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The skills, qualifications and credentials generated by educational systems are strongly related to labour market attainment. The centrality of the educational system for the structuring of individuals' life chances has generated a long-lived and intense debate around the proper design of educational systems. The purpose of this article is to examine whether vocational training provided within the educational system protects graduates against employment precariousness over the life course. The extent and character of vocational training are related here to the transition from school to work, the risk of unemployment once established on the labour market, and the likelihood of finding new employment if unemployed. The data used consist of life history data from Great Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden. The results suggest that the impact of vocational training on labour market precariousness changes over people's work career. Vocational training reduces precariousness during the transition from school to work, whereas there is no difference in the impact of general and vocational education on unemployment risk once established on the labour market. Instead, among those who do become unemployed there are indications that general education may be more beneficial.

Objectives: The objectives of this course were: to develop an induction course for vocational trainees taking up first SHO posts; to enable new dental SHOs to have enhanced skills from the beginning of the post; to create safe practitioners capable of performing SHO duties; and to assess whether such a course is perceived to be beneficial by the SHOs, their educational supervisors and professional colleagues from medicine, dentistry and nursing. Design: A 5-day intensive, interactive course was developed and directed by a consultant maxillofacial surgeon, with contributions from a range of professional colleagues to teach appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes. Subjects: Trainees completing the VT programme; due to commence SHO posts in the Yorkshire Region. Evaluation method: Detailed daily and end of course questionnaires were completed. A post course; in-work evaluation was sought from the trainees, educational supervisors and a range of professional colleagues about the validity of the course. Results: Daily and end of course evaluations were positive about the perceived importance and relevance of the course. After 6 weeks in post the SHOs continued to place high value on the course as a preparation for hospital practice. Feedback from the supervisors and colleagues indicated that the SHOs were performing well, but the influence of the course on performance could not be determined in this study. Conclusion: It was possible to design and deliver an appropriate induction course, which appeared to meet most of the needs of new dental SHOs. Feedback indicated the need for modification of some aspects of the course.

Distance education is a growing area of interest in the academic literature. An explosion of articles has appeared in recent years documenting this trend at postsecondary institutions. The topics addressed in the literature include the demand for distance education, its acceptance by students and instructors, the quality of distance learning, the methods of delivery, the economic impact of providing distance education, and the technological requirements necessary for the delivery of online courses. This bibliography focuses on the academic literature of the last decade and provides an overview for planners and policymakers in their attempt to develop quality distance education programs.

Background. The literature review presented here was conducted as part of an English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting funded project to evaluate the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence. Initial consideration of the topic revealed the need to clarify the terminology and approaches used to assess competence using portfolios, and therefore the literature review was conducted to inform the study. Aims. To clarify definitions, theoretical bases and approaches to competence and the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence in nursing education. Methods. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases and the keywords competenc*, portfolios and nursing. Articles published in the period 1989-2001 in English were obtained and their reference lists scrutinized to identify additional references. Twenty articles were found using a combination of the keywords competenc* and portfolios, and 52 using the combination portfolios and nurse education. Articles were included in the review if they focused on the use of portfolios in nursing, and those concerned with professional or transitional portfolios were excluded. This article will analyse definitions of and approaches to competence and its measurement and to portfolios and their use as discussed in the articles identified. Results. Three approaches to competence were identified, each with its appropriate forms of assessment. With regard to portfolios, a number of definitions were again found, but there was a consensus that the theoretical basis of their use is theories of adult learning. A number of reasons for and advantages and disadvantages of their use were found, as well as varying ideas about what a portfolios should consist of and how it should be assessed. Conclusions. A holistic approach to competence seems to be compatible with the use of portfolios to assess competence in nursing students, but the concept and its implementation is still evolving. A variety of assessment methods are needed for assessment and portfolios appear to have the potential to integrate these. Reflection is an essential component of a portfolio, as are the student-teacher relationship and explicit guidelines for constructing the portfolio. Issues of rigour in assessment of portfolios need to be addressed, but the assessor's professional judgement will inevitably enter into this assessment.

