocational education. This article analyses and discusses how: 1) the cross-contextual movements of the researcher in the field study design enabled a focus on the different places for learning in the apprentices’ everyday life; and how 2) the subjectivity of the researcher and 3) her role as apprentice in the field were important instruments for gaining knowledge about the field. © 2006 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This article examines the consequences of adolescents' employment experiences for vocational development and educational pursuits within varying historical and social contexts. Attention is directed to the changing social and cultural context for adolescent paid work, the balance of school and work, the influence of work experience on adolescent vocational development and educational/career achievement, and theoretical approaches that guide contemporary vocational development and career maturity studies. In light of current theories, research directions are suggested to enhance understanding of the influences of adolescent employment and work experiences on future educational pursuits and vocational pathways. School-based strategies and programs to promote adolescents' initiative, engagement, and vocational development also are considered.

Background: An effective vocational training for future general practitioners (GPs) requires experience in various specialties and locations. Although this is required for specialty examinations, in Germany the necessary organisation traditionally has been left to the registrar himself. However, increasingly integrated training schemes offer rotations including hospital departments and general practices. The present study evaluates the number, structure and impact of these training schemes in Germany. Methods: Providers of training schemes for GP registrars who offer at least two specialties were identified by advertisements in the national medical journal ('Deutsches Ärzteblatt') and through contact with various medical organisations. By means of a structured telephone interview with senior physicians or administrators, the size, structure, and impact of the education programmes were assessed. Results: Between the years 2002 and 2004, a total of 31 providers could be identified in Germany, 29 of which were willing to participate in the questionnaire. The networks had mainly been founded by rural hospitals; only two were university-based. Five networks included GP's practices as part of the rotation. The number of positions per network was one to five. Despite overall positive experiences, the number of networks was declining within the last 6 months of the observation period. Conclusions: We expect vocational training schemes for general practice/family medicine to increase the number of GPs and the quality of their training. However, the primary driving force behind current training schemes has been the need of small rural hospitals to attract doctors to fill vacant positions. In the future, the philosophy of general practice/family medicine and its educational consequences will have to be strengthened. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.