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The purpose of this article is to provide a critique of the idea widely promoted by governments and industrial parties in Australia that competency-based training (CBT) is a coherent model of vocation education and training with universal applicability. The critique is made first by way of illustration with reference to case material gathered in the course of a recent national research project on CBT. The argument is made that CBT, contrary to its image in the public policy literature, is not a singular and universal model of vocational education and training (VET). Rather, it embeds a series of radically different decisions or options with regard to notions of competency, and the use of competencies or competency standards. These decisions or options, once enacted, give rise to transformed models of VET. Shifting the critique to more theoretical ground, the argument is made that these models need not be seen as alternatives. Indeed, they are not entirely separate. Rather, they interact, support and/or challenge one another, as well as support and/or challenge CBT. The conclusion is drawn that, while all of these models have a place in the process of competence development as well as their particular strengths and weaknesses, models that maintain the tension between a focus on the outcomes of education and training and a focus on processes of educating and training, rather than resolve this tension in favour of outcomes, are most appropriate in VET. Thus, the models that contribute most to VET tend to be hybrid (e.g. education/training model, training/development model), mirroring the make-up of VET itself. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Trainin. All rights reserved.

Standards for further education teachers in England and Wales were launched in January 1999 by the newly established Further Education National Training Organisation. They are intended to inform the initial training and continuing professional development of those involved in teaching and learning in further education. Despite an announcement by the Labour Government in The Learning Age Green Paper in 1998 that a qualification for teachers in further education would become mandatory, this decision was withdrawn at the launch of the Standards, and a more cautious wait-and-see approach announced. As part of the consultation and development process prior to the launch of the Standards, the University of Wolverhampton and partner further education colleges undertook a mapping exercise of the draft standards against the University's Further Education Certificate in Education programme, and elements of the Standards will be incorporated into the Certificate in Education from September 1999. This article discusses the implications of the Standards for FE teacher training and considers what sort of ‘teaching and learning professional’ is implied by the Standards. It argues that, in themselves, the Standards could provide a useful basis for training and development. However, they need to be considered in the wider context of education and training, including college incorporation, institutional inspection and standards. Set in this context, it is argued, they could be used as an additional means of monitoring and control, rather than the basis for the development of an innovative and forward-looking profession. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

A quiet reform has gone almost unnoticed in the many policy debates about improving America's schools. Labeled “The School-to-Work Revolution” by Lynn Olson and others, this little-noticed movement offers, at last, a solution to the constraining historical dualism between academic and vocational training. There is a new enthusiasm for and focus on the preparation-for employment side of American secondary education. However, although reinvigorated, the school-to-work revolution remains heavily threatened by our nation's reputation for low-quality vocational education and by some long-unresolved tensions with regard to social mobility and political control. This article discusses the need for additional theorizing about and policy-minded attention to the revolution and observes that valuable opportunities for improvement in job preparation are at hand in an increased national interest in economic development. © 2000, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

[No abstract available]

In Germany, structures and channels through the education system at first glance appear to be resilient to possible deviations from paths that have always been identified as reliable and more or less successful. One of the examples of a deeply rooted disinclination to reform is the Dual System of initial vocational training, which owes much of its reputation to the fact that it has remained one of the most frequently copied training systems in the world. Although the dualism of ‘learning venues’ may, at first glance, be the striking feature of this ‘German system’ of vocational training there is more to it, especially consensus among the groups involved in the system, the vocational principle as a didactical and structural parameter and also the remarkable contribution to standardisation and quality control from the state. The article depicts what may be seen as the successful transposition of these or similar principles into higher education. The result has been a kind of ‘academic Dual System’ that, despite its growing importance, is still a regional reform project since the emergence of the so-called ‘vocational academies’ (Berufsakademien) has virtually remained restricted to four of the 16 federal states of Germany. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.

The design and delivery of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in the United Kingdom have suffered from both conceptual operational problems. This article identifies two ways of dealing with these problems that are based on wider research findings. The first approach is to move from a narrow model of quality control to a Total Quality Management approach. The European Quality Foundation model for Total Quality Management is suggested as an appropriate approach. This model is then analysed against the current approaches to assessment verification of NVQs. The approach of developing ‘situated learning in communities of practice’ is used to focus on the weaknesses of the existing system. The specific issues of simulation and sampling analysed are covered in some depth, with improved approaches suggested. Finally, the article explores the implications of the adoption of radically different quality criteria, with built-in continuing professional development based on collaborative and situated learning. These implications include substantial modernisation of existing policy and practice, and allocation of appropriate resources, as well as the development of an approach to the implementation of change consistent with these findings. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Trainin. All rights reserved.

In the twenty-first century, knowledge-based economies require planned management of knowledge and, therefore, partnerships between the world of work and education will take on qualitatively different emphases. The United Kingdom Government has recognised this through various initiatives including the new Foundation degree. The authors place the concept of educational partnership at the heart of work-based learning, but as both the driver and the definer, rather than as a taken-for-granted assumption. Quality partnerships are seen as an important dimension in the development of learning organisations and of lifelong learning in higher education (HE). The article discusses the concept of quality in partnership, and considers educational principles and criteria that are important in identifying successful work-based learning as opposed to work-based learning per se. Quality work-based partnerships increase ‘value added’ and are therefore important in shifting the predominant culture in business, from one of learning as a cost to one of learning as an investment in the future. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.

The central purpose of this article is to ascertain whether the system of vocational education and training in the Republic of Ireland can withstand the range of challenges that face the economy. In order to do so, a general overview of the current educational system is first presented. The nature of vocational education and training in the Republic of Ireland is then considered within the context of national training, and development institutional and policy development. The effectiveness of the various legislative measures and institutional reforms that have affected the Vocational Education and Training system in the Republic of Ireland is examined. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the issues that face the Republic of Ireland regarding the provision and effectiveness of vocational education and training as we enter the twenty-first century. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Trainin. All rights reserved.

In response to recent developments in the labour market, in occupational structure and in occupational practice, many aspects of vocational education and training are subjects of discussion and in transition. The tertiary sector is growing, some occupations are integrating while others are differentiating. New methods of production and organization require new types of employee competencies: problem-solving and social-communicative skills are becoming more and more important. The article focuses on the importance and the possibilities of shaping these developments from a gender perspective. First, the significance of changing qualification requirements is discussed for the technical sector, the service and care sector and the economic-administrative sector. Second, two innovations in vocational education and training are discussed: the recognition of prior learning and the development of flexible, modular educational pathways.

Despite an extensive literature on the subject of learning, very little has been written about the ways in which young people's dispositions to learning transform over time. This article draws upon a longitudinal research project which focused on such transformations. The article centres on the case of Amanda Ball and considers the implications which her story holds for our understanding of learning. It is shown that dispositions can transform in a short period of time and that such transformations are often linked, in complex ways, to wider social, economic and cultural contexts.