This article investigates the experiences and training needs of student teachers as they learn to teach post-16 English on a secondary Post Graduate Certificate in Education. A case-study was conducted on a sample of Open University PGCE English students and mentors over a six-month period. Five research instruments were developed and used iteratively to generate qualitative data. The study reveals significant problems, resulting in students feeling underprepared at the end of their 11–18 PGCE for the demands of post-16 English teaching. The results illuminate the need for more effective models of learning to teach post-16 English. © 2003, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

In 1992, the National System of Vocational Education Training (ESEEK) was established by law 2009/92 to enhance the training of the middle-echelon workforce in the context of competitiveness for economic growth within the single European market. The Organisation for Vocational Education Training (OEEK), a legal entity created by the same law, was charged with the establishment, organisation and operation of Vocational Training Institutes (IEKs). The report introducing the law refers to the incomplete technical and vocational training provided at Comprehensive Upper Secondary Schools (EPLs), Technical and Vocational Schools (TES) and Vocational Education and Training Colleges (TEE) due to lack of modernisation. On the basis of this necessity, IEKs officially opened on 1st February 1993. In this article I look at the organisational structure of IEKs and their coherence with the formal education system and the labour market, the target groups and the types of training programmes and vocational opportunities, and the problems and future perspectives of an institution that ten years after its establishment has not yet been able to prove its market value. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Canada’s system of technology educationis complex and diverse. Each province hasjurisdiction over its own curriculum, standards, program delivery, graduation requirements, and finances. Technology education in Canada is an evolving subject. Not only are technologies themselves constantly changing the importance of technologyeducation within the curriculum is periodically modified according to educational reform policies in individual provinces. Unlike in other countries, there is little research that documents the state of the field or the changes that are currently taking place. Furthermore, while curriculum documents from the various provincial ministries of education provide guidelines for teachers, technology teaching as practised in the classroom often deviates considerably from these official statements. Given these variations no attempt is made in this article to describe technology education on a province‐by‐province basis. Rather, the various approaches totechnology education are grouped into three categories and summarized, and illustrative examplesare provided. Descriptions focus on the objectives of the curricula, on the way the content of the programs is structured, and on recent developments. © 2003 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This article investigates the needs and experiences of student teachers in England and Wales as they learn to teach post-16 on an 11-18 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). A different curriculum and assessment framework is in place post-16, offering much with which mentors might engage in their training role. However, mentoring in relation to post-16 teaching is reported as inconsistent. As a consequence, students feel underprepared at the end of their training for the demands of post-16 teaching. Students and mentors describe the demands of learning to teach post-16 differently to pre-16, particularly the need to differentiate subject knowledge. Yet little attention is given to effective post-16 teaching strategies in the literature, so students possess a false preconception of post-16 teaching, which mentors have not always been able to challenge. The research was organised as a case study of post-16 teaching and was conducted on a sample of Open University PGCE English students and mentors. Five research instruments were developed and used iteratively to generate qualitative data revealing student perceptions and mentor responses. The study reveals significant problems for student teachers as they learn to teach post-16, which were confirmed by mentors. The results illuminate the specific need for more effective models of post-16 mentoring in initial teacher training (ITT). Mentors need more effective training in the breadth of their role, and the ITT Standards need to ‘mainstream’ competence in post-16 teaching more explicitly. The results also exemplify the relative invisibility of the emerging 14-19 debate as it might affect ITT. The study concludes that post-16 teaching in schools is likely to continue to be on the margins of ITT, and might be better supported in a newly qualified teacher’s induction year. © 2003 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Over the last decade numerous academic, industry and government studies have suggested that Australia has experienced a sustained decline in apprentice training rates and that this is contributing to shortages in core vocational occupations. This article redresses significant deficiencies in these studies by providing new data on long-run apprentice training rates by broad occupational group. This data confirms the existence of a sustained break in the long-run apprentice training rate from the early 1990s to the present. The article also provides an overview and critical assessment of the key explanations of this decline and policy recommendations to redress the decline. It is argued that these explanations may be classified into supply-side and demand-side approaches. The article concludes firstly, that, in general, demand-side explanations provide a superior understanding of declining training rates. Secondly, given the potential importance of trade skill shortages additional research is required both to quantify the effect of the various demand-side contributions to reduced training rates and to reorient current policies to better address these demand-side causes. © 2003, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

This article explores perceptions of barriers to the take-up of higher level NVQs (levels 4/5). The literature on higher NVQ adoption is reviewed together with uptake statistics. Research involving interviews and case studies showed that the most successful higher NVQs are linked to professional qualifying routes, have generic application across a range of sectors or fill gaps where qualifications were not previously established. Higher NVQs suffer from credibility problems and variable delivery quality partly accounts for a tarnished image. Support for occupational standards is strong, but their design is not generally suited to higher qualifications. Awarding bodies need to assess the learning experience on award programmes more closely. Funding mechanisms disadvantage higher NVQs particularly in the university sector. NVQs are perceived to be relatively costly; however, there is little data available to enable objective comparison. Suggestions for overcoming these barriers are offered. © 2003 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.