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"Article"

This article is based on a survey of small automotive and electronics companies in Wales. Issues investigated included skills requirements and provision, recruitment, and training activities. The results of this survey are compared to a similar study carried out in 1996. In the intervening time, a number of government initiatives were launched or became established, such as NVQs, Modern Apprenticeships, National Traineeships, Skill Build and the New Deal programme. This article examines whether these initiatives have had an impact on the type of small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) studied. The author concludes that the impact of these initiatives appears to have been limited, for example, the introduction of the Modern Apprenticeship scheme does not seem to have addressed a reported lack of apprenticeship-trained staff. Another major issue was barriers to training. Cost and staff time were identified as key barriers, but for many respondents employee motivation was also a problem. This, in turn, implies that the equation available training scheme = output = skilled workforce is too simplistic, and that more appropriate regional training structures and policies have to be developed. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article analyses the mechanisms of a state-organized educational system as it functions between households and the labour market, regulating the passage of age cohorts from the home via school to the labour market. One question is what outcomes the educational system actually produces and what mechanisms are at work in the distribution of educational advantage. In terms of disadvantage, the paper assesses solutions for overcoming the skill gap and entrapment problems of post-industrial society by means of education. In addition to describing how the educational system worked in the conditions of a mature Nordic welfare state and an industrial society based on paid work, feasible ways of reorganizing education in the changing work conditions of an increasingly crisis-ridden post-industrial society are also sought. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

There are relatively well-established traditions of research in both school effectiveness and school improvement. These traditions are quite mature in that they have distinct research methodologies, agreed terms of reference and discourse and, not infrequently, some consensus around advice offered to both policy makers and practitioners. The position of colleges is quite different. For a variety of reasons, colleges have provided less of a focus for educational research. At first sight, moreover, there is no equivalent to the school effectiveness and improvement traditions. This article reviews the research that is currently available to argue that: There is more college effectiveness and improvement research than has sometimes been supposed; the theoretical foundations and methods of this research resemble but in some crucial ways are distinct from the research traditions focused on schools; some specific research issues and priorities need to be addressed in college-based research to enable it to make a profound contribution to educational theory, policy and practice; there are some opportunities, nevertheless, for school researchers to benefit from college research on retention, achievement and improvement issues. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article presents empirical evidence on labour market performance of graduates of curriculum options in a diversified upper secondary education scheme, with emphasis on the benefit of choosing the vocational intensity of instruction. Such evidence, which was generated for the Greek education system, shows a generally high employment mismatch (68-85%), the largest mismatch attributed to graduates from an integrated comprehensive curriculum option and the smallest to graduates from the occupation specific curriculum option. On the other hand, the evidence shows that the vocational options benefit low achievers, who, because of them remain in school, acquire minimum employable skills and avoid long term unemployment. The evidence did not show differences in earnings relative to the type of curriculum completed, but it did show differences relative to gender (females had lower earnings) and relative to type of employment (i.e. self employment, civil servant, employer, etc.). © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article investigates the views of the students of the University of Cyprus concerning the aims and character of the university, in general, and the Department of Education, in particular. Moreover, it examines the extent to which the students’ preparation for the labour market is considered satisfactory. Data were collected from 135 students of the Education Department of the University of Cyprus through both fixedalternative and open-ended questions. According to the findings, respondents appear to reject a purely instrumental or vocational approach to the formulation of higher education aims. At the same time, they believe that both their university and their department exhibit a vocational orientation in the provision of skills and knowledge to their students. Respondents consider the professional preparation they receive at the university and the department to be satisfactory even though they point out several areas for improvement. The article suggests that universities ought to address the students’ desire for personal development in the context of the humanistic mission of higher education. It also points to the need for improvements in the students’ professional training. