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"Students"

This paper develops a social realist critique of competency-based training (CBT) by drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and the sociology of Basil Bernstein as complementary modes of analysis. CBT is the mandated model of curriculum in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia. It results in an impoverished education that disenfranchises students from access to the knowledge they need to participate in 'society's conversation' and in debates within their occupational field of practice. The paper argues that the relationship between constructivism and instrumentalism structured the development of CBT, even though they are distinct theoretical approaches to curriculum. Constructivist discourses around student-centred learning, situated learning and the contextualised nature of knowledge were appropriated and reworked through the prism of instrumentalism, thereby contributing to the justification and legitimation of CBT, but also to its continuing theorisation and development. The synergies between constructivism and instrumentalism arise because both are committed to the experiential within the contextual as the source of knowledge and this provides the scope for instrumentalism to plunder constructivism. Both emphasise the contextual, situated and problem-oriented nature of knowledge creation and learning and curriculum based on 'authentic' learning in the workplace. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the level of employability skills among the students of a technical and vocational training institutions. There are about 436 final year students from the institution were chosen as a sample of this research. The data was collected by questionnaires which was adapted from Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Descriptive analysis and inferences such as ANOVA, and t-test were used to analyzed the data. This finding showed that the majority of the respondents are male. Most of them pursuing education in Certificate of Skills in one of these five area of specializations: art and building, electric, electronics, automotive and mechanical. The finding indicated that the employability skills among students were average. The findings also shown that there was a significant difference between employability skills and area of specializations. There were significant difference between employability skills for basic skills and informational skills and gender. The study suggests that Technical and Vocational Educational Department should provide a curriculum which includes employment element skills which are needed by the employers. The institutions and the industry should also create a compact joint-venture for students need in order to produce higher quality workers.

Aims This paper explores the collaborative development of a Master's level advanced practice programme in the context of the radical reform and remodelling of the UK's National Health Service. Some of the educational, managerial and practice challenges are discussed. Background Changes to education and training in response to key strategic reviews undertaken by the Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority (North West of England) established a need to develop nurses and allied health care practitioners to advanced practitioner level. This paper considers how employers, commissioners and educationalists worked together to produce a Master's level programme to prepare nurses and other health care practitioners for sustainable advanced practice roles. Key issues Developing innovative and effective curricula to meet the needs of post graduate students from varied backgrounds preparing to practice in different contexts with different client groups is challenging. However, the development of individual learning pathways and work-based learning ensures that the student's work and intended advanced practice role remains at the centre of their learning. Analysis of each student's knowledge and skill deficits alongside an analysis of the organization's readiness to support them as qualified advanced practitioners (APs) is instrumental in ensuring that organizations are ready to support practitioners in new roles. Conclusion Work-based learning and collaboration between students, employers and higher education institutions can be used to enable managers and students to unravel the network of factors which affect advanced practice in health and social care. Additionally, collaborative working can help to create opportunities to develop strategies that will facilitate change. Implications for nursing management Sustainable change concerned with the introduction of advanced practitioner roles present a real challenge for managers at a strategic and operational level. Commissioning flexible, collaborative and service-led educational programmes can assist in ensuring that change is sustainable and produce practitioners who are fit for practice, purpose and award. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Transitions from school to work are particularly difficult for students with cognitive disabilities. Job placements in appropriate inclusive community work settings have proven to be possible yet job retention is poor. This article focuses on using customization as a strategy for successful transitions. Six students in rural Kentucky will be receiving resources from vocational rehabilitation and special education to create a discovery portfolio, individualized job development, and customized employment. Their transition will be part of a ten year follow-up study that will track their employment history, inclusion in their chosen community, and asset building. Our goal is to place them in full-time employment that provides a living wage. © 2009 IOS Press. All rights reserved.