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article critically evaluates recent research from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NC VER) on the occupational structure of apprentices and trainees. This study argues that the research is flawed by the NCVER's demand that traditional trade apprenticeships and traineeships be regarded as a unitary vocational education system, New Apprenticeships. It is argued, firstly, that such an approach obscures the occupational and skill structure of traineeships. In contrast to the NC VER research, this study finds that traineeships are highly skewed towards occupations such as labouring and elementary clerical occupations. Secondly, using New Apprenticeships as the level of analysis leads to an inadequate policy response to skill shortages and the needs of individuals disadvantaged in the labour market. Thirdly, research based on the New Apprenticeships concept incorrectly implies that the qualifications and career paths of apprentices and trainees are equivalent. Finally, a related issue is the lack of commensurability of vocational qualifications at the same AQF level, and the problems to which this gives rise for the national system of classifying vocational occupations. It is concluded that in general apprenticeships and traineeships should not he regarded apriori as offering ‘equivalent’ training and qualifications, though claims for equivalence could be made on a case-by-case basis on the weight of evidence. © 2002, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article presents a case study of a particular instance of business involvement in education, the industry-sponsored non-profit National Academy Foundation (NAF). While in the USA participation by employers in schools and educational programmes has increased in the last decade, the federal funding for such partnerships through the School-to- Work (STW) Opportunities Act is ending. NAF’s efforts pre-date the federal STW legislation and have been especially effective in recruiting and retaining employer support for high-school-based career academies. Combining data from fieldwork and a telephone survey of 192 employers involved in the NAF programme, the authors explore the characteristics of participating employers, their contribution to local education experiences, and the incentives and disincentives to their involvement. The findings demonstrate that sustained, quality employer involvement in education is possible; possible indications of what accounts for NAF’s success are also given. This study should help inform policymakers and practitioners as to potential challenges and benefits of institutionalising a large-scale employereducation partnership. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article investigates a tension in mentoring in secondary Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in England and Wales. Neither the ITT Standards nor the literature clarify which mentor strategies can be effective in the particular domain of the post-16 classroom. A case study was conducted on a sample of distance learning Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students and their mentors as the former learned to teach post-16. Five research instruments were developed and used iteratively to generate qualitative data. This revealed that ITT mentoring is inconsistent in relation to post-16 teaching. While some mentor support was given, opportunities presented for challenge were not taken up. The results illuminate the need for more effective models of post-16 mentoring in ITT, including the use of challenge alongside support. The conclusions have implications for mentors in secondary ITT, and will be a source of help for student teachers. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The role of skills and skills development through training in the contemporary economy is a matter of considerable academic and political debate. Public policy in many countries focuses on the development, through training, of what are seen as a high skills employment and business environment (Brown et al, 2001). At the same time, most developed or high skills economies also depend to a significant extent on an alternative economy based on what are loosely and pejoratively described as ‘low skills’ jobs. Little critical analysis has been undertaken with respect to what such descriptors actually mean. This article addresses one sector of the ‘low skills’ economy, hospitality. This article considers skills issues in relation to the hospitality sector. It draws upon the work of Noon & Blyton (1995) in applying their approach to the classification and analysis of skills within hospitality. The article also draws on Ashton & Green’s (1996) critique of vocational education as a basis for understanding some of the problems inherent in skills development in hospitality. The article addresses the skills debate in hospitality in four key theme areas: the nature of work and skills in hospitality; de-skilling within the hospitality workplace; the technical/generic skills debate within hospitality; skills and the education/training process in hospitality. © 2002 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article proposes bases for a workplace pedagogy. Planes of intentional guidance and sequenced access to workplace activities represent some key workplace pedagogic practices. Guidance by others, situations, and artifacts are central to learning through work because the knowledge to be learned is historically, culturally, and situationally constituted. However, the quality of learning through these planes of activities and guidance is ultimately premised on the workplace's participatory practices, which shape and distribute the activities and support the workplace affordance workers and from which they learn. Situational and political processes underpin these workplace affordances. Yet participatory practices are reciprocally constructed because individuals elect how to engage in and learn from what workplaces afford them. A workplace pedagogy is founded in these coparticipatory practices and needs to account for how workplaces invite access to activities and guidance and how individuals elect to participate in what the workplace affords.