This study examines how different stakeholders experience the quality of a nationally developed assessment framework for summative, competence-based assessment (CBA) in AVET, which aims to reflect theoretical characteristics of high quality CBAs. The quality of two summative CBAs, based on this national framework, is evaluated along an extensive, validated set of quality criteria for CBA evaluation and through involving key stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, developers, and employers). By triangulating quantitative and qualitative evaluations and argumentations of key stakeholders, this study gives insight into the processes and characteristics that determine CBA quality in VET educational practice in relation to theoretical notions of high quality CBAs. Results support many theoretical characteristics and refine them for reaching quality in actual assessment practice. Strikingly, developers and teachers are more critical about the assessment quality than students and employers. The discussion reflects on the theoretical CBA characteristics in the light of the empirical findings and deduces practical implications for the national assessment framework as well as other summative CBAs in VET. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper reviews current knowledge about the impact of vocational education and training on the labour market outcomes for young people in advanced market economies, and asks whether the results can be extrapolated to countries in the Western Balkans and the EU neighbourhood. It draws four main policy conclusions. First, in transition countries, specialised vocational education should not be replaced by streaming or tracking within comprehensive school systems or integrated into general education programmes. Abandoning effective vocational schooling may worsen the labour market outcomes for the less able and disadvantaged young people. Inadequate vocational school systems should be strengthened, while ensuring effective pathways to higher levels of education. Second, while apprenticeship systems enable lower ability students and minorities to access the labour market, they may lock women into traditional female occupations. Well-organised and resourced school-based vocational education may be preferred by women who feel they could benefit from them, and may furthermore reduce school drop-out rates. Third, occupational mobility can be improved by effective school-based vocational education. If returns to such education are sufficiently high, they can incentivise mobility. While for developed economies there is little difference in rates of return between general and vocational education, in transition economies, returns to vocational education are higher than returns to general education. Fourth, while occupational mobility is needed for countries undergoing structural change, it should be noted that too much mobility can also be harmful to the skill retention, especially for women. Special attention should therefore be given to providing complementary opportunities for retraining and for lifelong learning to all workers, but especially to women, to encourage and support the desired degree of mobility in the labour market.

Background. Qualitative research on physical therapist students' conceptualizations of clinical reasoning (CR) is sparse. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to explore CR from students' perspectives Design. For this study, a qualitative, cross-sectional design was used. Methods. Thirty-one students were randomly selected from years 2, 3, and 4 of an undergraduate physical therapist program in New Zealand. students were interviewed about their understanding of CR and how they used it in practice in a recent musculoskeletal placement. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A 3-stage analysis included the categorization of students' conceptualizations on the basis of the meaning and the structure of each experience and the identification of cross-category themes. Results. Five qualitatively different categories were identified: A-applying knowledge and experience to the problem, patient, or situation; B-analyzing and reanalyzing to deduce the problem and treatment; C-rationalizing or justifying what and why; D-combining knowledge to reach a conclusion; and E-problem solving and pattern building. Cross-category analysis revealed 5 general themes: forms of CR, spatiotemporal aspects, the degree of focus on the patient, attributions of confidence, and the role of clinical experience. Conclusions. Categories formed a continuum of CR from less to more sophistication and complexity. students were distributed evenly across categories, except for category E, which included only students from years 3 and 4. Each category comprised a logical, coherent experiential field. The general themes as critical dimensions suggest a new way of exploring CR and suggest a possible pathway of development, but further research is required. These findings have implications for teaching and the development of physical therapy curricula. © 2009 American Physical Therapy Association.

Clinical education is an important component of undergraduate nurse education, in which clinical teachers facilitate students' application of theoretical classroom knowledge into the clinical practice setting. Mothering as part of clinical teachers' work was a major finding from a larger study exploring clinical teaching work to identify what shaped their work and barriers to their work in clinical settings. The study used semi-structured interviews, informed by the work of Foucault. Maternal discourses emerged as a predominant one as participants presented their relationships with students describing examples of nurturing, protecting, supporting, guiding and providing discipline. The unexpected finding contradicted the dominant view of students at adult learners, and potentially positions them as dependent in their learning in clinical environments. Exploration of this discourse in the context of the study forms the basis of this paper. It is argued that the overall impact of maternal discourses on clinical teaching and learning is unclear but warrants more detailed investigation. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

There has been a meteoric rise in enrolments of overseas students in cooking courses in Australia from around 1019 in 2004 to 8242 in 2008. All are trained infull-time courses conducted mainly by private providers - rather than via the apprenticeship system as is the case for Australian-trained cooks. Most of the overseas students who have finished these courses have subsequently gained permanent residence as cooks. Cooking is now the second largest occupation, behind accounting, among those gaining permanent entry visas under the onshore former overseas student visa subcategories. This article examines the rules governing the training and subsequent visaing of these cooks. It concludes that there are serious gaps in the rules governing their training and the assessment of their competency. In large part because of these deficiencies, only a minority obtain employment in Australia as trade level cooks.